ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests a way of interpreting texts that reveals the cultural significance of language by establishing a "dialogue" with the text itself. It describes a model to analyze a speech delivered by the leader of a large manufacturing concern. One basic task of leadership is the creation of language that can grasp, comprehend, process, by the very fact of being made explicit, can give those involved in any particular situation the wherewithal to grasp its significance and place it in an appropriate context or perspective. Ever since ancient times, rhetorical analysis has studied texts systematically to try to discover the "secret" of communication, and it can still give us much help in first identifying and then classifying discourse elements and structures. The basic task of collecting and then systematically ordering the basic linguistic features of a text is necessary in first surveying and then interpreting a text.
