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Jacob M Ochoa
discourse communities as groups that have goals or purposes, and use communication to
achieve these goals (p. 215). Swales also mentioned that every discourse community has six
different characteristics that help define it as a discourse community and help differentiate them
from speech communities. There are numerous different types of discourse communities all
throughout the world, fictional or real life. This is especially true with the hit T.V show Game
Swales (1990) defined characteristic one as being A discourse community has a broadly
agreed set of common public goals (p.220). This is seen in The Citadel because all the
maesters and people trying to become maesters have the same goal in mind. Before going any
further, it would be wise to know just exactly what a maester is. With, Maesters are an order of
scholars, healers, and learned men in the Seven Kingdoms (Maesters). Goal number one for the
maesters is to learn as much knowledge as they possibly can, in numerous subjects such as
medicine and history so that they can spread all that knowledge throughout the Seven Kingdoms.
This is done to hopefully avoid situations that happened in the past or to have a solution for
situations/enemies they may face in the future. Goal number two for the maesters is to assist the
lords they are assigned to in whichever way the lords wants/pleases. Most maesters are assigned
to certain lords/kings all throughout the Seven Kingdoms and their main job is to assist these
lords in numerous ways such as giving advice, teaching the kids, or other simple tasks that the
lord may give them. This is not the only characteristic that The Citadel possess regarding
discourse communities.
Characteristic number two was defined by Swales (1990) as A discourse community has
mechanisms of intercommunication among its members (p. 221). The Citadel has this in the
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forms of books, scrolls, letters, and ravens. These things are found in The Citadel as maesters
are forced to send ravens with letters all throughout the Seven Kingdoms to other maesters and
lords because they are too spread out. Also, books are used by the maesters to gain as much
knowledge as possible and are usually recommend by older, wiser maesters to the younger
maesters or to the citizens looking to get more information on certain topics/subjects. The last
form of intercommunication seen in the show is in the form of letters. Every group in the Seven
Kingdoms has a certain seal that they must use when they send each other letters. This is done
so that the other maesters and lords can distinguish who sent the letter as well as figure out how
important the message/letter is. This is another characteristic that The Citadel exhibits in
primarily to provide information and feedback (Swales, 1990, p.221). This characteristic
simply means that the members give their opinion on certain situations as well as give others as
much information as possible. A maesters main job is to give their input in all types of situations
because they are supposed to be the smartest people in the Seven Kingdoms, which means they
are supposed to have the answer to mostly every situation. This usually involves them helping
the lords they are assigned to in ways such as giving advice for the kids, giving advice on
personal decisions, or doing other simple chores like sending out ravens/letters and helping out
around the castle. Also, there are higher up maesters such as The Grand Maester who is like the
highest up maester and there are Archmaesters who also have a higher say and input, compared
to the younger maesters or ordinary citizens, on certain situations and certain subjects. Discourse
communities have higher up people whose main focus is to try and help the younger members
hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims (p.221-222).
The library is the main place where all the maesters go to gain more knowledge and learn more
about the Seven Kingdoms and all the groups, families and people who are important throughout.
They also use the library to learn about the history of the Seven and the creatures/enemies that lie
all throughout the world so that they can tell everyone the weaknesses and best way to defeat
them. The maesters must use all the knowledge they gain from these books to do certain tasks
such as medical operations, building structures and even using these books to back up what they
are trying to convey to the lords. The library also has books that hold lots of information that can
be used to help defeat supernatural enemies such as white walkers, giants and more. Other than
the library, ravens are used to send information or alert/warn the other lords and maesters of
something that is happening around the Seven Kingdoms. This is how The Citadel
Swales (1990) said that characteristic five was In addition to owning genres, a discourse
community has acquired some specific lexis (p.222). Lexis can be defined as the vocabulary of
a language, as distinct from its grammar or it can also be defined as, the total stock of words and
idiomatic combinations of them in a language. It is hard to think of a specific set of words that
maesters use towards one another because everybody talks the same in the show and they really
dont have a special set of words that they use in every conversation. However, the best possible
example I could think of is that, the maesters tend to try and talk in a sophisticated manner and
they try to sound wiser when talking to ordinary people. They also tend to bring up the past a
lot when trying to convince someone to do something. Also, another way of lexis would be the
chains they have to wear to distinguish themselves because without them, people would not
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know that they were maesters and then in part would not believe or listen to them. While this is
another characteristic of discourse community that The Citadel has, it is not the final one that it
falls under.
discourse community has a threshold of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and
discoursal expertise (Swales, 1990, p.222). This basically means that people can join at their
own will. Nobody is forcing these ordinary citizens to go and try to become maesters, instead
they are making their own decision and are willingly going off and attempting/studying to
become maesters. Also, this characteristic means that members can also leave the community
whether it be by choice or by unfortunate circumstances such as death. Well of course, the show
does indeed have a lot of killing and the maesters dont get any special treatment as numerous
maesters are killed off by other characters in the show. The maesters are also human so they
cant avoid the effects that old age has on normal people, which also means that some of them
just die of old age. While this may seem like a very negative thing, it also has some positives
because the older maesters dying allows for the younger, newer maesters to climb the ranks, get
prestige and kind of takeover/replace them. With this characteristic, also being found in The
Citadel, it allows The Citadel to ultimately fall under the category of being a discourse
community.
The fact that all characteristics are found/seen shows that The Citadel from the T.V
found all around, whether it be in real life or fictional worlds, and they all have the same
characteristics, just different ways of showing them. Ultimately a group of people who have
similar goals in mind and who share similar characteristics, can be defined as a community and
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while some communities are not liked by some people, they are a close-knit group who enjoy
each others presence and could care less about what other people say about them.
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Reference Page
http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Maesters
S w a l e s , J o h n . T h e C o n c e p t o f D i s c o u r s e C o m m u n i t y . G e n r e A n a l y s i s :