Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors

This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed

The language of the sea: a corpus driven examination of the influence of Britain's maritime tradition on standard English

Britain’s maritime history has fundamentally affected the English language as spoken and written throughout the English speaking world. Maritime expressions (MEs), such as “taken aback” “batten down” and “log” are used on a daily basis, usually without any awareness on the part of the user of their source. This study examines the ideas of discourse communities as defined by Swales (1999) and Teubert (2005; 2007) and how discourse is negotiated by its members. The study aims to describe the process by which the highly specialised language of the very specific discourse community of mariners has influenced the wider English speaking discourse community. Following an assessment of the historical and social conditions that led to the prominence of MEs in English, the study looks at twenty examples, dividing them into “transparent” and “opaque” categories (Moon 1998). Using the Cobuild Bank of English Corpus, the MEs were analysed to reveal patterns about who uses them, why and where. The findings reveal distinctive differences of usage in the major English speaking counties of Britain, America, Canada and Australia, providing revealing insights into the processes of change, as particular expressions develop new meanings or adapt to accommodate the requirements of the modern discourse community