The methods of a discourse-centered approach to culture, while originally developed for small-scale societies, can be employed with profit in the study of the social functions of discourse in our own society. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the utility of these methods through an examination of a recent article by Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, entitled "U.S. Defense Strategy," which appeared in Foreign Affairs in spring of 1986. The general hypothesis advanced here is that this text, as a linguistic sign vehicle, is not simply a device in which an image of reality is encoded. It is also an object whose semiotic characteristics can be understood as part of a mechanism for maintaining and enhancing the power and prestige of the author and the institution he represents within a field of social power.

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