A Corpus-based Comparative Study On Nominalization In Maritime Written And Spoken Discourses

As a common language phenomenon in English,nominalization is often found in formal,objective and concise text style.As an instrumental language distinct from general English,maritime written and spoken English contain a large quantity of nominalization phenomenons,which shall be paid enough attention to.In this thesis,nominalization is divided into three types:suffixation,zeroderivation and-ing gerund based mainly upon the study of English grammar byHalliday and Quirk et al(1985).Employing Maritime English Corpus of Dalian Maritime University and Maritime Spoken English Corpus of Guangzhou Maritime College as research objects,this thesis aims at an analysis of the feature of nominalization in maritime written English and maritime spoken English.In addition,the functional analysis of nominalization in maritime discourse is conducted under grammatical metaphor theory.It is found that:1.Nominalization is one of the important features of maritime written English.There is a statistically significant difference in the frequency of nominalization in Maritime Written English Corpus and Maritime Spoken English Corpus.2.In the two corpora,there is a statistically significant difference in nominalization from verbs but no statistically significant difference in nominalization from adjectives.3.In the two corpora,suffixation takes the highest frequency,followed by-ing gerund and zero derivation takes the least frequency.4.In ideational function,the nominalization theme is modified by following components through transference of processes,making the expression more precise;on the other hand,clauses connected by conjunction word are transferred into nominalization expression with increase in lexical density,leading to a more concise expression.In interpersonal function,nominalization contributes to a more objective and authoritative expression by concealing mood and modality meaning.In textual function,nominalization promotes transference of information focus and thematic progression to realize cohesion and coherence.This thesis enriches the study mode of nominalization in maritime English with theoretical and teaching practice significance.