浅析商务英语中的语用原则.docVIP

本科毕业论文（设计）开题报告选 题On The Principles of Pragmatics in Business English浅析商务英语中的语用原则院 系外语系专 业英语学生姓名指导教师本选题的意义及国内外发展状况：During practices of commerce, the parties involved, usually, are in desperate hope of realizing their prospective goals, be it establishing working relations, asking quotations or making a complaint. Such an anticipation often needs good business communication strategies, which are always easily said than done. More books and papers have come out to bail business-related people out of such a dilemma. Since business letter is the most frequently adopted means during business communication, most studies, then, are intended to probe into how business people can succeed in composing effective letters. The domestic studies on this subject have flourished，especially vigorously since 20th century under the international globalization. Li Yajing and Zhang Deyu (2006:2-6), sum up principles of good writing strategies as seven Cs. According to them, “clearness” requires we avoid vague and ambiguous expression; “conciseness” demands we include any information that is to the point; “courtesy” expects we employ good human relation skills; “consideration” suggests we put ourselves in the readers shoes; “completeness” emphasizes we provide all the relevant information; “concreteness” hopes we make our message specific and definite; “correctness” wishes we write with grammatically right and appropriate language. Liu Zhiwei (2005), in his book, International Business Correspondence and Communications, gives a full account of the seven Cs principles with detailed guidelines. Apart from the above principles, another C, “credibility”, which argues the importance of honesty, can be found in the book of Business English Writing by Mo Zaishu (2005). Some other guiding books also well demonstrate how the “C” principles work on effective business letter.Viewed from interdisciplinary angle, more studies have been conducted on the principles in business letter writing. Much of the theoretical basis is combined with the knowledge in the filed of pragmatics. In most of the studies, two famous sets of pragmatic theories have been popularly quoted. One is Herbert Paul Grices Cooperative Principle (CP); the other is G.N.Leechs politeness principle. The CP was proposed through Graces speech in 1976 at Harvard. According to Grice, our talk exchanges are, to some degree at least, the efforts of cooperation. Participants of the talk exchange make conversational contribution by the mutually accepted direction (HuzhuangLin, 2006). The Politeness Principle was invented as a complement of the CP. Leech in his Semantics, maintains the instrumental role politeness plays during conversation. In Leechs eyes, that Grice omitted the factor of politeness during composing his CP was inappropriate. In order to study indirect speech acts, he has to expand Grice CP and took the politeness principle into account (Xing Yifu, Wu Zhenguo, 2002). Mo Zaishu (2005) elaborates his eight Cs in terms of pragmatic principles. He believes that “consideration” in business correspondence can be analyzed from the aspects of modesty maxim, sympathy maxim and agreement maxim in politeness principle; “completeness” can be analyzed in terms of Quantity maxim and Relevance maxim in CP. Zhou Ruiqi(2007) similarly thinks that the principle of “correctness” agrees with one of the maxims in CP- Quality maxim and “conciseness” reflects that of Quantity maxim. Chen Chujun(2008) explores the importance of “conciseness” from politeness perspective, proposing that the redundancy of a letter disobeys the tact maxim of politeness principle for it makes the reader suffer a lose on time. Liu Jia (2003) discusses the characteristics of written business English, advocating politeness is a more obvious feature in business letter. The present author sides with the above study of Business English (BE) from such an interdisciplinary angle. This is characterized by the definitions of pragmatics and BE. Pragmatics, a branch of linguistics, mainly concerns language in use under particular environment and “a study of how speakers use the sentences of a language to effect successful communication” (Dai Weidong, 2002:84). Longman English Dictionary Online defines business as “the activity of making money by producing or buying and selling goods, or providing services”. So BE should be such a language used in those activities. Now that BE has concrete situations and pragmatics is such a sub-discipline that places context at the first place, we are justified to believe that the study of communication principles in business English with the guidance of pragmatic knowledge is necessary. With the previous justification, a further study on BE under the help of pragmatics is then reasonable. Although many studies or researches have been done with business letter writing, the present author believes that business letter is just one important component of BE. When a business is under process, there are many procedures to go though, for instance, advancing negotiations or signing contracts. So these aspects should be given equal attention under interdisciplinary discussion. In addition, most now-available studies have given priority to Grices CP and Leechs politeness principle when talking about how pragmatic principles are related in business letter writing. While other influential theories, like Grices conversational implicature and Wilson & Sperbers Relevance Theory also have their indispensible significance in guiding communication. They may explain why sometimes to employ fuzzy and vague expressions in business correspondences is acceptable as a contradiction to what “clearness” has required. Since the study on other aspects of BE, say, business conversations , negotiations or even job application letter, is not as productive as that on business letter writing, the present author is making an attempt to touch on the validity of applying pragmatic principles in more aspects of BE. Along with the attempt, two or more pragmatic theories will be covered as complements to the CP or politeness principle. Hopefully it could bring some practical hints to business-related people.研究内容：1 Introduction2 Cooperative Principle 2.1 Introduction of Cooperative Principle2.2 Application of Cooperative Principle in Business English2.1.1 The maxim of Quality2.1.2 The maxim of Quantity2.1.3 The maxim of Relevance2.1.4 The maxim of Manner3 Conversational Implicature 3.1 Introduction of Conversational Implicature 3.2 Application of Conversational Implicature in Business English 3.2.1 The violation of the maxim of Quality 3.2.2 The violation of the maxim of Quantity3.2.3 The violation of the maxim of Relevance3.2.4 The violation of the maxim of Manner4 Politeness Strategies4.1 Brown and Levinsons Face Theory4.1.1 Introduction of Face Theory 4.1.2 Application of Face Theory in Business English4.2 Leechs Politeness Principle 4.2.1 Introduction of Politeness Principle 4.2.2 Application of Politeness Principle in Business English4.2.2.1 Tact maxim4.2.2.2 Generosity maxim4.2.2.3 Modesty maxim4.2.2.4 Approbation maxim4.2.2.5 Agreement maxim4.2.2.6 Sympathy maxim 4.3 The Well-Chosen Language in Business English under the Influence of Politeness Strategies4.3.1 The well-chosen grammar 4.3.1.1 The adoption of appropriate pronoun4.3.1.2 The adoption of subjective mood4.3.1.3 The adoption of passive voice4.3.1.4 The adoption of past tense4.3.1.5 The adoption of negative sentences4.3.2 The Employment of Fuzzy Expression5 Conclusion研究方法、手段及步骤：The writer first has studied the related materials produced by domestic and foreign experts from the Internet or in the library. Then by comparison and conclusion, the writer finds it worthy to confirm the present topic. As to the method of conducting this paper, it is mainly by case analysis or case comparison. Since BE is above said a language used in particular situations, concrete cases will help a lot. Most cases will be conversational dialogues or writing samples quoted from published BE-related textbooks or papers as research objectives. The reason why cases are needed is they visualize abstract points and discussions and pave the way for a better understanding. For example, if a point in the paper, “CP requires, in business letter writing, we express in the letter concretely rather than vaguely”, is put forward, readers will get quite confused if the author fails to demonstrate in what ways we will express concretely and in what ways we do vaguely. Thus the author will have difficulty making her point clear. But what if a case comparison is shown as follows？Our product has won several prizes.Our printer has won first prizes in four national contests within the past three years.Readers will immediately make out that the first sentence is quite vague and the second one is much preferred since it is concrete. They shall know in practical writing, in order to establish business relations or set the companys image, a more detailed description is necessary. So just as the example manifests, specific cases or samples will explicitly justify what is going to be discussed in this paper.参考