The Features of Maritime English Discourse

Daniele Franceschi

doi:10.5539/ijel.v4n2p78

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to illustrate the linguistic features of Maritime English (ME) both as a type of specialized discourse in academic and professional sectors and as a vehicular language used to facilitate communication at sea. It is shown that this specific subset of English covers a wide spectrum, ranging from the language of highly technical written genres to simplified and standardized uses typical of spoken contexts. The analysis is conducted on data from the fields of maritime engineering, marine electronics and maritime law as well as on the transcription of an authentic conversation between a ship and a radio station and on the Standard Maritime Communication Phrases drafted by the International Maritime Organization. Despite some common representative characteristics of both written and spoken ME at the lexical-semantic level, the two registers appear as distinct from a wider pragmatic and textual perspective. The former exhibits greater variability and complexity due to the fusion of different writing styles, “languages” from other domains and textual functions, while the latter is generally marked by linguistic adjustments reducing it to a restricted language, limited in its scope and goal. The resulting image of ME is that of a multi-faceted language with a number of distinct features serving different purposes. Future studies on specialized discourse need to highlight the internal nature of the various domains under investigation in order to provide finer-grained descriptions of their organization.

Highlights

Maritime English (ME) is a type of specialized language cutting across a range of academic and professional sectors, and encompassing inter-ship, ship-to-shore and on-board communications. Tenkner (2000, p. 7) defines it as “the entirety of all those means of the English language which, being used as a device for communication within the international maritime community, contribute to the safety of navigation and the facilitation of the seaborne trade”
The aim of the present paper is to illustrate the linguistic features of Maritime English (ME) both as a type of specialized discourse in academic and professional sectors and as a vehicular language used to facilitate communication at sea
The analysis is conducted on data from the fields of maritime engineering, marine electronics and maritime law as well as on the transcription of an authentic conversation between a ship and a radio station and on the Standard Maritime Communication Phrases drafted by the International Maritime Organization

Summary

Introduction

Maritime English (ME) is a type of specialized language (cf. Gotti, 2005) cutting across a range of academic and professional sectors, and encompassing inter-ship, ship-to-shore and on-board communications. Tenkner (2000, p. 7) defines it as “the entirety of all those means of the English language which, being used as a device for communication within the international maritime community, contribute to the safety of navigation and the facilitation of the seaborne trade”. Since communication in the maritime sector typically involves exchanges between speakers of different mother tongues sharing English as a common language, it is understandable that a lot of attention has to be given to language instruction, so as to train seafarers and the maritime community at large towards proficiency in English. This need has become pressing after the decision of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1995 to adopt English as the official language of the sea, which has led to the publication of IMO’s Standard Maritime Communication Phrases (SMCP). It only stands to reason, that a number of ELT textbooks, coursebooks and other materials had to be developed to meet the demands of learners in the maritime field (cf. Pritchard, 2004)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion