A Study Of Politeness Strategies In English Business Letters

The present thesis analyzes the realization and application of politeness strategies in English business letters. It makes a number of generalizations about the specific linguistic realizations of politeness and how politeness strategies are applied in different types of business correspondences.Based upon the theoretical framework of Brown and Levinson, this thesis probes into how politeness strategies are applied in different types of business letters. The present research presents an analysis of the linguistic realization of the politeness strategies in English business letters in terms of lexicon, tense, voice and syntax, etc., with an emphasis on the most frequently used positive and negative strategies.In light of Leech's categorizing model of speech act, this thesis classifies business letters into collaborative, convivial, competitive and conflictive letters and probes into how positive and negative strategies are distributed in the four categories of business letters. Chi-square statistical results reveal that the four types of business letters tend to show clear differences in using positive and negative strategies. There is a fairly even distribution of positive and negative strategies in collaborative contexts. In convivial letters, positive strategies claim higher frequency than negative strategies, while in competitive letters negative strategies are more frequently adopted than positive strategies. When it comes to conflictive contexts, we see a markedly larger overall percentage of negative strategies than positive ones. Through analyzing politeness strategies in the four categories of business letters in terms of frequency, distribution and conditions of their application, it is found that the use of positive and negative strategies is related to the imposing degree of major illocutionary speech act in business letters. Positive strategies decline and negative strategies rise with the imposition of major illocutionary speech act increasing in different business letters, which attempts to give insights for further studies in English business letters.The present research is helpful for people to better employ politeness strategies in business communication and improve their writing ability and communicative competence. It is also hoped that this thesis will be of some help for teachers in the teaching of business English.