A Genre-based Contrastive Study On English Profiles Of Chinese And American Food Companies

Based on Bhatia’s genre analysis, this thesis adopts a three-space model as the theoretical framework. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches, aided by two statistic tools Antconc and Tree Tagger, are used in the research to make a contrastive study on English profiles of Chinese and American food companies so as to find out their similarities and differences in the aspects of linguistic features, move structures and socio-cultural factors.In textual space, TTR of English profiles of Chinese food companies is higher than that of American food companies; Chinese food companies pay attention the group while American food companies pay attention to the individuals; American food companies use more proper nouns, modal verbs, comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs and wh-words than Chinese food companies; In terms of tense and voice, Chinese food companies use more past tense, future tense and passive voice than American food companies.In socio-cognitive space, the English profiles of both Chinese and American food companies share the similar eight moves: Overview(O), Management Team(MT) / Leadership(L), Products and Services(P&S), Capability Illustration(CI), Culture(C), Investor Relations(IR), Social Responsibility(SR) and Further Cooperation(FC). The obligatory moves of English profiles of Chinese food companies are Overview(O), Further Cooperation(FC), Products and Services(P&S) and Capability Illustrations(CI) while the obligatory moves of English profiles of American food companies are Products and Services(P&S) and Further Cooperation(FC). English profiles of American food companies have the step Nutrition and Health(N&H) which is absent in Chinese. The move Management Team(MT) in Chinese food companies’ profiles is called Leadership(L) in American food companies’ profiles and Human Resources(HR) in Chinese is called Careers(C) in American, which reflects the different habits between Chinese and American languages. The most obvious difference of the comparatively fixed sequences is the place of Products and Services(P&S) which could be at the first or last but one place in English profiles of American food companies.In socio-cultural space, the professional and sociol-cultural causes of the differences between EPCFCs and EPAFCs could be explained from the five aspects: high-context culture and Low-context culture, high power distance and low power distance, Collectivism and Individualism, high uncertainty avoidance and Low uncertainty avoidance and developing and developed.Based on the differences and causes, the author offers 4 suggestions for the writing of English profiles of Chinese food companies: the language should be simple and direct; the use of proper nouns, modal verbs, comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs and wh-words could be effective to attract the potential customers; Chinese food companies should pay attention to the move Nutrition and Health(N&H), Investor Relations(IR), Social Responsibility(SR) and Careers(C) and they should pay due attention to the customers and employees rather than the benefit; Chinese food companies should be brave to innovate in move structure so as to highlight their unique features. In brief, the writing of English profiles of Chinese food companies should not only approach to the English-speaking habits in language, but also bear the distinguishing features of China and the companies themselves in move structure.