A Corpus-driven Study Of Evaluative Patterns In Letters To Shareholders Of Chinese And American Enterprises

Letters to shareholders,as one of the most important genres of business discourse,bears the responsibilities of enterprises to establish a positive image and build a bridge of communication with current and potential shareholders.In this sense,evaluation is of critical significance in this genre,because it offers a framework for writers to project themselves into the discourse by signaling their attitude towards both the content and readers of the text.In light of the importance of evaluation,the present study employs a local grammar approach to explore evaluative orientations of letters to shareholders of Chinese and American enterprises.Based on the corpus-driven method,the present study selects letters to shareholders from 2014 to 2018 issued by Chinese and American enterprises listed in Fortune 500 to build two contrastive corpora aiming to explore how evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ that and it v-link ADJ to-inf are employed in letters to shareholders of Chinese and American enterprises.More specifically,it attempts to:(1)describe the frequency and distribution of evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ that and it v-link ADJ to-inf;(2)explore evaluative orientations of these patterns;and(3)account for the observed patterns.The results show that: at the micro level,American enterprises employ more abundant evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ that/to-inf than their Chinese counterparts.Further,both Chinese and American enterprises prefer to employ the evaluative pattern it v-link ADJ to-inf rather than employ the evaluative pattern it v-link ADJ that.It is noteworthy that the evaluative pattern it v-link ADJ to-inf is highly associated with the evaluative meanings of NECESSITY,DIFFICULTY,POSSIBILITY and DESIRABILITY,whereas the evaluative pattern it v-link ADJ that is mainly associated with the evaluative meaning of CERTAINTY.Besides,sentence patterns it is clear that(CERTAINTY),it is important to(NECESSITY),itis easy/hard/difficult to(DIFFICULTY),it is impossible to(POSSIBILITY)and it would be desirable to(DESIRABILITY)are frequently applied to construct texts of letters to shareholders.At the meso level,from the perspective of attitude,positive attitude is dominant and negative attitude is secondary in evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ that/to-inf,among which American enterprises are more inclined to deliver positive attitude than their Chinese peers,whereas Chinese enterprises are more likely to express negative attitude than their American counterparts.Moreover,positive attitude is closely associated with the evaluative meanings of CERTAINTY,NECESSITY and DESIRABILITY,while negative attitude is principally associated with the evaluative meanings of POSSIBILITY and DIFFICULTY.On the other hand,judgement and appreciation take up all attitude resources in evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ that/to-inf and no affect is found,because the chairman or CEO of an enterprise tends to evaluate a certain aspect of the enterprise according to a certain stand,reducing completely emotional expression,so as to make the evaluation more persuasive.From the perspective of engagement,dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion exist in these patterns simultaneously,among which counter resources are frequently used to close the dialogic space,whereas entertain resources are often applied to open it.More specifically,counter resources but,although and however,are frequently used to challenge,avoid or constrain other stances or voices,whereas entertain resources we believe,we think,and if-clauses are often applied to contain other stances or voices.From the perspective of graduation,force: intensification is commonly performed in these patterns.Narrowly,pre-modification,comparative/superlative of an adjective and maximization are popular realizations of graduation in evaluative patterns it v-link ADJ to-inf/that.At the macro level,differences in evaluative orientations between Chinese and American letters to shareholders are principally caused by cultural factors and personal factors behind them.From the perspectives of five cultural dimensions,under the culture of larger power distance,higher uncertainty avoidance,more collectivism,femininity and long-term orientation,Chinese enterprises employ less evaluative resources and patterns,incline to express the evaluative meaning of POSSIBILITY in letters to shareholders and more likely to use negative attitude.On the contrary,under the culture of smaller power distance,lower uncertainty avoidance,more individualism,masculinity and short-term orientation,American enterprises employ more evaluative resources and patterns,incline to express the evaluative meaning of CERTAINTY in letters to shareholders and less likely to use negative attitude.On the other hand,personal factors like individual style and English proficiency of writers arouse differences in evaluative orientations as well.In general,the present study is not only of academic value but also practical one.On the one hand,it is pioneering to propose a local grammar approach to investigate letters to shareholders,which fills the gaps of business discourse research in the respect of local grammar of evaluation.On the other hand,it offers some insights and references for the English writing of letters to shareholders.