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Utilizing Functional Grammar Framework: a Linguistic Analysis of two textsArticle Summary: With the purpose of analyzing texts A and B (see Appendix 1), the present paper aims at using the tools provided by Systemic Functional Grammar so as to consider the ways the articles seek to portray particular individuals in either positive or negative terms. Although both texts clearly share the same field - that of news reporting, the meanings (experiential, interpersonal and textual) they convey, how they express modality, their choices of theme, lexicogrammatical features and evaluative language will also be analyzed (see Section 4) in an attempt to reveal the differences between them.
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Utilizing Functional Grammar Framework: a Linguistic Analysis of two texts
1. Introduction
With the purpose of analyzing texts A & B (see Appendix 1), the present paper aims at using the tools provided by Systemic Functional Grammar so as to consider the ways the articles seek to portray particular individuals in either positive or negative terms. Although both texts clearly share the same field - that of news reporting, the meanings (experiential, interpersonal and textual) they convey, how they express modality, their choices of theme, lexicogrammatical features and evaluative language will also be analyzed (see Section 4) in an attempt to reveal the differences between them. Before analyzing these features, an overview of the purpose of systemic analysis will be provided.
2.The purpose of systemic analysis
Thompson (2004:1-12) states that it may well be possible, and intellectually productive, to view language, as the traditional grammar does, as a system of abstract rules which are applied in order to end up with a grammatically correct sentence. However, he also argues that there are doubts about whether this view captures to any useful extent the psychological processes involved when users actually produce or understand language. Halliday (1985) makes the point well when he affirms that there are immediate practical and theoretical problems for which we need both to understand and to work on the languages that are in daily use around us.
Thus, it is clearly noted in the texts analyzed (see Appendix 1) that they bring with them not only the grammar of the language, but also specific choices made by the authors in terms of their communicative functionality. Furthermore, language and context are inextricably interwoven and any naturally occurring stretch of language should, to a greater or lesser extent, inform the reader what goes on outside the text, or rather, the context it comes from. In fact, as a reader, we should be able to deduce a great deal about the context in which the language was produced, the purpose for which it was produced and reasons why it was expressed the way it was.
This means that we shall be able to learn how readers can possibly act attitudinally based upon a thorough and careful analysis of the texts involved. Therefore, the main purpose of linguistic analysis utilizing the systemic framework goes beyond the sentence level - it takes into account the communicative functionality of the language and how certain choices made in a text may influence readers (Thompson, 2004:1-12).
3.The texts
Published in late 1998, texts A and B were excerpted from periodical publications distributed in the U.K. The first report comes from the Guardian, a British newspaper owned by Guardian Media Group, considered a 'left-of-center' publication. It is published Monday to Saturday in the Berliner format from printing centres located in London and Manchester. The second one comes from New Statesman, a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. For ease of reference, the Guardian text will be referred to as (GT) and the New Statesman text will be referred to as (NST).
The context of the articles has to do with Augusto Pinochet's stay in the United Kindgom for medical treatment when the Spanish government had issued international arrest warrants requesting his extradition. Pinochet headed Chile's military dictatorship for 17 years and was accused of widespread human rights violations, including the murder, torture and disappearance of thousands of dissidents. In later years he faced a multitude of criminal charges stemming from his rule but repeatedly escaped trial. In fact, it is known that because of his earlier support of the United Kingdom, he was not extradited and this fact caused indignation in certain circles of the population. By all means, both articles start with Pinochet's problem and then compare him to other dictators who have escaped from their crimes of human rights violations.
After reading the articles more carefully, we shall be able to deduce that, on the one hand, the greatest issues discussed in GT have to do with the comparison between Apon Ocalan, a Turkish Kurd separatist leader charged with murder and Pinochet, who faces extradition. On the other hand, NST discusses Fidel Castro and potential charges against him for human rights violation in Cuba.
On first reading, GT establishes a comparison between Ocalan and Pinochet, giving more emphasis on the former, who avoided extradition from Italy and consequently depicts the image of Ocalan and PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' [url=http://www.sidegemeinde.com/peutereyoutlet.php]peuterey sito ufficiale[/url] party in a negative way, eliciting the crimes those parties were guilty of while NST makes use of two dictators, Pinochet and Fidel Castro to discuss human rights violations. Both facts are very important in that they are elements which position readers attitudinally with respect to the semantic value of the lexical choice made by the writer, which will be thoroughly analyzed in section 4.5.
On second reading, we can infer that in addition to describing dictators' traits, both articles make the point in turning the population's attention to the United Kingdom's refusal to extradite [url=http://www.mr-strong.net/home.php?h=1818&app=blog&id=1221706&user_id=1818]www.tagverts.com/barbour.php Never Underestimate The Benefits of Aromatherapy - written by Juliet Co[/url] Pinochet.
Next, we will take a close look at some meanings conveyed by the two articles with regard to the ideas they bring and how they can position readers attitudinally.
4.Analysis
4.1 Processes, Participants and Circumstances: an experiential analysis
Systemics models the way language represents the external world of experiential reality by identifying three different experiential categories: processes, participants and circumstances. In this sense, process is the relatively less stable, more transient happenings and states of affairs in some external reality. According to Thompson (2004:87), processes are the cores of the clause from the experiential perspective - they are related to the event or state that the participants [url=http://www.teatrodeoro.com/hollisterde.php]www.teatrodeoro.com/hollisterde.php[/url] are involved in.
Consequently, Participants are seen as relatively more fixed or stable entities in some external reality, which are directly implicated in the action of Processes whereas Circumstances are elements of the external reality, which provide background or context for participants and processes. In this analysis, we shall look at which participants are represented as actors of the processes in the text and which ones are acted upon. Halliday (1985) states that it is not so easy to say exactly what the role of a subject means, but he throws some light on this when he argues that the 'subject' is the element which determines the 'verb tense' of a clause. In addition, Halliday & Mattheissen (2004:282) argue that 'actor' is construed as bringing about the unfolding of the Process through time.
Having these concepts in mind, we will compare the ways the texts picture the experiential world by representing Participants as Agents (Initiators) of actions with negative connotation by giving some examples. In this paper, sentences were broken down into parts so as to facilitate the analysis. Thus, from this point on, sentences will be referred to as S1, S2 (see Appendix 1).
GT in S2 places agents (Initiators) in a negative position when it states: "Pinochet faces extradition". Another example of this can be seen in S3: "Ocalan, who has led the Kurdish PKK since its foundation 20 years ago, has waged a terroristic war in southeastern Turkey". Another example in S4: "he claims the usual indulgence for terrorism". In NST we can see examples in S1: "If Pinochet gets away with it", S6: "independent human rights monitors have found that violations of rights to privacy, freedom of expression, assembly and due process of law" also in S7: "Castro's biographer, Tad Szulc, has written that "final decisions concerning crime and punishment in Cuba are Fidel Castro's personal province". S11: "Many of the prisoners shot by firing squads." It can be inferred from the examples cited above that negativity is due to the fact that the verbs utilized to describe the Actors of the agency bring with them negative connotation by means of combining the following structure: Participant Process (neg) (see Table 1 below). As will be seen, GT presents more Agents with negative connotation than NST.
Another relevant feature to analyze is agency being represented in Circumstance in passive structures in (GT, S21): "He... was imprisoned by Ocalan" or in (NST, S11) with an ellipted passive form in: "Many of the prisoners shot by firing squads". According to Thompson (2004:135), the transitivity approach to material processes differentiates sharply between 'doer' (Actor) and 'done to' (Goal). This means that we can see these processes from another perspective, one that focuses on the fact that the process may happen by itself or be caused to happen. In functional grammar, he states that this is called the ergative perspective. Therefore, we can see that the Goal can be Subject in a passive clause (e.g. 'many of the prisoners') and (e.g. 'he was imprisoned').
4.1.1 Material Processes
One of the most salient types of processes, as in both articles mentioned, is those involving physical actions. We can name some examples in GT in S3: "Ocalan, who has led the Kurdish PKK since its foundation 20 years ago, has waged a terroristic war in southeastern Turkey". Also in S6: "He flew to Italy", in S8: "PLO men hijacked" and in NST S1: "If Pinochet gets away with", in S6: "independent human rights monitors have found" in S7: "Castro's biographer, Tad Szulc, has written". These are called material processes. It is interesting to note, however, that any material process has an Actor, even though the Actor may not actually be mentioned in the clause. Material processes can be divided into those which represent the action as involving only the Actor and those which also affect or are 'being done to' another participant, in fact, acted upon, as it was mentioned in section 4 p.6 regarding Thompson's work on transitivity. This can be exemplified in GT in S10: "He was shot..." and S25 "They were killed". As shown, all material processes have an Actor, but the Actor may not appear explicitly in the clause. One of the main ways in which this can happen is by choice of a passive clause. In this case, the participant at which the process is directed is still coded as Goal, since its semantic relationship to the process has not changed. Additionally, according to Davidse (1992) (cited in Davies and Ravelli, 1993, 105:35), the usage of passive voice gives more impartiality to the description of facts.
4.1.2 Mental and Verbal Processes
Mental and Verbal Processes can be grouped together under the heading of 'projecting Processes'. On the one hand, Thompson (2004:92) states that mental processes have to do with something that goes on in the internal world of the mind. He also adds that mental processes always involve at least one human participant: the participant who has the mind in which the process occurs. Very few examples of mental processes can be found in GT S33: "Many observers, in view of the complications, just think that assimilation should go ahead and will do so". In NST some examples can be found in S13 in the adverbial phrase: "But within a few months, after acknowledging that 550 people had been executed, he ordered the firing squads to stop" and in S26: "Chile's reckoning with its past has been exemplary", which can be understood as the act of Chile Reckoning which inspires a mental process despite [url=http://blog.rouxbe.com/whats-holding-you-back-from-learning-better-cooking/comment-page-1/#comment-605818]Calculators - Do They Belong in the Classroom - written by Diana J. Washington[/url] its nominalization. On the other hand, he also states that verbal processes are verbs of 'saying'. Thompson (2004:100) declares that "saying something is a physical action that reflects mental operations". Examples of these also arise in both texts. In GT S4: "he claims the usual indulgence for terrorism", S17: "The PKK claims to speak for "the Kurds", in S31: "Even nationalist Turks sometimes say that" and in NST in S11: "In response to American accusations of bloodbath Castro declared that revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts but on moral conviction".
4.1.3 Relational Processes
Relational processes are concerned with being and having (Halliday, 1985:112). We can find some instances of them in GT S4: "he has been personally charged with murder", S5: "He is wanted on a red Interpol list", S11: "The four killers were later arrested in Italy", S16: "The problem is that Ocalan himself is hugely complicating a difficult enough situation". In NST, relational processes can be found in S14: "At the time, the revolution was widely popular and many of those executed has a reputation for brutality", S15: "As the revolution was consolidated".
4.2 Mood Blocks, Adjuncts and Residues: an interpersonal analysis
Butt et al (2001:86) suggest that:
"One of the most basic interactive distinctions [in language] concerns the kind of commodity being exchanged; that is, the difference between using language to exchange information and using it to exchange goods and services. A second distinction concerns the kind of interaction taking place; that is, the difference between demanding and giving. In other words, we can demand information or we can give it and we can demand goods and services or give them". As might be expected of the field of news reporting, the clauses in the texts under analysis deal mainly with statement and offer information. However, the texts differ in certain interpersonal aspects.
4.2.1 Realizations of modality
In order to understand more fully how modality works, we need to return to the observation made by Butt et al in the beginning of section 4.2 when it refers to the commodity being exchanged in terms of information and the exchange of good and services. Hence modality relates to how valid the information is being presented in terms of probability (how likely it is to be true). According to Thompson (2004:67), some of the basic points on a probability scale are: possible/probable/certain.
GT presents us with a total of five examples of modality, with a modal expressing obligation in S31: "Even nationalist Turks sometimes say that there should be a Turkish" and in S32: "Others say that the answer must be decentralization which again, is senseless". S32 can also be understood as a modal of certainty: "Others say that the answer must be decentralization which again, is senseless". A modal of possibility and another of probability are found in S33: "Many observers, in view of the complications, just think that assimilation should go ahead and will do so" and S34: "Whatever the answer, this is not a situation where you can automatically apply minority statutes".
Although these propositions are projected by the verbal or mental processes 'say' or 'think' and attributed to others, the writer finalizes the discussion with "...assimilation should go ahead and will do so" (S33) using the modals to indicate that the probability of an independent State coming about is low and anyone striving for that has an obligation to stop. In short, the Modals in GT work to the evaluative detriment of Ocalan and the PKK, or at least to that of their cause.
NST has six instances of modals of probability or obligation which can be seen in S1, S3, S8, S9, S10 and S23. All of the sentences describe the probability of punishment by crimes against humanity. It is clearly seen that by utilizing modals, NST asserts 'objectively' that the probability of these events being considered crimes in an international court is less in the case of Fidel than that of Pinochet. As can be noted, the use of modals in NST favors the positive evaluative benefit of Fidel and Cuba.
4.3 Themes and Rhemes: a textual analysis
Having looked at the clause from the perspective of what interaction is being carried out and what is being talked about, we will now turn to examining aspects which can only be properly understood by looking at the clause in its context in the rest of the language around it.
To do so, we may assume that in all languages the clause has the character of a message: it has some form of organization giving it the status of a communicative event, which can be understood as "a single event defined by a unified set of components beginning with the same general purpose of communication, the same general topic, and involving the same participants, generally using the same language variety, maintaining the same tone or key, and the same rules for interaction, in the same setting" (Saville-Troike, 1989:27) . However, there are different ways in which this may be achieved. In the English language, as in many other languages, the clause is organized as a message by having a special status assigned to one part of it. One element in the clause is enunciated as the theme; this then combines with the remainder so that the two parts together constitute a message. Consequently, the remainder of the clause will be considered the Rheme.
For instance, GT has six instances of Marked Themes (S8, S21, S23, S30, S34 and S37) and only two are Circumstance of time. The rest is used to focus the clause along the sentence. An example would be:
By giving aid and comfort to his murderer, the Italian government has behaved contemptibly (GT,S37)

4.4Lexicogrammatical features
Ure (1971) analyzed a collection of spoken and written texts amounting to over 40,000 words. By doing so, it was possible to establish interesting features about texts such as the number of words used, unique words - which are the ones that are not grammatical, the number of sentences, the number of paragraphs, the number of hard words, which are defined as words with three or more syllables. This definition was also used in calculating the readability and difficulty of the text. In addition to that, the analysis he carried out brings the lexical density of the text. The Lexical Density analysis is a readability test designed to show how easy or difficult a text is to read. The Lexical Density Test uses the following formula:
Lexical Density = (Number of different words / Total number of words) x 100.
The lexical density of a text tries to measure the proportion of the content (lexical) words over the total words. Texts with a lower density are more easily understood.
As a guide, Ure (1971) defined that a lexically dense text has a lexical density of around 60-70% and those which are not dense have a lower lexical density measure of around 40-50%. Additionally, the analysis also brings the Fox Index, which is a readability test designed by Gunning, R (1952) to show how easy or difficult a text is to read. It uses the following formula:
Reading Level (Grade) = (Average No. of words in sentences + Percentage of words of three or more syllables) x 0.4
The resulting number is the Gunning Fog Index.
The Gunning Fog Index gives the number of years of education that your reader hypothetically needs to understand the paragraph or text. The Gunning Fog Index formula implies that short sentences written in plain English achieve a better score than long sentences written in complicated language.
For reference, the New York Times has an average Fog Index of 11-12, Time magazine about 11. Typically, technical documentation has a Fog Index between 10 and 15, and professional prose almost never exceeds 18.
Comparing both texts at the lexicogrammatical level, we can observe some of the differences between them. Tables 12 and 13 below give a detailed picture of both texts.
As shown above, although NST has fewer words, it presents more hard words than GT and according to [url=http://www.corsodiesperanto.it/moncleroutlet/]moncler outlet[/url] the Gunning Fox Index (1952), NST requires more years of academic study to be better understood than that of GT. However, there is also very slight difference regarding lexical density in both texts. GT presents a slightly higher number of unique words, a bigger number of words in general and makes the use of shorter sentences to convey its message.
4.5 Lexical evaluation of the characters
The two articles can also be compared to in terms of the lexical choice made by the authors and some differences arise. We see that GT utilizes emotionally negative words such as 'murderers', 'killers', 'communist', 'an elderly', 'unarmed', 'crippled', whereas NST prefers to utilize words with [url=http://www.tagverts.com/barbour.php]barbour deutschland[/url] lesser impact on the reader. For instance, instead of using the word 'victim', NST prefers to use a more neutral term such as 'passengers trying to get to Florida'.
5.Conclusion
The analysis above has by no means covered everything that could be said about the possibilities of systemic analysis to unfold both texts. However, the intention was to demonstrate how context determines and is constructed by the kinds of choices made by the authors and how they can position readers attitudinally in relation to them. As shown, the view from different perspectives illuminates different but equally important aspects of the meaning construction going on the texts and the description that we end up with leads us smoothly and inevitably to an explanation in terms of the wider context of situation.
For instance, GT makes the use of words which carry a negative connotation with them by explicitly utilizing verbs with negative connotation as demonstrated in section 4.1. Section 4.2 dealt with the interpersonal possibilities each author had at his disposal to give information. GT began with an imperative to express command: "Compare the fate of General Pinochet" whereas NST preferred to begin the text with a question expressing modality: "Can we look forward to the possibility of more cases being brought against foreign dictators?"
By utilizing modals of probability, NST benefited Fidel on the account of having made the accusations against him as something probable to happen and not certain while GT, for instance, seemed to be much more in favor of creating a Kurdish State when it expressed modality than NST. Textual analysis showed that, by avoiding the usage of agency, NST showed a more formal and impartial view of the facts described whereas GT preferred to give a much more sensationalistic view to its readers by vilifying its characters.
Lexicogrammatical analysis showed that NST presents many more hard words than GT and requires much more knowledge from the reader to be understood as shown in tables 11 and 12. In addition, readers are expected longer years of academic study to grasp NST than GT. GT utilizes short sentences and a lot of short letter words to convey the ideas in the text.
The subjects described in GT also have a negative connotation, which reinforces the negative profile of the characters in the text (see Section 4.5). By doing so, it played a more sensationalistic role to narrate the facts in a rhetoric fashion so as to create a much more conflicting impact on the reader.
(4039 words)
References
Butt, D. et al (2000) Using Functional Grammar - An Explorer's Guide. Macquarie University, Sidney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and Research.
Davidse, K. 1992: Transitivity/ergativity:the Janus-headed grammar of actions and events. In: Davies, M. and Ravelli, L (eds), Advances in systemic linguistics: recent theory and practice. London: Pinter, 105-35.
Davies, M. & Ravelli, L (1993) Advances in Systemic Linguistics: Recent Theory and Practice. Randi Reppen
Gunning, R. (1952) Oxford Biography Index Number. [url=http://www.mxitcms.com/abercrombie/]abercrombie milano[/url] Millis Publication.
Halliday, M.A.K & Mattheissen, C. (2004:282). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd edition). Hodder Arnold, London.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985:112) An [url=http://www.riad-marrakesh.fr]abercrombie pas cher[/url] Introduction to Functional Grammar (1st edition). Edward Arnold, London.
Saville-Troike, Muriel (1978): A Guide to Culture in the Classroom - National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.
Thompson, G (2004) Introducing Functional Grammar. Arnold, London.
Ure, J. (1971) Lexical density and variety differentiation. In Perren and Trim (1971:443-52).
Walsh, Matthew (2007) Functional Grammar Essay Database [online]. [Accessed March 1st 2008]
Appendix 1
Text A
The Other Extradition
(1)An interesting question: compare the fate of General Pinochet, aged 83, and Comrade "Apon Ocalan", aged 48.
(2)Pinochet faces extradition.
(3) Ocalan, who has led the Kurdish PKK since its foundation 20 years ago, has waged a terroristic war in southeastern Turkey.
(4) Of course, he claims the usual indulgence for terrorism, but he has been personally charged with murder, in Germany, where four defectors from his organization were killed.
(5)He is wanted on a red Interpol list, at the behest of the German government.
(6) He flew to Italy, and requested political asylum, and has not been made to face justice there - instead there he sits, in a comfortable house near Rome.
(7)Has the Italian state got a soft spot for murderers?
(8)In 1985, PLO men hijacked a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro.
(9)An elderly, crippled tourist, in a wheelchair, berated them.
(10)He was shot, and dumped over the side, wheelchair and all.
(11) The four killers were later arrested in Italy.
(12)They "escaped" while "on leave" from prison.
(13) Now, it seems, Italian state is at it again.
(14)It will not extradite Oscalan to Turkey.
(15)This is a strange contrast with British behavior over Pinochet.
(16)The problem is that Ocalan himself is [url=http://www.rtnagel.com/louboutin.php]louboutin[/url] hugely complicating a difficult enough situation.
(17)The PKK claims to speak for "the Kurds", and there is in some quarters an easy acceptance of this claim.
(18)But most of his victims have been Kurds.
(19) One of his onetime lieutenants, Selim Curukkaya, wrote his" memoirs (PKK - Die Diktatur des Abdullah Ocalan).
(20)Ocalan is a Communist, complete with hammer and sickle, and he runs the PKK in Stalinist style, complete with executions and purge trials.
(21)You are not even allowed to cross your legs in his camps, says Selim Curukkaya, as it might be taken fore (sic) a sign of disrespect; he himself was imprisoned by Ocalan, and managed, with great difficulty, to get away, through Beirut.
(22)Other defectors have not been so lucky, most of them Kurdish innocents.
(23) In 1993, Ocalan broke a ceasefire, and killed 20 unarmed young conscripts in a bus.
(24)A particularly horrible case involved two young primary school teachers, who had gone to the south east out of idealism - bring education to the backward east.
(25)They were killed.
(26)The newly-married wife of one was going to be spared but she asked to be killed as well, and the PKK obliged.
(27)The PKK is a terroristic organization with links to gangland and its aim is the creation of a Maoist state in areas of Turkey and Iraq.
(28) Such movements can talk the language of "national liberation", and gain credibility in serious circles.
(29)But there is not a Kurdish Question: there are several.
(30)What the answer to the Kurdish problem is, I do knot know.
(31)Even nationalist Turks sometimes say that there should be a Turkish - Kurdish state, a federation of the kind suggested by the late Turgut Ozal at the time of the Gulf war, as an alternative to the survival of Saddam Hussein.
(32) Others say that the answer must be decentralization which again, is senseless.
(33) Many observers, in view of the complications, just think that assimilation should go ahead and will do so.
(34) Whatever the answer, this is not a situation where you [url=http://www.buji8.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=301015]hollister uk Catching Contemporary Dance Events... - written by Christopher Cart[/url] can automatically apply minority statutes.
(35)The Turkish Republic has done, overall, a pretty remarkable job of "modernization", in some ways, it has been the only successful Third World [url=http://www.ttcarpets.co.uk]mulberry outlet[/url] Country, with free media, respectable economic growth, and social circumstances that are way above those of any of her neighbors, except Greece.
(36) Not many Kurds wish to throw this away for the sake of the PKK's flyblown variant of Che Guevara's romantic agony.
(37)By giving aid and comfort to this murderer, the Italian government has behaved contemptibly.
(Norman Stone The Guardian, Saturday 28/11/98
Text B
Will Castro be next in the dock?
(1)If Pinochet gets away with it, can we look forward to the possibility of more cases being brought against foreign dictators?

(2) And if there is a case against Pinochet, shouldn't there, asks the right, also be a case against Fidel Castro?
(3)Both, after all, were - and, in Castro's case, are - Latin American dictators, in countries of similar size.
(4)In 1980, the population of [url=http://www.wiis.fr]louboutin pas cher[/url] Cuba was 11.1 million, the population of Chile, 9.7 million.
(5)Over the years, independent human rights monitors have found that violations of rights to privacy, freedom of expression, assembly and due process of law are consistent and systematic in Cuba.
(6) Castro's biographer, Tad Szulc, has written that "final decisions concerning crime and punishment [url=http://www.anepf.fr]doudoune moncler[/url] in Cuba are Fidel Castro's personal province."
(7)But although there is a clear link between Castro's leadership and the repression of dissent in Cuba, charges similar to those made against Pinochet would have to base on crimes subject to universal jurisdiction, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
(8)The evidence against Castro might fall into three broad categories.
(9) One would be the executions of former soldiers from the Batista regime carried out immediately after the revolution in Cuba, the revolutionaries described this as the "cleansing" of the defeated army.
(10)Many of the prisoners shot by firing squads were judged within a few hours by special tribunal supervised by Che Guevara.
(11)In response to American accusations of bloodbath Castro declared that "revolutionary justice is not based on legal precepts but on moral conviction".
(12)But within a few months, after acknowledging that 550 people had been executed, he ordered the firing squads to stop.
(13)At the time, the revolution was widely popular and many of those executed has a reputation for brutality.
(14)As the revolution was consolidated, people left Cuba in droves.
(15) State security agents were on the lookout for anyone regarded as counter-revolutionary.
(16) In the mid-1960s, Castro himself admitted to 25,000 political prisoners.
(17) Some anti-Castro groups put the figure at 60,000.
(18) Torture was institutionalized and several accounts leave little doubt that the Cuban version - despite the rhetoric about the "new man" - did not fight shy of the malevolent ingenuity that is the trademark of its practitioners.
(19)It included electric shocks the incarceration of prisoners in dark isolation cells the size of coffins, and beating to extract information or confessions.
(20) Thousands of political prisoners were released in the 1970s.
(21)The Cuban Committee for Human Rights established more than 20 years ago, estimated that in 1991 there were 3,000 political prisoners; some observers [url=http://www.ttcarpets.co.uk]mulberry sale[/url] believe the number may now have dropped to 500.
(22)The third possible basis for charges against Castro Under international law might be found in specific incidents such as the drowning of 41 people in July 1994, when a tugboat of passengers trying to get to Florida was rammed off the Cuban Coast.
(23) Castro said it was an accident.
(24) Amnesty International said the survivors and their families were harassed and intimidated when they tried to commemorate the incident.
(25)One reason why it has been possible to bring a case against Pinochet is because contrary to many assertions - Chile's reckoning with its past has been exemplary.
(26)In 1990, after an imperfect democracy was re-established, a commission, including some who has been at least sympathetic to the dictator, investigated Pinochet's rule.
(27)It produced two rigorously sourced volumes in February 1991.
(28)Without once mentioning Pinochet name, it concluded that 1,158 people had died at the hands of agents of the state or others operating from political motives and that 957 had disappeared.
(29) The victims were classified by age, profession, region and political affiliation.
(30)It was acknowledged at the time that there were other deaths and disappearances yet to be as firmly established.
(Maurice Walsh, New Statesman 11/12/98)
Fernando Oliveira holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham in the UK. His major areas of interest lie in Discourse Analysis and Socioilinguistics. Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in Linguistics and is an Associate professor at a Private College in the Language Department.
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