The Register Analysis Of The International Business Letters

With the deepening of reform and opening-up to the outside world and theentrance into the WTO, enterprises in China are getting more and more directlyinvolved in international trade activities. The international business letter is themedium and link in the process of the international business communication and itplays a vital role in the promotion of worldwide economy.This thesis, within the framework of register theory, with the aid of the threemetafunctions of Systemic-Functional Grammar, namely, the ideational, interpersonaland textual function, together with the reliable language statistics in the internationalbusiness letters, aims to make an analysis of the register features of quotation lettersand counter-offer letters by virtue of the analyses on the transtivity, mood, modality,and thematic structure in order to get their respective register characteristics anddifferences. Some findings are gotten at last:With regard to the field, on the basis of the analysis of transitivity, there are somefollowing findings: the most frequently used process types in quotation andcounter-offer letters are material, relational, mental and verbal processes. And, materialprocess both in quotation and counter-offer letters occupies the highest rank. Itrepresents the goings-on in the outside world of both parties. The relational process isthe second most frequently used in quotation letters while the mental process incounter-offer letters. The more employment of relational process in quotation letters isto help the seller party introduce their products and conditions.With regard to the tenor, on the mood, the declarative mood and imperative moodoccur more frequently both in quotation and counter-offer letters. And the rate of thedeclarative mood employed in both kinds of letters is the highest. As business letters,this indicates that on one hand, illustration of current facts is the main point and on theother hand, the both parties have an equal social position. The interrogative mood onlyoccurs in counter-offer letters. The speech function of interrogative mood is to ask forinformation, and it can help the client party express their thoughts and doubts better.On the modality, modulation type occurs more frequently than modalization type inboth quotation and counter-offer letters. The modulation types are used to express theobligation for the addressee to do something or inclination of addresser to dosomething. It is helpful for the seller party and client party to realize their respectiverights and duties.With regard to the mode, on the basis of the Theme+Rheme structure, there are some following findings: firstly, the unmarked theme is used more frequently thanmarked theme, which indicates that the unmarked theme can express the content ofbusiness letters better. Secondly, both textual theme and interpersonal theme incounter-offer letters occur more frequently than in quotation letters. Thirdly, whether inquotation letters or in counter-offer letters, textual theme occurs much more frequentlythan interpersonal theme, which indicates that textual theme is used more to create acoherent discourse which helps the seller party and client party to appreciate the realfacts and their respective attitudes.The contrast analysis of the quotation and counter-offer letters within the registertheory aims to help people master the register characteristics of business letters. Thiswill be helpful for people to understand and write the business letters effectively, andthen facilitate the international business activities.