Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Main theoretical provisions 3
1.1 Pragmatics 3
1.1.1 Introduction to Speech Act Theory 3
1.1.2 Speech Act Theory of Austin 6
1.1.3 Speech Act Theory of Searle 8
1.1.4 Direct and Indirect Speech Acts 11
1.2 Business Correspondence 13
1.2.1 Definition of Business Correspondence 14
1.2.2 Classification of Business Correspondence 14
1.2.3 The Make-up of Business Correspondence 17
Chapter 1 Conclusion 27
Chapter 2 Pragmatic Peculiarities of Business Correspondence in English and
Chinese 29
2.1 Pragmatic Peculiarities of Business Correspondence in English 29
2.2 Pragmatic Peculiarities of Business Correspondence in Chinese 45
Chapter 2 Conclusion 64
Conclusion 66
References 68
Appendix 71
In the modern era of rapid economic development, the process of globalization has accelerated the frequency of communication between people engaged in foreign trade in various countries. There are two forms of communication - written and verbal. The written form refers to the exchange of business correspondence, while the oral form is the form of telegrams, etc. Due to the time difference and other external factors, written communication is more convenient and therefore more frequent. Business people involved in foreign trade need to read a lot of correspondence in foreign languages on a daily basis and even reply to correspondence in foreign languages. Hence it is necessary for business people to understand the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence in order to fully grasp the content of business correspondence and improve the quality of business correspondence writing.
The goal of the work is to research the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence. To reach the goal there is a need to do the following tasks:
1. Get the basic information about pragmatics.
2. Get the basic information about business correspondence.
3. Analyze examples of business correspondence in English.
4. Summarize the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence in English.
5. Analyze examples of business correspondence in Chinese.
6. Summarize the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence in Chinese.
7. Summarize the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence.
The object of this thesis is the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence. Firstly, the theoretical part of this thesis begins with the introduction to linguistics, followed by the two concepts - speech act theory and direct and indirect speech acts, which lay the pragmatic foundation for the analysis of pragmatic peculiarities later on. Then the introduction to the definition, classification and make-up of business correspondence comes. Chapter 2 contains example analyses. After analyses, we draw conclusions about the pragmatic peculiarities of business correspondence. All the examples in this thesis are taken from the SE Baidu, the book English-Chinese The Complete Applying Documents of Foreign Trade by Wang Ping and the master’s thesis The Business Letter Writing Mutual Reference Research Between China and America by Huo Wang.
Speech act theory is a philosophical theory of language. In the early twentieth century, the focus of Western philosophy shifted to linguistics. In the 1950s John Austin gave a lecture at Oxford University in which he proposed a theory of speech acts. The speech act theory was later developed by Searle and others. Besides speech act theory, Searle introduced the concept of indirect speech acts, which is of vital importance to this study. And Searle also distinguished between five broad categories of speech acts according to their intended meaning. They are assertive, expressive, commissive, directive and declaration.
With the integration of the global economy, international trade is booming and trade between countries is becoming closer, which has greatly increased the frequency of correspondence between people engaged in trade and commerce in different countries. Business correspondence is a form of written communication between companies and enterprises on various business occasions or in the course of business transactions. It has many forms and kinds. Its main purpose is to establish economic and trade relations.
Business correspondence mainly consists of direct speech acts, while indirect speech acts only make up a small percentage and are used to convey negative messages. Based on the five broad categories of speech acts according to their intended meaning by Searle, assertives are the most common type of speech acts in business correspondence for most of the materials are factual, either describing a product or a situation. While declarations are the least because they are rarely used to convey messages and are common only in announcements. In general, business correspondence is concise, precise, strict and polite, no matter it is in English or Chinese.
