“Taming the Meanest Beast”: Plain Language and the Use of Acronyms in Maritime Communication

Abstract

Acronyms are considered as lexical units in their own right. However, unlike other words, these are deceptive, as they do not comply with any traditional word structure, making it harder to infer the meaning when such meaning is not known. Therefore, when it comes to employing these units in communication, there may be an issue concerned with clarity. One of the principles of the Plain Language Network, which has always promoted clear written communication in any language, is in fact to avoid—or alternatively clarify—the use of acronyms in communication because these may result in making language obscure. This paper investigates whether, and possibly how, such principle can be applied to the field of maritime communication, and to this end, it takes into account and analyses a genuine email correspondence between two international shipping companies, one based in Germany, one based in Thailand. A few other examples like APS, ATDNSHINC, DOP, DTW, SHEX, SHINC, and T/C gathered from real working environments are elucidated as well. The conclusion surprisingly contravenes the Plain language principle revealing that acronyms play a crucial role as to clarity in maritime communication and thus, are strictly required.