A Corpus-based Comparative Study on Readability of Maritime News from China Institute of Navigation and The Nautical Institute
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53469/jssh.2024.06(08).11Keywords:
Corpus, Readability, China Institute of Navigation, The Nautical Institute, Maritime newsAbstract
The shipping industry has always been an essential part of the global economy. As the global economy recovers and cross-cultural exchanges become more frequent, the international promotion of maritime news has become increasingly important. Currently, English remains the primary international language, and English-language maritime news reports play a key role in promoting China's shipping industry abroad. However, there is a lack of comparative readability studies on maritime news in China. Therefore, this study examined maritime news published on the English websites of China Institute of Navigation and The Nautical Institute. Using corpus software WordSmith and AntConc, along with statistical software SPSS, it compared the text complexity and linguistic features of news from both institutes based on readability theory. The study found that China Institute of Navigation's news suffers from lower readability due to longer sentence length, inconsistent modal verb usage and lack of passive voice, while The Nautical Institute's news gains lower readability due to excessive lexical diversity and longer word length. This study aimed to compare the readability of maritime news from the two institutes, summarize methods and suggestions for improving readability in maritime news around the world. It is believed that this research will provide insights and references for English writing in Chinese maritime news, thereby enhancing the information dissemination of China's shipping industry.
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