Running head: DISCOURSE COMMUNITY ETHNOGRAPHY

The Discourse Community in Toy Story

Daniela Flores

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1301

Professor Hernandez
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The Discourse Community in Toy Story

Discourse communities are groups of individuals that have various things in common

such as goals, interests, aspirations etc. In 1990 John Swales wrote an article regarding the

concepts behind discourse communities. Swales explained thoroughly the six characteristics that

make a discourse community function efficiently. These six characteristics help one spot

discourse communities where we least expect to find, for instance in movies or television shows.

I will be analyzing a discourse community within the movie Toy Story. The movie Toy Story

narrates a boys toys that are a discourse community. I will be applying Swales six

characteristics to Andys toys and reveal how their way of functioning correlates to one of a

discourse community. Swales six characteristics consists of sharing goals, having mediums of

communication, having specific lexis and having a degree of knowledge of their own

community.

Characteristic 1

Andys toys can be described as a discourse community as all of them share a set of

goals. One of their goals is to make its owner, Andy, happy. They do whatever its in their hands

to not cause any dilemma thatll tear them apart as that will distraught Andy if one of his toys

disappears or leaves. Another common goal Andys toys have is to not get caught moving by any

person as theyre not sure how its owner will react if he finds out that his toys are alive. For all

they know, Andy might throw them away as the thought of his toys moving by themselves might

be terrifying to him.
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Characteristic 2

Swales second characteristic of a discourse community is that they have mechanisms of

intercommunication among its members. Andys toys hold meetings where they discuss

important issues or events such as Andys birthday, or the opening of the gifts at Christmas.

When something unexpected occurs and theres no time for a meeting Andys toys would spread

vital information among themselves. Baby monitors were used as a mechanism of

communication as well as sometimes Andys toys would separate into groups and wouldnt be

able to communicate as the groups wouldnt be within hearing distance.

Characteristic 3

The third characteristic of a discourse community is the possession of participatory

mechanisms to get feedback from its members. Participatory mechanisms could be found in

Andys toys as the leader, Sheriff Woody, would use the meetings to come to an agreement with

the other toys regarding events thatll impact their community. The rest of the toys would also

voice their opinions in those meetings in hopes that the rest of the members take into

consideration their opinions as they come to an agreement.

Characteristic 4

The fourth characteristic of a discourse community is the usage of more than one medium

of communication. As I stated earlier Andys toys would use baby monitors, each other and

meetings to inform themselves about what was going on in their community. Andys toys would

also have other mediums of communication aside from the ones I mentioned before this. The

green army men main role in this community was to inform. For instance, at the beginning of

Toy Story the green army men were sent to spy on Andys birthday party and inform the rest of
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the toys on what Andy got as gifts. The green army men used baby monitors to communicate

their findings to Sheriff Woody and the others.

Characteristic 5

Specific lexis was used among this discourse community such as the famous line

Andys coming! This phrase was used to warn the toys that its owner was near thus collapse

and seem unresponsive as to not raise any questions or assumptions from Andy. This phrase is

helpful to their discourse community as it helps the toys accomplish one of their goals which is

to not get caught moving by Andy or any of his family members.

At the beginning of the movie Sheriff woody asks the green army men to establish a

code red downstairs. The leader of the green army men then commands his troops to move as

they are in code red. To anyone that isnt part of their discourse community would have no clue

what code red stands for. That is why code red can be classified as lexis used specifically in that

community through its members.

Characteristic 6

Swales sixth and final characteristic of a discourse community is that members

have a certain degree of knowledge about its community and discoursal expertise. All the

members of this community know that they can all be replaced by a better, newer toy if its owner

Andy chooses to. Therefore, throughout the movie one of their main interests was to know what

Andy got as gifts in his birthday and in Christmas. All the members of this community also know

that their opinion will be heard in the meetings by Sheriff Woody and the other members when it

comes to making important decisions and when the community is deciding the acceptance of a

new member.
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Conclusion

Seeing that Andys toys fit all the six characteristics that constitute to a discourse

community we can conclude that these types of communities can be found not only in our

society but also in fictional worlds. As you may have noticed, discourse communities have very

complex and strict guidelines. One may think that spotting a discourse community is rather easy,

but I beg to differ. In order for me to prove that Andys toys in Toy story one was indeed a

discourse community I had to analyze the movie thoroughly in order to find the evidence I

needed to back up my claim. Andys toys shared goals such as making its owner happy, and used

various mechanisms of communications such as baby monitors. Participatory mechanisms were

used mainly to get feedback from its members, and they also used more than one medium of

communication such as using baby monitors and the green army men. Specific Lexis could be

found throughout this discourse community like the line Andys coming! Finally, all of Andys

toys had some degree of knowledge of how their community functioned, for example they all

knew they had a say on whether if a new toy would become a member or not.
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References

Lasseter, J. (Director), & Arnold, B., & Guggenheim, R. (Producers). (n.d.). Toy Story

1[Motion picture on laser disc]. United States: Pixar Studios.

Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.