英语专业毕业论文---礼貌原则在商务英语写作中的应用.doc

临沂大学外国语学院本科毕业论文2012届 分类号： 单位代码 ：10452临沂大学毕业论文（设计）礼貌原则在商务英语写作中的应用姓 名 学 号 年 级 专 业 系（院） 指导教师 2012年 4 月 20 日临沂大学外国语学院本科毕业论文Politeness Principle and its Application in Business English WritingA Thesis Submittedto Foreign Languages School of Linyi Universityin Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsBySupervisor： April 20, 2012iiAcknowledgementsFirst of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Jia Yongqing, for his support, patience, and enlightenment throughout my academic program, and for spending so much time and efforts in reading and revising this thesis. His insightful advice and professional guidance is essential to the completion of this thesis.Also my heart felt thanks go to all the teachers and classmates who have helped me during my four-year study in the Linyi University. Thank them for their generosity and kindness in helping me when I met with difficulties. Without them, this thesis could not have been completed.Last but not least, I would like to say thanks to my parents and my brother for their love care, support and encouragement. AbstractBusiness letters are the letters which can be used to contact different economic bodies in trading. They are used in special field with its own distinctive forms, which can be used for testimonials. But business letters should pay more attention to the social etiquette. With the development of economics, business letters have become an important way to communicate. By sending business letters to each other, we can exchange information, contact business, negotiate and solve the problems existed in trading, and also promote friendship. Because of its characters and functions, in business letters, politeness should be paid more attention. English business correspondence is one of the basic ways of business communication, which functions as not only a useful means to exchange information but also an important tool to build and enhance business relations, thus requires a high degree of politeness. It is necessary for us to study the politeness principle and its application in business writing.Key words: politeness principles, business letters, applicationiv摘要商业信函是各经济主体之间往来的以经济贸易为主要内容的各种信件。它具有业务性强、凭证效用、格式独特和讲究礼节的特点。随着社会经济的迅猛发展，商业信函逐渐成为人们在经济领域内的一种重要的交际手段，通过它人们可以交流信息、联系业务、洽谈贸易、磋商、处理问题、传递友谊等。商业信函的特点和功能决定了商业信函中必须注重礼貌原则的运用。英文商务信函是商务交流的一种重要方式，不仅具有传递信息的功能，还担负着建立、加强业务联系的重任，因此，对礼貌具有较高要求，我们也就有必要研究一下礼貌原则在商务英语写作中的应用。关键词：商业信函，礼貌原则，运用 Table of ContentsAcknowledgements3Abstract4摘要5Table of Contents6Chapter One Introduction61.1 Research Background61.2 Politeness and English Business Correspondence71.3 The importance of this thesis9Chapter Two Politeness Principle102.1 Lakoffs View of Politeness102.2 Leechs Politeness Principle122.3 Brown and Levinsons Face Theory13Chapter Three15Politeness Principle in foreign trade English correspondence in the specific application153.1 Vocabulary153.1.1 Using positive words or phrases153.1.2 Using Modal Auxiliaries163.1.3 Using You Attitude principle163.1.4 Using hedges flexibly173.2 Sentence193.2.1 Using Passive Voice193.2.2 Using conditional sentences213.2.3 Using Interrogative Sentences213.2.4 Using Subjunctive Mood22Conclusion23Bibliography24临沂大学外国语学院本科毕业论文Chapter One Introduction1.1 Research Background With the high-speed development of economy, the skills of business communication between countries in the worldwide trade are very important. Whether trade negotiations succeed or not depends largely on the use of language. A good business letter should enable to obtain the expected results. It requires both sides in this particular context have the strategy to express different opinions, and make his point easy to let each other accept, so that they own the advantage in the conflict compared with the key aspects to occupy the dominant position, eventually led to trade cooperation smoothly. But due to both sides in the trade have conflict side and cooperative side: both of them in cooperation with each other at the same time, tries hard to win the maximum benefits. When business communication steps to the stage of conflict, it should be better to make a good strategic use of language. The proper use of politeness principles can reflect the friendship, respect, understanding from the sender to the recipient, and reduce the degree of weakening on the other face on the level of threat to leave oneself adequate leeway, meet each others psychological needs, so as to achieve efficient communication purpose.1.2 Politeness and English Business CorrespondencePoliteness, as a universal phenomenon existing in any language community and permeating in every aspect of an individuals everyday life, has aroused great interests many linguists. Ever since the early 1970s, dozens of theories have been proposed explain politeness as a linguistic phenomenon. But surprisingly, when coming to simple question of What is Politeness? , there is no explicit and definite answer. Held describes this linguistic phenomenon as a definitionally fuzzy and empirically difficult area (1992:131). However, in spite of all the arguments and disagreements, all the definitions of politeness to some extent and from different angles present the essence of politeness, among which the following views are the most influential ones:20Lakoff argues that politeness is used for reaffirming and relationships(1973:298). According to her, Politeness is a system of strengthening interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange. Leech defines politeness from the perspective side and proposes that it is used to create and maintain harmonious interactions (1983). Fraser and Nolan (1981) describe politeness as a set of constraints of verbal behavior. Brown and Levinson (1987) consider politeness as forms of behavior that allow communication to take place between potentially aggressive partners. They define politeness as a redressive action taken to counter-balance the disruptive effect of face-threatening acts.From all the above-mentioned definitions given by dominant linguists we can see that linguists are trying to answer the seemingly simple while essentially complicated question of What is politeness. Though up till now there has not been a uniform answer to it, all the above-mentioned definitions do contribute to some extent to explaining conclusion essence of politeness. From these definitions we may draw a politeness is not only an important means of conveying information, but also an important way to avoid conflict, tone down potential aggression and ensure smooth interaction. Simply speaking, politeness is a set of patterns to show the consideration for others and to achieve harmony in communication.Business correspondence, as a basic means of business communication, plays an irreplaceable role in every aspect of the economic activities. It serves as an effective way to exchange information. It helps build and maintain harmonious business relationships. Traditional business correspondence by mail also serves as the legitimate written contract fully recognized by the courts and part of a companys permanent record. Without business correspondence, most of the routine business activities cannot proceed successfully.Advances in science and technology have gradually eliminated the distance of time and space and greatly contributed to easier and more frequent business interaction. With the globalization of the world economy, the popularity of the Internet and the widespread use of new technologies in telecommunication, English business correspondence gets its rebirth and extends its realm of transmission. It does not only refer to the traditional letters any more, but also includes emails and facsimiles. The form of transmission varies, but the essence remains.As a kind of goal-oriented writing, business correspondence aims to achieve particular communicative goals in business transaction. Basically speaking, a business letter is written for three purposes: to inform, i.e. to convey large amount of information in order to complete the day-to-day operations of the business; to influence, i.e. to influence the readers attitude and prompt to react favorably, like promoting a product; and to entertain, which means to show goodwill to the reader, give a good impression and maintain friendly relationship between the both parties of a business. Among the three basic purposes, the third one is mainly realized through showing politeness.A business letter stands not only for the writer, but also for the image of the whole company. Besides delivering the literal business information, business letters also convey implicit interpersonal information between lines. A well-written business letter with good manners shows sincerity, consideration and goodwill to the business partner, which builds and enhances the harmonious business relation, thus facilitates the business communication, however, a poorly written business letter with bad manners may impress the business partner as insincere, arrogant and lack of respect, which does harm to the rapport and at last damages the business relation.To a great extent, how to say is as important as what to say and most of the time, how to say is mainly decided for the consideration of politeness. Writers of business letters choose the way of expression carefully and employ various techniques to achieve politeness to the utmost in order to facilitate successful business communication and realize the ultimate goal of gaining profit. 1.3 The importance of this thesis Courtesy or politeness is an indispensable principle in English business letter writing, but it is very complicated for it is often influenced by various factors and is quite often implied or hidden between the lines, so it is not easy for business letter writing users to master and handle this principle. In order to solve this problem and find the basic rules of politeness phenomenon in English letters, the author conducts this study.The present study aims to explore what politeness principles are applied in English business letters, in what way they are applied and for what reasons they are applied in this way, so as to find the hidden rules of being polite in business letters, and thus improve the level of English business writing.Writing an English letter is one of the essential skills engaged in foreign trade. In order to improve the skill of writing business English letter, one must grasp of writing principles and ways of writing used in business English letter. In this paper, according to the Leechs politeness theory, the author makes a discussion of business English writing in how the specific application of politeness principle to improve the skills of business English writing, from the two aspects of vocabulary and sentence patterns This study is expected to help business people and English business writing users to handle politeness in business letters in a more effective way.Chapter Two Politeness Principle2.1 Lakoffs View of PolitenessFrom Frasers point of view, Lakoff is one of the first to use Grices Conversational Principles to explain politeness and consider politeness from conversational-maxim point of view. When referring to the conflict between clarity and politeness, Lakoff (1973:297-298) states: Politeness usually supersedes: it is considered more important in a conversation to avoid offense than to achieve clarity. This make sense, since in most informal conversations, actual communication of important ideas is secondary to merely reaffirming and strengthening relationships. Lakoff (1973) views politeness as a device used to reduce or avoid friction in personal interaction. She also proposes three maxims of politeness from the perspective of the speaker.Dont imposeUsed when formal/impersonal politeness is requiredGive optionsUsed when informal politeness is requiredMake H feel goodUsed when intimate politeness is required(Lakoff, 1973 qtd. in Fraser,1990:224)She later reformulates the rules of politeness as follows:Formality: keep aloofDeference: give optionsCamaraderie: show sympathy(Lakoff 1973:65)According to Lakoff, the degree of politeness depends on the speakers assessment of certain situations. On comparatively formal occasions, the speaker should avoid putting any imposition on the hearer and should be in accordance with social norms in his behavior to keep the formal atmosphere. In informal situations where the speaker and the hearer, though not intimates, have equal power and status, the speaker should choose to give the hearer options, so as to avoid losing his positive face(its quite possible that the hearer may disagree with him/her).At last, “make the hearer feel “good” is mainly applied among intimates. In conclusion, Lakoff views politeness as avoidance of offense and a lubricator in communication to maintain harmonious relations between the speaker and the hearer. In fact, the maxims set by Lakoff have some relationship with the face-saving view held by Brown & Levinson. “Dont impose” and “give option” can be seen as preserving both the hearers and the speakers negative face(to be unimpeded);on the other hand, “make the hearer feel “good” has something to do with positive politeness, which will be further discussed in the following section. Lakoffs rules of politeness are a great leap in politeness research. In other words, she extends the range of this research. However, politeness phenomena can hardly be explained and defined by some arbitrary rules as Lakoff has proposed. Furthermore, she also fails to define the terms she uses to formulate the rules. Lakoffs view of politeness is in accordance with the politeness concerns in bad-news business letters, where the basic need of being polite surmounts the need of clarity.2.2 Leechs Politeness PrincipleBy putting forward his Politeness Principle, Leech establishes himself as another key contributor to the research on politeness. Leech (1983) contends that the Gricean framework is inadequate and introduces the Politeness Principle in addition to Grices Cooperative Principle with a number of maxims. He argues that the Cooperative Principle itself cannot give an explanation of the relationship between sense and force, whereas there are a set of maxims and sub-maxims that guide and constrain the conversation of rational people. Leechs Politeness Principle can be stated as follows: other things being equal , minimize the expression of beliefs which are unfavorable to the hearer and at the same time(less important) maximize the expression of beliefs which are favorable to the hearer. Modeling himself after Grices Cooperative Principle, Leech (1983:132) sums up six maxims of the Politeness Principle as follows: ()TACT MAXIM(in impositives and commissives) (a)Minimize cost to other (b)Maximize benefit to other()GENEROSITY MAXIM(in impositves and commisives)(a)Minimize benefit to self(b)Maximize cost to self()APPROBATION MAXIM(in expressives and assertives)(a)Minimize praise of self(b)Maximize praise of other()MODESTY MAXIM(in expressives and assertives)(a)Minimize praise of self(b)Maximize dispraise of self()AGREEMENT MAXIM(in assertives)(a)Minimize disagreement between self and other(b)Maximize agreement between self and other()SYMPATHY MAXIM(in assertives)(a)Minimize antipathy between self and other(b)Maximize sympathy between self and otherAccording to Leech, Tact Maxim is the most important maxim in English speaking countries. Since the primary language used in international business correspondence is English, Tact Maxim is thus of special significance. In conflict situations, the function of the Tact Maxim is a negative one: it is a means of avoiding conflict. The action of this maxim is to cause us to suppress, to play down, to hedge, beliefs which are costly to the reader or hearer (Leech 1983:104). 2.3 Brown and Levinsons Face TheoryBrown and Levinson collaboratively published an article entitled Universals in Language usage: politeness phenomena. And in 1978, they developed this article into a book Politeness: some universals in language usage. In this book, they defined the notion of politeness in terms of the face from a social-cultural point of view. According to Brown and Levinson, the face here refers to public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself and something that is emotionally invested, and that can be lost, maintained, or enhanced, and must be constantly attended to in interaction(Brown & Levinson, 1987: 61).social relationships, people have to acknowledge and show They said that in order to enter into an awareness self-image, the sense of self, of the people that are addressed. Face is the notions of politeness. To be polite is to be face-caring. of the face, the public kernel element in folk notions of politeness. To be polite is to be face-caring.Brown and Levinson define the face into positive face and negative face. A negative face is the want to be unimpeded by others, the maintaining right of independence, the freedom of action within ones own territory, or the