Politeness And Its Manifestations In Business Correspondence

In the past decades, politeness research has captivated many linguists in the field of sociolinguistics, pragmatics and sociology. The publication of a series of relevant works on politeness fully demonstrates the vital importance of politeness and its strategies in social interactions. However, for quite a long time, politeness researches mainly focus on oral communication and the data collected for analysis are, most frequently, fragments of daily conversation. Actually, the politeness model proposed by Brown and Levinson and Leech's Politeness Principle can be extended to the interpretation of the politeness phenomena and the manifestations of politeness strategies in written discourse. As a specific form of communication, business correspondence is not only a means of conveying information, but also a means of establishing friendship and attracting clients or customers among business corporations. Business correspondence is closely related to both the writer and the reader's benefits. In fact, it is not a one-sided product of the writer like some other forms of written discourse, but a joint product of both parties during the interaction. Politeness and politeness strategies are important motivating and mitigating forces in business letter writing. Different linguistic forms may reflect different degree of politeness. The focus of this dissertation is on how to realize politeness with various politeness strategies in business correspondence and at the same time to fulfill the writer's communicative goal. According to Brown and Levinson's face theory, business correspondence can be classified into four categories based on its effects on the reader's face: routine business letters, good-news business letters, bad-news business letters and persuasive business letters. Owing to its irrelevance to the reader's face, routine business letters will not be included in the research and analysis in this dissertation. Most of the politeness researches on business correspondence before put emphasis on bad-news business letter writing because the inherent face-threatening nature of bad-news business letters and the basic need to be of good manners are in conflicts. It is safe to say that the need to be polite surmounts conveying the bad news. However, the author of this dissertation argues that improper organization and diction of business letters will decrease the degree of politeness in good-news business letters. Persuasive business letters, with their imposition on the reader's negative face, require a certain degree of politeness. Persuasive business letters are aimed to fulfill some specific communicative goals, such as to make the reader take actions or to influence the reader's decision, therefore politeness and the efficiency of information conveying interact to obtain the best possible results. Generally speaking, Brown and Levinson's politeness strategies are realized in the process of business letter writing to some degree, and at the same time Leech's Politeness Principle is also carefully observed in the writing of business correspondence. This dissertation is aimed to analyze the manifestations of politeness as well as politeness strategies in business correspondence so as to see how people in the business world understand the importance of politeness in business letter writing and use politeness strategies in a more efficient way. Moreover, the conclusions of this dissertation may hopefully be of some help to those business English teachers in their teaching practice.