A Contrastive Study On Metadiscourse In Business Emails Written By Native English Speakers And BELF Speakers

Email is one of the most widely used communication channels nowadays and its importance in business settings is beyond doubts.Since a lot of business purposes between different parties are achieved through emails,persuasion in the language aspect,which can be achieved by metadiscourse,penetrates business email discourse.However,though it is useful and of great importance in business negotiation,metadiscourse’s persuasive function in email discourse doesn’t receive due attention from previous studies.Moreover,BELF has become the common language of choice among speakers who come from different linguacultural backgrounds in business settings,and its characteristics and focuses in business settings are quite unique and different from that spoken by native English speakers.Therefore,the author,interested in the persuasive functions of metadiscourse in business emails for negotiation written by BELF speakers and native English speakers,aims to compare the ways native English speakers and BELF speakers achieve persuasion through metadiscourse in business emails for negotiation.Referring to Hyland’s metadiscourse model and Aristotle’s rhetoric model,the study employs both quantitative and qualitative analysis on 394 authentic business emails(200from BELF speakers for Corpus A and 194 from native English speakers for Corpus B)to research into the similarities and differences between metadiscourse features used by native English speakers and BELF speakers,the ways how native English speakers and BELF speakers realize persuasion through metadiscourse respectively,and the reasons why native English speakers and BELF speakers differ or show similarities in their choices on metadiscourse in business emails.It is found in this thesis that,firstly,there is a statistical difference in the use of frame markers,attitude markers,boosters,hedges,engagement markers and evidentials between the two corpora,with the first two subcategories used in a significantly different way.The preference for each subcategory in the two corpora varies largely because the ten subcategories’ rank are different in the two corpora.Secondly,native English speakers,preferring boosters and hedges which are more frequently used than BELF speakers,show more emphasis on enhancing ethos.Though BELF speakers focus slightly more on pathos,it can be inferred that native English speakers focus more on using attitude markers for affection expressions while BELF speakers prefer to address the email recipients directly in order to highlight recipients’ presence.Logos receives nearly balanced attention from both BELF speakers and native English speakers.Lastly,factors concerning field(e.g.business negotiation as the main purpose of communication)and factors concerning mode(e.g.email as the communication channel)leads to the fact that self mention,code glosses,transition markers and endophoric markers are used in a similar way in both corpora.However,factors concerning tenor(e.g.role status and social relationship)and the language code concerning mode help to explain the reasons why boosters,hedges and attitude markers are more preferred by native English speakers and why evidentials and frame markers are more frequently used by BELF speakers.It is believed that this thesis has theoretical,practical and pedagogical significance.Theoretically speaking,it is meaningful in enriching the metadiscourse research on business discourse and BELF,and contributing to a more comprehensive list of potential MDs in the email genre.Practically speaking,the findings may lend some practical implications on email writing to business practitioners.Pedagogical,contrast and comparison in the thesis between 394 naturally-occurring emails may reveal how English is actually used in authentic business settings,thus giving implications to the teaching of English business email writing which may otherwise solely focus on the standard English model used by native English speakers.