A Corpus-based Study On Modal Auxiliaries In SOLAS Convention

Shipping industry is more and more important to international trade with the rapid development of world economy, and the aim to publish SOLAS Convention is to ensure safety at sea. Thus correct understanding of those maritime conventions is obviously crucial. It is necessary for English learners to understand how to correctly use modal auxiliaries so that they can correctly use English. So far, there are already many studies of modal auxiliaries, while study of modal auxiliaries in maritime conventions is rare. Compared with general English, legal English, such as maritime conventions, has its unique features in choosing and using modal auxiliaries.Therefore this thesis attempts to analyze all modal auxiliaries to find out the features of use of modal auxiliaries in SOLAS Convention.This thesis is a study on modal auxiliaries in SOLAS Convention based on Corpus of SOLAS Convention and Brown Corpus for reference, under the framework of Biber’s theory of modal auxiliaries of traditional grammar and Halliday’s theory of modality system of functional grammar, by both quantitative method and qualitative method. The findings are as follows:the frequency of modal auxiliaries in SOLAS Convention is more than that in general English, and central modal auxiliaries take up the most; as legal English, there are some unique features of SOLAS Convention: accurate, standard, solemn and totally objective; SOLAS Convention employs a large number of modal auxiliaries, especially shall, to express obligation or prohibition, and modal auxiliaries combined with passive voice to express its objectivity; there are few implicit expressions and no progressive aspect in the convention.The study in this thesis can provide help and suggestions for readers and users of SOLAS Convention for obtaining a better understanding and correct method to use, furthermore, the study can provide suggestions for translating Chinese maritime laws and regulations into English accurately.