| After entering into WTO, China's economic activities with foreign countries become prosperous, especially in the last decade. Globalization of economy makes interaction between China and foreign countries unprecedentedly frequent. In the communication with foreigners, English business correspondence, as a tool of international business transaction, is widely used in our daily life, especially in the field of public relations, to exchange feelings and to handle affairs of business communications. It has no doubt that English business correspondence is a bridge which can unite two companies to operate business collaboration. Whether the English business correspondence is written well not only influences the writer's professional quality and the company's image,but also the successes of trade transaction. Therefore, to the people who are engaged in foreign affairs, it is necessary to master the business vocabulary, relative grammar, language features and writing skills about English business correspondence. English business correspondence is a kind of communication, which refers to the correspondence used in business transactions. The participants separated by time and space can not see each other and do face-to-face communication, therefore,all the communication is undertaken through written forms. Different from literary discourses, English business correspondence does not require elegant language like poems and essays. Not the same as personal letters whose content and style are relatively casual, English business correspondence lies in formal language and style, especially has limits on language. Scholars are interested in researching the language of English business correspondence. They summarize characteristics of English business correspondence's language from 3Cs (clarity, conciseness and courtesy) to 7Cs (completeness, clarity, concreteness, conciseness, courtesy, consideration and correctness). Not like face-to-face conversation, English business correspondence can save time and it is a written record which has strong legal validity. To some extent, it regulates the rights and obligations of two parties. What's more, English business correspondence can stimulate the collaboration of companies. Though English business correspondence is fundamental in international trade, the research in this field from the perspective of pragmatics is limited no matter in China or in foreign countries. English business correspondence has existed for hundreds of years, but not until it was in 1960s did it arouse the interest of pragmatic scholars. In the early 1960s to late 1970s, pragmatic researchers investigated the business correspondences from their own perspectives and one of these perspectives was about the application of the Cooperative Principle in English business correspondences.In 1967, the American philosopher of language, H. P. Grice delivered his famous William James Lectures at Harvard. He suggests that the participants in a conversation always obey certain principle that can contribute to an effective and efficient interaction. This principle is called "the Cooperative Principle" (the CP). He also established four maxims under the CP:the maxim of quality, the maxim of quantity, the maxim of relevance and the maxim of manner. Grice's basic idea is that in a communication, participants are expected to notice the CP and its four maxims. Besides, Grice distinguished between principle and maxim. In his opinion, principle is the basic rule that a successful and smooth conversation should observe, such as the Cooperative Principle. However, participants could violate the maxim under the CP to express further meaning and to get their goals. These further meanings are considered as conversational implicatures. In 1980, the CP was first introduced to China by Chinese pragmatic researcher Hu Zhuanglin. It is in his works Pragmatics that Hu first mentioned the CP and its four maxims. Since then, more and more discussions and researches focusing on the CP have been carried out by Chinese researchers like He Ziran and He Zhaoxiong. Relative articles spring up like mushrooms. The introduction of the CP to China promotes development of pragmatics in China. On the one hand, through the research of the CP, Chinese researchers know pragmatics further than before; but on the other hand, this research is the foundation stone for the future of pragmatics. In the international business communication, the Cooperative Principle is the necessary principle to abide by. In fact, there is a wide application of the CP in English business correspondence. Firstly, the maxim of quality tries to make your contribution with true words. No errors and lies appear in business correspondence, because incorrect information costs time and money. Secondly, the maxim of quantity matches completeness in English business correspondence. The maxim of quantity is to make your contribution as informative as required and not to make your contribution more informative than is required. No matter which part of a correspondence is omitted, the correspondence is not complete and informative. Thirdly, the maxim of relevance is also applied in English business correspondence. As Sperber and Wilson suggested, the lower the degree of relevance is, the greater the processing effort should be made to achieve effective communication, and vice versa. Finally, the maxim of manner requires correspondence perspicuous which is consistent with the clarity and conciseness in English business correspondence.In this thesis,Grice's Cooperative Principle is used to analyze English business correspondence and to look into how people establish business relationship through using the Cooperative Principle willingly and effectively.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter one is the introduction. The author explains the reason and motive to choose this topic to make a research.In chapter two, the author takes an all-round consideration of English business correspondence. The discussion covers business correspondence's definition, nature, classification, functions, etc. Then, the author introduces Grice's Cooperative Principle and its four maxims in detail. The author proves the importance of the CP and conversational implicature. This discussion is closely followed by violations of the CP. The last point is about the previous study on this topic. This chapter concentrates on the discussion of the Cooperative Principle in the following chapter. Chapter three is methodology. The author explains how to design the research and how to collect the dataAfter the introduction of pragmatic principles, the author fulfills chapter four with specific business correspondences of different genres. The author collects two kinds of correspondences to analyze:positive-news business correspondence and negative-news business correspondence. Then, the author clarifies how the CP is used in these kinds of letters through analyzing positive and negative replies in order, claim, and complaint correspondences.The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole thesis. The author presents the major findings of the CP in English business correspondence, and then demonstrates the limitation and suggestion for future study. |
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