A Contrastive Study On The Cover Letters In Chinese And English From The Perspective Of Rhetorical Structure Theory

Rhetorical Structure Theory(RST) is a relatively new theory originated in 1980 s for text generation and analysis. From the perspective of function, RST aims to discover the discourse structure by analyzing the hierarchical relations above clauses. RST can be applied to various kinds of texts with different length and in different genres. The types of texts analyzed based on RST include argumentative text, political speech, public speaking, English composition, news discourse, instruction manual, travel guide, menu and so on.As a type of writing for daily use, cover letter is of broad application and significant social function. RST provides a relatively new perspective for the analysis of cover letters. Analyzing the discourse structure within the framework of RST bears some useful implication and guidance to teaching, learning and writing of cover letters.This study applies RST to a contrastive analysis of 20 cover letters, with the aim to discover similarities and differences of the rhetorical relations in the cover letters under different Chinese and western cultures. And the underlying causes attributed to similarities and differences are also explored. The following are the results and findings drawn from the study:First of all, not all the rhetorical relations are employed in the cover letters. The major rhetorical relations applied in the cover letters in Chinese include: Elaboration relation(27.19%), Purpose relation(12.28%), Justify relation(7.89%), List relation(7.02%), Evidence relation(6.14%), Background relation(6.14%), Motivation relation(5.26%) and Preparation relation(5.26%). The predominant rhetorical relations used in the cover letters in English cover Elaboration relation(36.92%), Purpose relation(13.85%), Evidence relation(11.54%), Justify relation(9.23%), Motivation relation(9.23%), Condition relation(5.38%). Secondly, the predominant rhetorical relations used both in Chinese and English cover letters are Elaboration relation, Purpose relation, Justify relation, Evidence relation and Motivation relation. The predominant rhetorical relations appeared only in the cover letters in Chinese are List relation, Background relation and Preparation relation, while Condition relation is the major rhetorical relation that only appears in the cover letters in English. Thirdly, although Evidence relation and Motivation relation are both predominant rhetorical relations in the two types of cover letters, the frequency of them in English cover letters are much higher than that in the Chinese cover letters.At last, the underlying causes for the above similarities and differences are explored from genre perspective and cultural perspective.