Page 110 - Literacy in the New Media Age

A SOCIAL THEORY OF TEXT 99

accordance with Article 12 of the Provisions Governing
Accommodations.
15 Upon check-in, please use the free deposit box located at the front
cashier section for custody of your cash and other valuables. Should
loss or theft of the guests cash or valuables occur from any other part
of the hotel, the management will not be responsible for any of the lost
or stolen articles.
16 The custody period of things received in the cloakroom will be three
months from the date of receipt, unless otherwise specified.
17 Kindly deposit valuables in the safe custody of the cashier.
18 When the bill amount exceeds deposits, the guest will be asked for
additional payment. In case of a long stay, weekly payment will be
required.
19 Regarding payment of hotel charges as mentioned in Article 10 of the
Provisions Governing Accommodations, the following rules will
apply.
(a) The guest may be asked to pay charges even during his stay in
the hotel. When notified of such payment due, please comply
immediately.
(b) When a guest stays in the hotel for a long period of time,
payment will be requested at seven-day intervals.
(c) When changing the length of stay, payment to date will have to
be made.
20 Pay telephones are located in the 1st and 2nd lobby area, and on the
3rd floor. A small service fee is charged for each outgoing call from
your room phone.

Japanese hotel rules and regulations

The fact that we can add indefinitely many examples to this set shows several
things. My friends recognise the ‘kind’; that is, they know the genre; the genre
occurs very widely – because the social situation in which it arises occurs
ubiquitously around many parts of the world; the (four) texts here have
similarities, and yet they are also very different. In other words, genre responds,
flexibly, to social environment, because the makers of genre are immersed in the
demands of social lives and are constantly responsive to these demands.
The first point demonstrates conclusively the reality of the concept: my friends
are not linguists, they are, from that point of view, interested bystanders. The
recognisability has to do with the similarity of the social organisation from which
these texts come. The third point demonstrates that genre is social: it reflects, is
structured by and projects those aspects of the social situation which focus on
those involved and on the manner of their involvement. Genre is a social
category: it is made by people in their social encounters, and when it has become
text it gives us insight into the make-up of the social world in which it was made.