An Analysis Of Use And Functions Of Lexical Chunks In Business English Letters

Lexical chunks have the features of both lexis and grammar and are ubiquitousin language. They also play an important role in second language acquisition. In the1980s, the construction of massive corpus provided a potent tool for researches intolexical chunks. From then on, an increasing number of researchers abroad and athome began to conduct research on lexical chunks in language.Based on the categorization of lexical chunks by Nattinger and DeCarrico (2000),the thesis analyzes four categories of lexical chunks in business English letters:polywords, institutionalized expressions, phrasal constraints and sentence builders,aiming to explore the use and functions of lexical chunks in business English letters.Based on Leech’s speech act theory, the study classifies370business Englishletters in THE AMA HANDBOOK OF BUSINESS ENGLISH LETTERS published byThe AMA Association into four types, namely, competitive letters, collaborativeletters, conflictive letters and convivial letters. Ten letters from each type of businessEnglish letters are selected as samples for analysis.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to analyze the labeledlexical chunks in the40sample letters in terms of number and frequency with thefollowing findings:1. Institutionalized expressions are not found in the40selectedsamples, and the number of lexical chunks occurring in three other categories doesn’tdiffer significantly in quantity. In general, sentence builders account for the biggestproportion, followed by phrasal constraints and polywords;2. In terms of proportionof words in one category to total words in four categories of lexical chunks, sentencebuilders sentence builders also account for the largest proportion in each type ofletters;3. The frequency of lexical chunks in in the four types of business English letters is high with the occurrence of a lexical chunk every5to6words;4.Polywords contain a lot of jargons, business terminology;5. A large proportion ofsentence builders are formulaic sequences used as fixed or semi-fixed chunks of adiscourse;6. From a functional perspective, the use of lexical chunks in businessEnglish letters contributes to the accuracy and politeness of language and helpslearners to write native-like business English letters.The findings of the study provide helpful implications for business Englishteaching and learning. Teachers should increase their awareness of the importance oflexical chunks, and use authentic business English letter samples to guide students inbusiness English letter writing practice. They should also cultivate students’awareness of identifying lexical chunks in those authentic letters and promote morepractice in business English letter writing.