Analysis Of Polite Language In Business Enlish E-mail Communication

With the developing of globalization, English is often used as a lingua franca in a lot ofcountries and is becoming an international language gradually. So it is quite reasonable thatbusiness English plays an important role in email interactions.Email is nowadays one of the fastest growing means of communication in businesssettings. As the most popular way of communication, it has been studied by many scholarshome and abroad from different angles. The present study aims to study the politenessphenomena in business English email communications. Politeness is a popular theme inpragmatics, which has drawn a lot of attention both in ordinary language and academic circles.In the study below, real emails between a Chinese company and its foreign customers are usedas research material. The result of data analysis indicates that politeness in business Englishemail communications has its own features. Sometimes politeness of language in these emailsbreaks the principles in previous classic politeness theories. Politeness in the emails chosen asexamples in this paper is going to be analyzed mainly based on Brown and Levinson’spoliteness theories and Grice’s cooperative principles in different kinds of dynamic contexts.In this study, qualitative method is mainly used. The researcher serves as an observeronly. The goal of this method is to be as unobtrusive and detached as possible throughout thecourse of the study. And the present research is mainly theory-driven and example-driven.The understanding of politeness gives a new perspective and exerts a powerful influenceon the linguists’ thought about meaning and communication. The present research studies theeffect of politeness in business English email communications. And it applied different kindsof politeness theories into business English email communication.