English for nautical purposes : nature of verbal VHF communication : the case of Mostaganem harbour master office

Abstract EN

Without a common language, there can be intricacy in passing commands among marine officers and crew members in the nautical multilingual context and this is where maritime English (ME) and standard maritime communication phrases (SMCP) code come into play.

an investigative research based on corpus / text analysis is conducted at Mostaganem Harbour master office (HMO) to study the linguistic features and relevance of maritime discourse as truly applied in verbal VHF communication.

findings revealed that ME is officially declared as the specialized medium for nautical duties and tasks' completion while the SMCP document is an indispensable code imposed by IMO and STCW convention78 / 95.

the functional alphabet, phrases and message markers all proved the jargon as 100% ESP discourse founded on the feature of restriction and brevity.