Lexical Analysis o f Eng lish for Tour Guides

張明麗 張瑞花 宋翊寧/陸軍航空兵學院基礎部

Lexical Analysis o f Eng lish for Tour Guides

張明麗 張瑞花 宋翊寧/陸軍航空兵學院基礎部

With the r apid development of Chi nese tour ism i ndustr y, more and more for eign tour ists come to Chi na for a vi sit. Although not all foreign tourists are from English-speaking countrie s, English, as a common language in today's world, has become the most important medium of communication when international tourist activities are involved in. As a result, English for Tour Guides—the langu age used in receiving and guiding tourists appears as a special variety of English, becomes popular in Chinese tourism. The paper will analyze the stylistic features of English for Tour Guides in its lexis, syntax and rhetorical devices, in order to help them to comp lete their jobs and achieve desired effect.

Tour Guides； English for Tour Guides； stylistic feature

Introduction

Tourism English is English used in the tourism industry. In the 21st century, touris m is emerging "as the world lar gest and most dynamic industry." (Pond, 1993:VII) It is estim ated that "3.5 billion people travel the world every year." (Hodgson, 1987:1) Tourism has found its way into nearly all countries around the world, and has not only culturally but also financially affected the countries and areas it touches.

Lexical Features of English for Tour Guides

Tourism E nglish must be si mple in language, ri ch i n i nformation, vivid in expressi on, faithful to the interpreted object and can deliver mes sages and endowing the touris ts with apleas ant and memorable journey. E nglish f or Tour Guides sho wsitsl exical features in itsuse of simple words.

1.Use of Simple Words

By si mple words, Tourism English are commonly use d and easy to understand. For example, M ount E’mei, located in E’mei City more than 100 km southwest of Chengdu, Sichuan, is about 3100 m above sea level. Mt.E’m ei is reputed as “the m ost beautiful m ountain under heaven.” Mt. E’m ei is one of the four s acred Buddhis t mountains in China. T he famous Baoguo Monastery and the F uhu Monastery are situated at the foot of the mountain. (周毅, 2001：167)

The words us ed in the descriptions are s imple and familiar except the name the monasteries(Baoguo and Fuhu) which sound a little strange but do not affect our reading and understanding of the texts. Unnatural or but do not affect our reading and understanding of the texts. Unnatural or archaic language adopted in giving tours may damage the effect.

2.Abundance of Adjectives

Tourism Englis h has numerous adjectives . It needs to be vivid, impressive and appealing. H ere is an exam ple that des cribes Hawaii illustrates this point, reading:

Natural beauty, s oothing clear water s, gentle warm trade winds ,fragrant flowers and s parkling waterfalls define the lands cape in H awaii and draw you into a realm of peace and relaxation. Could this be why Hawaii is often described as one of the healthiest places on earth?

From the above, ei ght adj ectives a re appl ied, maki ng t he l anguage colorful and vivid. By reading this, one can have a clear idea and a better picture of Hawaii.

3.Decoration of Numerals

Numerals a re f requently observed i n Tourism E nglish. It e nhances the effectivenes s of tr ansmitting information and to give vis itors a clear and accurate idea,. H ere is an example T he F orbidden City, Guide Professionally in Beijing:

The Forbidden City covers an area of 72 hectares. It is rectangular in shape, 961 mete rs long from north to south and 753 meters wide from eas t to wes t. "H ow many rooms are there in the F orbidden City?" Good question! Suppose you were born in one of the rooms and you wanted to stay in a different room every night. You would be 27 years old at the end of your experience. To be exact, it is said there are 9999.5 rooms in the whole complex.

Numerals are integral to the s tories and further illus trate the large s cale of the F orbidden City. Thus the adoption of numerals can be regarded as striving for the goal of fulfilling the informative and expressive functions of Language for Tour Guides.

4.Conclusion

As the most dynamic industry in the world, touris m is emerging as one of t he most prosperous i ndustry i n t he 21st c entury, a nd has financially and culturally impacted the area it enters. With the arrival of significant numbers of foreign visitors, English for Tour Guides becomes an important medium of communication in receiving foreign tourists and is gradual ly e ntering t he spotlight. It not only he lps to e ncapsulate the essence of place and open a window onto a site, ci ty, region, or country for visitors, but also enables visitors to better understand the history and culture of the host country.

After analyzing English for T our Guides from the perspective of lexical, we can conclude that like Englis h for other purposes, s uch as Business English and Advertising English, English for Tour Guides also has its own lexical features.

Bibliography:

[1] Pond, Kathleen L. .The Pro fessional Guide: Dyna mics of Tour Guiding. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. 1993.

[2]Hall,Eugene J.. The Language of Tourism in English. New York:Regents Publishing Company, Inc. 1976.

[3] Hodgson, Adele. The T ravel and Tourism Industry. Pergamon Press. 1987.

[4] 周毅. 旅游英語教程[M]. 成都: 四川大學出版社, 2001.

[5] 陳淑華. 英漢修辭語翻譯[M].北京:北京郵電學院出版社,1990.