A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Maritime English Registers

Since the late 1980s, developments in computational linguistics have supported increasing sophistication in the quantitative analysis of register variation in texts. The present study applies this capability to comparing the register-related characteristics of general academic texts with texts in maritime English (ME), which is a subfamily of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). The purpose of the study is to provide more all-inclusive linguistic features of ME to instructors and any individuals who are working and will work in maritime sectors. A multi-dimensional analysis of register features of ME, particularly navigation English and marine engineering English, was carried out, with the Academic writing (ACA) subset of the BNC Baby corpus used as a comparative reference. Following Biber’s (1991) framework of 67 linguistic features and five functional dimensions, prominent lexicogrammatical markers of register were identified across ME and ACA. It was found that among 67 linguistic features examined, 37 showed statistically significant differences between ME and ACA. With respect to discourse function, ME contained more informational production, non-narrative concerns, overt expression of persuasion, and abstract information than did ACA. ACA presented more context-independent discourse than did ME. Potential application of these findings to the maritime English writing curriculum is discussed. (198 words)