A Pragmatic Study Of Politeness In Complaint Letters

In the context of global economic integration,trade activities have been developing rapidly.In English business letters used by most countries in international trade,different politeness strategies are adopted according to different business situations and cultural backgrounds.This study aims at analyzing the politeness phenomena in the business letters between Chinese and German companies to find out the relationship between politeness and culture in international trade.This study adopts both qualitative and quantitative research methods,and 106 complaint emails were collected between a Chinese company where the author works and its German clients.With the corpus software Antconc,the politeness markers were identified.The politeness strategies are analyzed based on Leech’s politeness principle(PP)and Grice’s cooperative principle(CP).Hofstede’s theory of cultural dimensions and Hall’s high-context and low-context culture theory also help to explain the cultural differences behind the politeness strategies.The results show that German clients use different politeness strategies based on different contexts.CP and PP are both observed in order to solve conflicts and achieve a win-win goal.In business practice,politeness strategies of complaint letters are closely related to cultural backgrounds.Germany is in the low-context culture,and direct expressions are considered more polite.Due to the long cooperation in international trade,the Chinese company’s replies to German clients’ complaints are also influenced by the German culture.When delivering negative information,the appropriate use of politeness strategy can make both sides successfully achieve their communicative purposes in a good atmosphere.