COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL FEATURES ON INDONESIAN ANDAUSTRALIAN TOURISM WEBSITES

Abstract

Language is a pivotal tool in human communication and perception as a foundation for exchanging ideas and building relationships. Linguistics, the scientific study of a language, plays an important role in writing to craft compelling narratives that lead to effective communication. Tourism is one of the industries that relies on that. This study explores the grammatical features, as part of linguistic features, employed on official tourism websites of Indonesia and Australia. This research aims to identify the grammatical features used on Indonesian and Australian Tourism Websites and to evaluate the impact of the features on audience engagement and perception. To conduct this case study research, the researcher employed Biber and Conrad's (2009) linguistic features framework, selecting six grammatical features to analyze: Present Tense, Past Tense, Adjectives, Adverbs, Modal Verbs, and Pronoun Features. Data were collected using document analysis and survey through a questionnaire and analyzed using an analysis table. The findings reveal that all six grammatical features were found across both websites. Present Tense verbs occurred as the most frequently appeared feature in the six articles of indonesia.travel, whereas Adjectives occurred as the most frequently appeared feature in the six articles of australia.com. The findings were confirmed by the result of the questionnaire which showcased positive feedback from the respondents, stating that the use of the six features is generally effective in making the respondents, as the website readers, attracted to visit the destination.