Institutional discourse

Discourse participants

The discourse participants include the producer(s) and the interpreter(s). The producer is typically the one who writes or speaks a text. This person may or may not be the actual source or author of tire information. Instead, the producer may be an editor, illustrator, artist, photographer, or designer of any text or part of a text. In fact, a single text may have several producers, as in the case of news media texts. In the case of an advertisement, the producer is probably an individual or team hired for the purpose of creating the text. The source, on the other hand, is the management of the company whose product is represented in the text. Sometimes this kind of source is referred to as an institutional producer.

As illustrations, consider the following two texts:

1. 
   As soon as we came in, an older, thin peasant woman, probably the housekeeper", who at once recognized Mother., started to talk furtively in a thick dialect, and in her bewilderment flapped her arms like a wild duck. She was terribly excited and beside herself, and after" a minute on so Nacia, who had heard the fuss, came running in.
   

She was a lovely, dank blond young woman: slim and graceful, like a ballerina. And though she was very simply dressed, to me she instantly became the princess of all the fairy tales I had ever known. (Baum, 199O, p 115)

2. 
   Under Washington law, we are attorneys solely for (client) and owe duties solely to her
   

(From a personal letter, signed by an attorney)

In Example 1, the producer is the narrator (writing as “I”). Little information can be obtained about her from the passage itself. However, further research would reveal that the story from which this passage is taken, together with the other stories appearing with it, are true stories written from memory by a Jewish woman named Anna Baum. She lived in Poland during the Nazi period and was one of those who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, along with the others she portrays in her book. lt is possible that in preparing these stories the author clarified her memories by discussing her stories with other Holocaust survivors. These other people are not coproducers of the stories, but they could have influenced the production process. Among the other people who contributed more directly to the production process of these stories and who may be said to be producers in their own right are an artist, who create drawings to illustrate some of the stories, and other persons, including editors and designers.

In Example 2, there is a source, or institutional producer ("we"), represented by the actual producer who signed the letter. If the text of the entire letter was presented, it would be possible to identify both the institutional producer (the law firm) and the actual producer (the signer)

In some kinds of texts, such as advertisements, it is often impossible to identify the actual producer. In others, such as instructions from cabin crews to airline passengers, it is not always possible to identify the source.

The producer directs the text to one or more interpreters. The interpreters are the intended receivers of the text, typically readers or listeners. The interpreter may or may not share the same cultural concepts as the producer, and may or may not have a shared knowledge of related texts. Take Example 1, for instance. The interpreter of that text is any mature reader. The text is probably intended for readers in their teens or older who have some knowledge of events in Europe during World War ll. Readers from Africa or India might not share the same cultural concepts of place in the world and perception of the world with the producer of this text. Readers may or may not have read The Diary of Anne Frank or other works concerning the Holocaust. Some may have studied world history of the 20th century, and others may know only their local history. These readers will come away from the text with somewhat different interpretation

Just as there are different kinds of producers, there are also different kinds of interpreters. The addressee is the interpreter to whom the text is directed, and the target is the interpreter whom the text is intended to affect.

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