Aviation English and Pragmatics: a proposal of a descriptive investigation through Corpus Linguistics

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2019.4.34167

Keywords:

Corpus Linguistics. Pragmatics. Corpus Pragmatics. Aviation english. Descriptive linguistics.

Abstract

Aviation English has been spread due to language proficiency exams applied to pilots and air traffic controllers, who need to prove a minimum level of proficiency for international operations. To achieve this end, pedagogical materials and language tests have been designed without consideration of important elements of the real communication employed by the abovementioned professionals, especially in abnormal situations – scope of interest of such exams. In order to investigate the real language used in this context, we have compiled a corpus with the transcription of 93 radio communications. By means of the interface of researches in two fields, Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, namely Corpus Pragmatics, the present study aims at an understanding of the reasons behind certain choices of the speakers, presenting data that motivated the pragmatic analysis of this investigation, with possible justifications towards the high frequency of deixis and mitigation devices. We conclude with a presentation of a partial analysis of the project and its contributions to the linguistic description of aviation English, with a view to substantiating the teaching of this specific English domain.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Malila Carvalho de Almeida Prado, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP

Aluna de doutorado no Departamento de Letras Modernas da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo (USP).

References

AIJMER, Karin; RÜHLEMANN, Christoph. Corpus pragmatics: a handbook. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1360674315000234

ALDERSON, C. A survey of aviation English tests. Language Testing, London, v. 27, n. 1, p. 51-72, 2010.

ALTENBERG, B. On the Phraseology of Spoken English: The Evidence of Recurrent Word- Combinations. In: COWIE, A. P. (ed.). Phraseology: theory, analysis, and applications. Oxford: Oxford University, 1998. p. 101-122.

AUSTIN, J. L. How to do things with words. Cambridge: Harvard University, 1962.

BIESWANGER, M. Aviation English: two distinct specialised registers? In: SCHUBERT, Christoph; SANCHEZ-STOCKHAMMER, Christina (org.). Variational text linguistics: revisiting register in English. Berlin: DeGruyter, 2016. p. 67-85. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110443554-005

BROWN, Penelope; LEVINSON, Stephen C. Politeness: some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085

CAFFI, C. On mitigation. Journal of Pragmatics, Amsterdam, v. 31, n. 7, p. 881-909, 1999.

CLANCY, B.; O’KEEFFE, A. Using a corpus to enhance pragmatic awareness. In: GARCÍA-PASTOR, Maria Dolores (org.). Teaching English as a foreign language: proposals for the language classroom. Catarroja: Perifèric, 2012. p. 27-60.

CRESTI, Emanuela. Corpus di Italiano parlato. Firenze: Accademia dela Crusca, 2000. v. 1.

CRYSTAL, David. A dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. 4th ed. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1997.

GARCIA, Angela Cora. Air traffic communications in routine and emergency contexts: a case study of flight 1549 ‘miracle on the Hudson’. Journal of Pragmatics, Amsterdam, v.106, p. 57-71, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2016.10.005

GAVIOLI, Laura. Exploring corpora for ESP learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2005. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.21

GOFFMAN, Erving. Interaction ritual: essays on face to face behavior. New York: Doubleday, 1967.

ICAO. Aviation occurrence categories: definitions and usage notes. Montreal: ICAO, 2006.

ICAO. Doc 9432: manual of radiotelephony. Montreal: ICAO, 2007.

ICAO. Doc 9835: manual of implementation of language proficiency. Montreal: ICAO, 2004.

ICAO. Doc 9835: manual of implementation of language proficiency. 2nd ed. Montreal: ICAO, 2010.

KIM, Hyejeong. What constitutes professional communication in aviation: is language proficiency enough for testing purposes? Language Testing, London, v. 35, n. 3, p. 403–426, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265532218758127

LINDE, Charlotte. The quantitative study of communicative success: politeness and accidents in aviation discourse. Language in Society, Cambridge, v. 17, n. 3, p. 375-399, 1988. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0047404500012951

LOPEZ, Stéphanie. Norme(s) et usage(s) langagiers: le cas des communications pilote-controleur en anglais. 2013. Tese (Doutorado em Linguistica) – Universite Toulouse le Mirail, Toulouse, 2013.

LOPEZ, Stéphanie et al. Linguistic analysis of English phraseology and plain language in airground communication. Journal of Air Transport Studies, [s. l.], v. 4, n. 1, p. 44-60, 2013.

MCCARTHY, Michael; CARTER, Ronald. This that and the other: multi-word clusters in spoken English as visible patterns of interaction. Teanga, [s. l.], v. 21, p. 30-52, 2002.

MELLO, Heliana. Os corpora orais e o C-ORAL-BRASIL. In: RASO, Tommaso; MELLO, Heliana (org.). O C-ORAL-BRASIL I: corpus de referência do português brasileiro falado informal. Belo Horizonte: UFMG, 2012. p. 31-54.

MODER, Carol Lynn; HALLECK, Gene B. Planes, politics and oral proficiency. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, [s. l.], v. 32, n. 3, p. 25.1-25.16, 2009. https://doi.org/10.2104/aral0925

PRADO, M. Fluency in aviation English: the path to its description through corpus linguistics. In: DEGAND, Liesbeth et al. (org.). Fluency and disfluency across languages and language varieties. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2019. p. 159-176. https://doi.org/10.11606/d.8.2015.tde-16062015-131340

PRADO, Malila Carvalho de Almeida. Levantamento dos padrões léxico-gramaticais do inglês para aviação: um estudo vetorado pela linguística de corpus. 2015. Dissertação (Mestrado em Estudos Linguísticos e Literários em Inglês) – Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2015.

SACKS, Harvey; SCHEGLOFF, Emanuel A.; JEFFERSON, Gail. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, [s. l.], v. 50, n. 4 (part 1), p. 696-735, 1974. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.1974.0010

SCOTT, M. Word Smith Tools: version 6. Liverpool: Lexical Analysis Software, 2012.

SINCLAIR, John. Corpus, concordance, collocation: describing English language. Oxford: Oxford University, 1991.

SINCLAIR, John. Trust the text: language, corpus and discourse. London: Routledge, 2004.

TAGNIN, Stella E. O. O jeito que a gente diz: combinações consagradas em inglês e português. Barueri: Disal, 2013.

TOGNINI-BONELLI, Elena. Corpus linguistics at work. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.6

TOSQUI-LUCKS, Patrícia. Aplicações de corpora no ensino e na avaliação de inglês aeronáutico: estado da arte, reflexões, direcionamentos. In: SCARAMUCCI, Matilde V. R.; TOSQUI-LUCKS, Patrícia.; DAMIÃO, Silvia Matravolgyi (org.). Pesquisas sobre Inglês aeronáutico no Brasil. Campinas: Pontes, 2018. p. 89-114.

VAUGHAN, E.; CLANCY, B. Small corpora and pragmatics. In: ROMERO-TRILLO, Jesús. (org.). Yearbook of corpus linguistics and pragmatics. Dordrecht: Springer, 2013. p. 53-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6250-3_4

WOOD, David. Uses and functions of formulaic sequences in second language speech: an exploration of the foundations of fluency. Canadian Modern Language Review, Ontario, v. 63, n. 1, p. 13-33, 2006. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.63.1.13

Published

2019-12-27

How to Cite

Prado, M. C. de A. (2019). Aviation English and Pragmatics: a proposal of a descriptive investigation through Corpus Linguistics. Letrônica, 12(4), e34167. https://doi.org/10.15448/1984-4301.2019.4.34167