Discourse analysis of langague used in marine orders in terms of speech act

With an aim to investigate more about the effectiveness of these marine orders, 190 marine orders used on board and in external communications were collected and analyzed quantitatively

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***  ***

LÊ THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE USED IN MARINE

ORDERS IN TERMS OF SPEECH ACT

(Phân tích diễn ngôn sử dụng trong khẩu lệnh hàng hải

về mặt hành động lời nói)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60.22.02.01

Hanoi – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

***  ***

LÊ THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE USED IN MARINE

ORDERS IN TERMS OF SPEECH ACT

(Phân tích diễn ngôn sử dụng trong khẩu lệnh hàng hải

về mặt hành động lời nói)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60.22.02.01

Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

Hanoi – 2014

DECLARATION

I declare that this minor thesis entitled “Discourse Analysis of language used in marine orders in terms of speech act” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts is the results of my own work and that this thesis does not contain material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any university, nor does it contain material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2014

Le Thi Minh Phuong

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Huynh Anh Tuan Without his enthusiastic help and his precious advice and comments, the paper would not have been completed

Secondly, I would like to send my warmest thanks to Assoc.Prof Le Hung Tien and Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam whose lectures provided me with a great deal

of experience in discourse analysis and speech acts theory

Thirdly, my thanks are also come to the co-teachers of Vimaru whose gave

me precious advice during the implementation of my study was absolutely vital

Finally, this is a good opportunity for me to give my special thanks to my beloved parents and friends who are always beside me whenever I encounter difficulties

ABSTRACT

Effectiveness in communications is an ingredient to safe and efficient ship operations To maintain this effectiveness, marine orders, one of the most important factors of communication at sea, must be precise, simple and unambiguous to avoid confusions and error With an aim to investigate more about the effectiveness of these marine orders, 190 marine orders used on board and in external communications were collected and analyzed quantitatively in terms of speech acts categories, directness, type of sentence, length and density of nautical terms Based

on the data analysis of these linguistic features, the similarities and differences between the orders used on board and in external communications are unveiled Finally, all of these analyses and findings are summed up to make the most general and concise conclusions about the effectiveness of marine orders used in

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Research methodology 3

6 Design of the study 5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 6

Chapter 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

1.1 Speech act and discourse analysis 6

1.2 Speech act and the act of ordering 7

1.2.1 Classifications of speech act 7

1.2.1.1 Types of speech acts (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969) 8

1.2.1.2 Direct and indirect speech acts 10

1.2.2 The act of ordering 11

1.2.2.1 Definitio 11

1.2.2.2 Ways of performing the act of ordering 11

1.2.3 The act of ordering in marine communication 14

1.3 Literature review 19

Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1 Research questions 20

2.2 Data 20

2.2.1 Data descriptions 20

2.2.2 Source of data 21

2.3 Data analysis 22

2.3.1 Data analysis method 22

2.3.2 Data analysis framework 22

Chapter 3: DATA ANALYSIS 23

3.1 Types of speech acts realized in marine orders 23

3.1.1 Types of speech acts realized in orders used in external communications 23

3.1.2 Types of speech acts realized in orders used in on-board communications 24

3.2 Linguistic features of marine orders used in external communications and on-board communications 26

3.2.1 Linguistic features of marine orders in external communications 26

3.2.2 Linguistic features of marine orders in on-board communications 30

3.3 Comparison between orders used in external and on-board communications 32

3.3.1 Categories of speech acts 33

3.3.2 Linguistic features 34

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 36

4.1 Findings 36

4.1.1 Speech act categories realized in marine orders 36

4.1.2 Linguistic features of marine orders 36

4.1.3 Orders used in external communications and on-board communications 37

4.2 Discussions 37

4.2.1 Speech act categories realized in marine orders 37

4.2.2 Linguistic features of marine orders 38

4.2.3 Orders used in external communications and on-board Communications 38

PART C: CONCLUSION 39

1 Conclusions 39

2 Implications 40 2.1 The act of ordering realized in marine orders 40 2.2 Orders used in external communications and on-board communications 41

3 Limitations of the study 41

4 Suggestions for further study 41 REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study

In the world of international shipping, English is used as a medium of communication between ships, between ships and shore stations, or between ships and helicopters in different situations Among the conversations exchanged, marine orders take a large proportion and play an important part in ensuring safe voyages at sea However, the structure of a standard marine order is quite different from a social order, which causes barrier issue to non-majors of English, and it is a challenge to ship officers to remember and follow the orders correctly Below is an example of a standard distress message, which informs the position, emergent situation and request assistance:

MAYDAY

THIS IS TWO-ONE-ONE-TWO-THREE-NINE-SIX-EIGHT-ZERO

MOTOR VESSEL “BIRTE” CALL SIGN DELTA ALPHA MIKE KILO

POSITION SIX TWO DEGREES ONE ONE DECIMAL EIGHT MINUTES NORTH

ZERO ZERO SEVEN DEGREES FOUR FOUR MINUTES EAST

I AM ON FIRE AFTER EXPOSITION

I REQUIRE FIRE FIGHTING ASSISTANCE

SMOKE NOT TOXIC

OVER

Judging from the example above, it can be seen that English used in those situations is fairly typical and very catchy to linguists Having taught students of Vietnam Maritime University (VIMARU) to practise these acts of ordering for over the past few years, I find that marine orders are still confusing to most of them In addition, a majority of learners learn the orders mechanically without fully recognizing the speech act realized by these orders and fail to understand the reasons underlying their structure and what linguistic features can ensure the effectiveness of these orders in communications For these reasons, I would like to

carry out a study under the title “Speech act and linguistic features of Marine

orders” to provide students with the fundamental notion of speech act and some

linguistic features of marine orders so that they can use them and understand them appropriately for more effective maritime communication

2 Aims and objectives of the study

By analyzing marine orders used in radiotelephony (external communications) and on board communications, this research aims at investigating what speech act is realized in marine orders and what linguistic features lead to the effectiveness of these orders in maritime communication This aim of the research is specified by the following objectives:

- Clarifying the effectiveness of marine orders in communication at sea and comparing orders used in on-board communications and in radiotelephony (external) communications The features to be investigated encompass the type of speech act realized by these orders and some of their linguistic features including directness, types of sentence, length of sentence and the density of technicality

- Helping students in the Navigation Department of VIMARU better understand the effectiveness of maritime orders in terms of the above features

3 Scope of the study

Language used in navigation is so different and typical which contains many issues for further in-depth studies However, due to the limitation of a minor thesis, this research only focuses on marine orders in terms of speech acts and such linguistic features as directness, types of sentence, length of sentence and the density of technicality Besides, there is also a comparison between orders used on board and in external communications These command sentences are selected from the most popular conversations on radio broadcast, marine websites, articles, books and recordings of language use in real life

4 Significance of the study

Investigating marine orders in terms of speech acts and some of their linguistic features, the study is expected to make certain contributions to the related populations including navigational teachers and students teaching and learning

marine orders, the seafarers who use marine orders in their communications and researchers of the same subjects

First of all, theoretically, by pointing out the speech acts realized in marine orders and their linguistic features, maritime teachers and students (who are seafarers themselves) will better understand the effectiveness of these orders in communications and consequently use them more appropriately and effectively

Similar to navigational teachers and students, practically, the seafarers can achieve a more efficient communications by mastering orders used in certain situations In addition, through understanding the notion of speech acts and the linguistic features of maritime orders, they will have a better selection and treatment

of message markers when delivering and receiving orders especially in emergencies

5 Research methodology

5.1 Research questions

With such aims, this study is to answer the following questions:

1 What speech act is realized in marine orders?

2 How are directness, types of sentence, length of sentence and the density of technicality realized in maritime orders?

3 What are the differences between orders used on – board and in external communications in terms of speech act and some linguistic features such as categories, directness, types of sentences, length of sentence and the density

of technicality?

The answers to these questions will expose what categories of speech acts and what linguistic features have greater effect on making marine orders clearer and hence more effective in marine communications In addition, the study is hoped to clarify how marine orders adapt themselves when used in different contexts, for example, in different weather conditions to ensure the effectiveness in communications

5.2 Research methods

To find the answers to the questions above, the combination of quantitative and contrastive analysis methods will be applied respectively For the first two questions, quantitative method is used to find out what speech act is realized in maritime orders and how the act of ordering is realized in marine orders in terms of their directness, types of sentences, length of sentences, and the density of technicality When comparing on-board orders and radiotelephony (external) orders, the contrastive analysis method is used to find out the similarities and differences between them in terms of those linguistic features

5.3 Data

To answer the research questions, 190 English marine orders were selected from various sources such as maritime textbooks, websites and videos recorded in real communications The orders selected were of two main types: external (radio telephony) communications and on board communications for descriptive and contrastive analysis External communications mainly deal with radio conversations exchanged between ships (ship’s officer) and shore stations (shore personnel) while

on board communications are orders among captains, officers, and sailors (helmsmen) The orders were analyzed in terms of the following categories: speech act categories, directness, types of sentence, length of sentence and the density of technicality to study their linguistic features and uses

5.4 Data analysis method

190 English marine orders were quantitatively and contrastively analyzed in term of their speech act categories, linguistic features and the differences between them Four tables were generated to assist in the analyzing process Two tables listed the categories of speech acts realized in marine orders used in external as well

as on-board communications The other two tables investigated more about the linguistic features of the orders used on-board and in external communications namely directness, types of sentence, length and density of technicality Based on these analyses, a contrast between on board orders and external orders were made

All these data analyses were summed up to find out the most general ideas about how language is used in marine orders

6 Design of the study

The study consists three parts as follow:

Part A: INTRODUCTION This part outlines the background of the research In

this part, discussions are made about the rationale, aims and objectives, significance, methodology and design of the research

Part B: DEVELOPMENT This part falls into four chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background and Literature Review This chapter presents

theoretical background of the study in which categories of speech acts and the act of ordering are discussed Meanwhile, it gives an overview of previous researches related to the study

Chapter 2: Methodology This chapter introduces the research questions, research

methods, data, and data analysis methods

Chapter 3: Data analysis The chapter analyses the data collected

Chapter 4: Findings and discussions This chapter discusses the findings of the

data analyzed in chapter 3

Part C: CONCLUSION This part draws important conclusions about the study

and makes some suggestions for further researches

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 Speech act and discourse analysis

From different points of view, discourse is understood and defined in different ways Richard et al (1985:83) define discourse as “a general term for examples of language use, i.e., language which has been produced as the results of

an act of communication It refers to larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversation and interview” Meanwhile, Crystal (1992:25) defines discourse as “a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language larger than sentence, often constituting a coherent unit, such as a sermon, argument, joke or narrative”

There is a number of other definitions of discourse, for the purpose of this study, I would like to follow Widdowson’s definition (1984:4 as cited in Nguyen Hoa, 2000) “Discourse is a communicative process by means of interaction.” By this way, discourse is not simply a representation or a verbal record of the communicative but it includes many situational factors that is context of the situation, the meanings or intention that the speaker/ writer assigns to a linguistic means or expressions Therefore, discourse analysis will be the analysis of language

in use In order to interpret discourse successfully, there must be an establishment

of coherence because in many cases, the speaker’s intention is not literally conveyed For example:

Mother: The grass is growing fast in the garden

Son: I’m going to have a group study this morning, mother

Mother: OK

In this example, the mother does not directly ask her son to do the gardening but the sentence “The grass is growing fast in the garden” can be functioned as a request Although there is no formal link in this conversation, the listener can still infer that the son refuses his mother’s request Therefore, when trying to

comprehend spoken or written discourse, we must simultaneously perceive both the propositional meaning and functional meaning of the speaker or writer

However, when using language, we not only make propositional statements about objects, entities, states of affairs and so on but we also fulfill functions such

as requesting, denying, introducing, apologizing etc Such entities are called

“speech act” or the things people do through language (Nunan:1993) The use of this term was coined by the linguistic philosopher Austin (1962) and developed by Searle (1969), another philosopher Their theory was mainly about the locutionary, illocutionary and perlocutionary acts whereas illocutionary act is central to the concept of a speech act These acts are widely accepted as the act of promising, ordering and bequeathing

In the example above, the utterance “The grass is growing fast in the garden” can be considered an indirect speech act because it carries the function of the request Similarly, the reply “I have a group study” is also an indirect speech act to reject proposal This is indirect because the literal meaning of “I have a group study” does not entail any sort of rejection

1.2 Speech act and the act of ordering

1.2.1 Classifications of speech act

Speech acts have been studied and defined by different linguists such as Austin (1962), Grice (1957, 1975), Hymes (1964), Searle (1969), Levinson (1983), Brown and Yule (1983) and others The common in their theory is “a speech act is

an act that a speaker performs when making an utterance” Then it is best described

as “in saying something, we do something” According to Austin, speech acts are divided into five types and three dimensions Below is his theory about the three dimensions of speech acts

according to the rules of a given language

Perlocutionary

Act

- The perlocutionary carried out by a speaker making an utterance is the act of causing a certain effect on the hearer and others In others words, a perlocutionary act is the results or effects that are produced by means of saying something

1.2.1.1 Types of speech acts (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969)

According to Austin (1962), there are five types of speech acts as follows: (1) Verdictives: such as acquit, grade, estimate, diagnose, predict, interpret

(2) Exercitives: such as appoint, order, advise, warn, instruct, promote

(3) Commisives: such as promise, guarantee, bet, oppose, ensure, pledge

(4) Behabitives: apologizes, criticize, bless, challenge, congratulate, thank

(5) Expositives: argue, postulate, affirm, concede, oppose, admit

With the classification mentioned above, there are still mistakes and repetitions For example, the two last types namely “behavitives” and “explositives” are not clear and they are overlapped Therefore, there is a need to suitably divide it again

Austin’s views on language have been enormously influential in many other philosophy and linguists Among them, Searle, one of Austin’s followers, further developed and solved the unclear point in Austin’s classification by dividing it into five types as follows:

(1) Directives: the acts that are to get people to do something They express what

the speaker wants such as “commanding”, “requesting”, “inviting”, “forbidding”,

“suggesting” and they can be positive or negative The form to perform this directive functions can be vary from imperative sentences, questions or statement whose illocutionary force is a directive

E.g.: Please sit down

Why don’t you turn off the light?

There isn’t any sugar left

According to Kreidler (1998), three types of directive utterances can be

recognized: commands, requests, and suggestions They are distinguished by the

force imposed on hearer For example, a command is effective only if the speaker has some degree of control over the actions of the addressee

E.g.: You must appear in court next Monday at 10 a.m

Commands are produced with various degrees of explicitness which can

have the form of You must, imperative sentences or use predicates as command,

order, tell

A request is an expression of what speaker wants the addressee to do or

refrain from doing something The common request predicates are ask, beg,

request…

Suggestions are utterances which cause the hearer to give opinions as to what they should do or should not do Suggestee can have a choice of performances

which are advise, recommend, caution, warn…

(2) Commisives: The acts that commit a speaker to do something in the future They

express what the speaker intends such as “promising”, “offering”, “threatening”,

“refusing”, “vowing” and “volunteering”

E.g.: If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll call the police

I’ll take you to the movies tomorrow

(3) Assertives/ Representatives: the acts that commit a speaker to the truth of

expressed proposition such as “describing”, “claiming”, “insisting”, predicting” E.g.: I went home yesterday

Britain has no written constitution

(4) Declaratives: the acts that change the reality via the utterance The speaker has

to have a special institutional role, in a specific context in order to perform a declaration appropriately

E.g.: Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife

Chairman: I declare the meeting open

(5) Expressive: the acts that express speaker’s attitudes and emotions towards the

propositions such as “apologizing”, “praising”, “congratulating”, “regretting” E.g.: What a great day!

You are so beautiful!

It can be seen that Searle refined Austin’s theory but there are still some differences between these two conceptions Whereas Austin emphasized the conventional interpretation of speech acts, Searle focused on a psychological interpretation (based on belief, intention…) For the aim of my study, I would like

to follow Searle’s classification because I realized that most of marine orders are direct speech acts and the acts that cause the hearer to take a particular action This coincides with the category “directives” in Searle’s classification that has been mentioned above

1.2.1.2 Direct and Indirect speech acts

Indirect speech acts is an act which is perform via another act, we say that act is performed indirectly For example in uttering: “Open the window please”, for instance, the speaker has directly requested the hearer to open the window The syntactic structure of this utterance indicates a straight-forward request in English But the same request can be made in a more tacit, indirect manner to achieve the same result The speaker may say something like “it’s hot in here”, instead of

“Open the window please”

Indirect speech acts can be performed by different types of structures One of the most common types of indirect speech act in English is interrogative which is not used to ask a question (as we do not expect only answer, we expect an action)

For example, the question “Could you pass the salt?” is normally understood as a request

However, according to Searle, the way in which an utterance is interpreted differs from one person to another even within the same speech community, depending on various factors such as the speaker - hearer role relationship, distance, relative hierarchy or the context of interaction If an utterance is brought into a cross-cultural interactional situation where the interlocutors do not share social and cultural background, cultural conflicts and consequent misinterpretation and misunderstanding are likely to occur

1.2.2 The act of ordering

1.2.2.1 Definition

According to International Maritime Organization (IMO), the act of ordering can be defined as any word, phrase, sentence or other expression of speech act marked means of asking for information, making a request, giving intention, expressing advice etc represents what the speaker intends to say or ask

In any conversation, the primary acts can be: accept, acknowledge, agree, answer, apology, call-off, check, confirm, disagree, greeting, evaluate, inform, invite, object, offer, oppose, question, react, reject, reply, request, thank

However, the principle acts in maritime VHF or other spoken communications just focus on the act of question, answer, information, instruction, advice, request, intention, and warning

So, based on classification of Austin and Searle mentioned above, the act of ordering is a type of “directives” or “exercitives” which are the exercising of powers, rights or influence on the hearer It is also called command or ordering sentence

1.2.2.2 Ways of performing the act of ordering

The act of ordering has its own linguistic features to carry the function of an

order or a command The most typical features are directness, types of sentence, length and density of technicality which will be discussed in more details below

Directness

The act of ordering can be performed in either a direct or indirect way In social conversations, people tend to use indirect speech acts mainly in connection with politeness (Leech, 183: 108) since they diminish the unpleasant message contained in requests and orders For instance, instead of ordering directly “Pass me the salt!” people use the form of an interrogative “Could you pass me the salt?” which appears more polite However, politeness is not the only motivation for indirectness People also use indirect strategies “when they want to make their speech more interesting, when they want to reach different goals from their partners

or when they want to increase the force of message communicated” (Thomas, 1995)

- Move out of the way!

- Do you have to stay in front of the TV?

- You are standing in front of the TV

The basic function of all the utterances in these examples is a command/request However, only the imperative structure in the first example present a direct speech act The interrogative structure in the second example is not being used as a question, so it is an indirect speech act The declarative structure in the last sentence is also an indirect request

As a result, it can be seen that direct orders and commands are performed by imperative sentences which begin with a verb and end with/without an object, a person or a thing Every single imperative sentence has the same implied subject: you

(You) shut the door

(You) smile

Because this you is implied, it is called understood you When a command or

an order that begins with a noun of a direct address like “Bob, walk the dog”,

implied you is still the subject of the sentence It is a coincide that in these cases the

noun of direct address and the subject (you) are referring to the same person “Bob, (you) walk the dog”

While imperative is a type of direct speech act, one of the most common types of indirect speech acts in English has the form of interrogative, but not typically used to ask a question Indeed, asking a question about the hearer’s

assumed ability (“Can you/ Could you”) or future likelihood with regard to do something (“Will you?”, “Would you?”) normally counts as a request to actually

do something In small cases, indirect speech act can also be realized in a declarative sentence whose illocutionary force is declarative as in the example “Oh, the sugar’s all gone” (Nguyen Hoa 2004: 232)

The length of the sentence

Another distinguishing feature of a command or an order is the length of the sentence It is known that the average length of a sentence generally serves as a measure of sentence difficulty or complexity In general, the average sentence length increases, the complexity of sentence also increase As most of commands and orders are simple sentence, the average length of sentence just range about three

to six words which is quite easy to understand and follow

Density of technicality

Density of technicality is a typical feature of marine orders which appear frequently in almost orders used on-board as well as in external communications

Nautical terms are all terminology relating to specialized ships, for instance, gas and oil tankers, container and reefer ships, car carriers, roll-on/roll-off ferries, and heavy lift ships, each vessel type having its routine operations and interaction within its sphere of the international shipping industry, and also designated terminology determining communication in English at sea or alongside when loading or discharging cargo All crew need to know the exact meaning of this technical terminology and frequently practice so that when emergencies occur they can recall exactly Therefore, even in general conversation, seafarers commonly use familiar

“maritime” idiom whether on board ship or ashore In this study, the technicality is defined and realized by Seatalk Nautical Dictionary, a standard reference for English nautical language all around the world

Also, in this study, the term “sentence” and “phrase” are used interchangeably as in many cases, a sentence can be reduced its elements to become

a phrase or vice verse, a phrase sometimes expresses complete meaning of a sentence For instance, the phrase “Port 5” can be interpreted as a sentence “Hold the rudder 5 degrees to port”

1.2.3 The act of ordering in marine communication

Communication at sea (written or spoken) mainly deals with on board communications and external communications External communication (ship – to – ship, ship – to shore or shore – to – ship) encompasses radio broadcast including communications in emergencies and routine communications whereas on board communications cover orders relating to ship handling of all kinds (helm orders, engine telegraph orders, command for mooring, anchoring, towing) Among the conversations exchanged, radio communication or as we can call it maritime VHF conversation is the most typical which fully manifests the act of ordering When making conversations, both the sender and the receiver must strictly adhere to the rules of radio regulations and International Maritime Organization (IMO) (Standard Marine Communication Phrase , 2001)

Any conversation of maritime VHF consists of three basic stages:

The second stage of exchanging messages is most important in spoken maritime interactive communications However, with a complete marine communication, there are nine steps which are diagramed as below:

Steps 1 - 5 represent the making contact stage of conversation

Steps 6 - 7 are the central part of a VHF conversation

Steps 8 – 9 are the final stage

Here is an example of a complete standard marine VHF communication:

Setting: Approaching pilot station – three miles from Elbe Light vessel

1 Making contact 2 Exchange of messages 3 End procedure

5 SWITCH OVER PROCEDURE

7 RESPONSE(S) TO MESSAGE

6 MESSAGE

8 END TRANSMISSION

9 END PROCEDURE

Speakers: MV MARLIN, Elbe Pilot (EP)

Topics: Further notice of arrival – exchange with the pilot station

In the example above, the order “Rig the pilot ladder on the port side, one foot above the water” is preceded by the message marker INSTRUCTION Based on Searle’s classification, the act of ordering in this example is a type of directives which command or suggest the hearer to follow his instruction Unlike orders used

in daily life which the illocutionary act underlined in the sentence itself, marine order in VHF conversations have message markers such as QUESTION, ANSWER, INFORMATION, INSTRUCTION, ADVICE, REQUEST, INTENTION, WARNING…before each sentence to state the speaker’s intentions The use of

Elbe Pilot: Marlin, This is Elbe Pilot Question: What is your position? Over

Marlin: Elbe Pilot, This is Marlin Answer: Position: Three miles from Elbe Light vessel

Elbe Pilot: Marlin, This is Elbe Pilot Understood Your position: Three

miles from Elbe Light vessel INSTRUCTION: Rig pilot ladder on the port side, one foot above the water Information: my position is close to

Buoy No.1 Over

Marlin: Elbe Pilot This is Marlin Understood I shall rig pilot ladder on the port side one foot above the water Your position is close to Buoy No.1 Thank you Over

Elbe Pilot: Thank you very much indeed Captain Stand by on channel

these message markers is optional which depend on the shore personnel or the ship officer assesses the situation However, it is recommended that any message directed to a vessel should be clear by using one of these markers The most priority situations that require message markers are emergency situations like distress, urgency and safety Below are the examples of order used in each case:

- Distress message:

Mayday Mayday Mayday

This is Seagull Seagull Seagull

Mayday

Seagull HR1225, Seagull HR1225, Seagull HR1225

Position: latitude 5-2 degrees 1-1 minutes north, longitude 1-2-8 degrees 4-0 minutes west

Ship on fire

REQUEST: Immediate assistance

19 persons on board Abandoning ship to life rafts

Over

- Urgent message:

Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan, Pan-Pan

All stations, All stations, All stations

This is EI NORTE 5421, EI NORTE 5421, EI NORTE 5421,

Pan-Pan

Position: Bearing 134 degrees from Newport sound, distance 3.6 nm

Engine breakdown, I am adrift in heavy seas

REQUEST: Require a tow

Over

- Safety message:

Securite, Securite, Securite

All stations, All stations, All stations,

This is Cherbourg Traffic for traffic information

A group of whit boxes is in position about 7 miles SE of Echo Charlie two

REQUEST: Wide berth requested

For all information please contact Cherbourg Traffic Cherbourg Traffic watching on channel 16 and 11

From Cherbourg Traffic Out

Each type of message has its own structure and feature For instance, distress message always start by “Mayday” while urgency message use “Pan-Pan” and for safety is “Securite” However, the order used in these message shares the common feature is that it is very short and proceeded by marker REQUEST in most cases Besides, an important rule applied in marine orders is that the receiver always has to repeat the speaker/ sender’s information to avoid mistakes As we can see in the conversation between MV Marlin and Elbe Pilot above, when Marlin informs its position, Elbe Pilot repeats again before giving instruction Similarly, the receiver Marlin says the instruction again as a way to confirm the message This rule is also strictly adhered in orders used on board For example, in the wheel orders, if the captain says “Starboard twenty”, the pilot implements the order not only by turning the vessel to the right twenty degrees but also has to repeat “Starboard twenty already, sir!”

In conclusion, with the linguistic features above, Maritime English is considered to be a highly technical language which the functional characteristics are concerned in the specific area of merchant marine transportations (Ziarati, 2008)

As a result, language used at sea must be in compliance with the rules of IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases to avoid any failures in communication This is the reason why linguistic features of marine orders are somehow different from orders used in General English Based on the theoretical background above, the criteria that make marine orders distinguished is their types of speech acts, directness, length, types of sentences, and density of technical terms All these criteria will be furthered analyzed in chapter 3 to study the distinction realized in marine orders

1.3 Literature review

Marine language is quite a broad linguistic area and has not been studied by many linguists Most of the researchers in this field usually cover the teaching occupation or navigation related jobs In Vietnam, three most outstanding studies on marine language are carried by English teachers at VMU

The first study Nautical term-based metaphor by Ngo Thi Nhan (2004)

explored the structure experience or image schemata that motivate the formation of metaphor using nautical terms Her study has helped marine students and seafarers stay away from troubles caused by metaphorical meanings when they have to deal with multi-cultural environments all over the world in their work

The second is Analysis of Ship’s Business Letters by Doan Thi Thanh Thuy

(2004) analyzed the speech acts applied in ship’s business letters in English, which plays an important role when writing or reading a letter The results of this study helped students to realize the importance of speech act in ship’s business letter and also suggested some methods for teaching writing ship’s business letter in English

Another research is Elliptical Expressions of Maritime Radiograms in

English by Pham Van Don (2002) The primary focus of this study was on the

elliptical expressions of marine radiograms in English and the researcher of this study wished to make use of all the findings on elliptical expressions to ease the learning and the teaching radiograms in English at VIMARU

As it can be seen clearly, there is surely no previous studies in marine orders

in terms of speech act, which has received my attention for its importance to students at VIMARU as well as seafarers at sea The increasing interest in being able to compose the best solution to students’ problem has heightened my need for

further study in this topic

1 What speech act is realized in marine orders?

2 How are directness, types of sentence, length of sentence and the density of technicality realized in maritime orders?

3 What are the differences between orders used on – board and in external communications in terms of speech act and some linguistic features such as categories, directness, types of sentences, length of sentence and the density

- The linguistic features of the act of ordering realized in orders in external and

on board communication phrases (directness, length, types of sentences, and density of technical terms)

- The differences between on – board orders and external orders in terms of these linguistic features

2.2 Data

2.2.1 Data description

Marine orders appear in most conversations exchanged at sea However, based on the purposes and context of use, they can be divided into two main types: marine orders used in external communications and on board communications

External communications are mainly conversations exchanged between ship – to ship, ship – to – shore or shore – to - ship stations The aim of these

conversations is to promote navigational safety, including giving instruction, advice

or warning for the vessel Conversations between ships and shore stations commonly exchange messages about emergency situation communications (including distress, urgency and safety) and routine communications (pilot request, tug request ) Due to the limitation of a minor study, only the most frequent and prioritized command sentences in radio communication are collected and analyzed including emergency situations (30 sentences) and routine communication (50 sentences)

On-board communications or face – to – face communications between seafarers in the ship cover a wide range of topics relating to situations at sea However, the attention of my research is on the orders and commands that are most typical and frequently used namely wheel orders (34 sentences), engine telegraph order (13 sentences), command for mooring (42 sentences), command for anchoring (11 sentences) and towing orders (10 sentences)

All these orders and commands will be served as the database for further

analysis in chapter 3 Data analysis

2.2.2 Source of data

The data is collected mainly from maritime textbooks, websites and recordings of real-life language use One of the main textbooks is the course material currently used in Navigational Department at VIMAR, the “IMO Standard Marine Communication Phrases” (SMCP) published in 2002 This book was issued

by IMO publication and considered to be the official document for not only nautical students but also a requirement for all seafarers when communicating at sea Besides, there is an useful navigational website which contains standard marine orders for seafarers named mareng.utu.fi/ MarEng is a web-based Maritime English Language Learning Tool which was developed by Leonardo da Vinci program of the European Union All the materials are based on language used in actual situations on board ships, in ports and elsewhere in the shipping chain Therefore, the accuracy and authentication of these materials are totally reliable