Register Analysis Of Business Letters

With the deepening of reform and opening-up to the outside world and the entrance into the WTO, enterprises in China are getting more and more directly involved in international trade activities. As the basis of the exchange of business information, English Business Letters have won an important status in international trade. But, as business conflicts in international trade are unavoidable, English business letters of claim (LOC) and letters of settlement (LOS) are indispensable for the conclusion of a transaction or the maintenance of a fine business relationship. Most of those previous researches which are from the perspective of pragmatics, rhetoric or stylistics were only confined to sales promotion letter, sales letter, complaint letter and etc. This thesis will focus on register analysis of English business letters of claim and settlement from the perspective of Systemic-Functional Grammar (SFG), so as to find the register features of this kind of business letters. Moreover, the author hopes to prove that this method can be employed to analyze business letters and are actually effective.Chapter 1 illustrates the purpose and significance of this research and introduces the methods of data collection and approaches of data analysis, then is the brief introduction of the organization of the thesis. Chapter 2 is a literature review on the researches of business letters and the studies of register. Chapter 3 gives an account of register theory and key notions of Systemic-Functional Grammar. Chapter 4, Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 are the application of Register theory to the analysis of letters of claim and settlement from dimensions of field, tenor and mode and then is the detailed discussion. The lastChapter---Chapter 7 is the conclusion. It contains major findings, contributions and limitations of this study as well as suggestions for future researches.Through the Chapter 4----field analysis, first, we can find that there are three major obligatory elements in the claiming or settling discourse structure: Reference (R) category, Addressing the Issue (AI) category and Closing(C) category. Second, the most frequently used process types in claim letters are material, relational, verbal and mental processes. These process types are used to state what and how the claimant and the defaulter should do, to illustrate the conditions of the goods, to demand their compensation, and show their real thinking and expectations. The most frequently used process types in settlement letters are material, mental, verbal and relational processes. The frequency of mental process types in settlement letters is much higher than that in claim letters. The reason is that no matter whether you accept or reject the claims, do clarify your real attitude.Through the Chapter 5----tenor analysis, first, we can get that claimant in claim letters has the discourse power which dominates the range of the actions of defaulter. Besides, the analysis of Mood system shows that the declarative and imperative mood occurs more frequently in claim and settlement letters. The interrogative mood occurs in claim letters but not in settlement letters. The speech function of interrogative mood is to ask for information, but as a settlement letter, illustration of current conditions is the main point. Regarding Modality analysis, Modulation type occurs more frequently than Modalization type in either claim or settlement letter. The Modulation types are used to express the obligation for the addressee to do something or inclination of the addresser to do something. It clearly divides the rights and duties between claimants and'defaulters'.Through the Chapter 6----mode analysis, we can mainly find that textual theme (7.7%--50%) occurs much more frequently than interpersonal themes (6.3%--22.2%), which indicates that the textual themes are used more to create a coherent discourse which is of great help for claimant/'defaulters'to appreciate the real facts and the current status which the claimant/'defaulters'situated.Chapter 7 is the conclusion. It contains major findings, contributions and limitations of this study as well as suggestions for future research.It is hoped that this study will be conducive to future register researches and teaching of business letters.