A Study On The Application Of Politeness Strategies To English Business Letters

Politeness is not only a cultural phenomenon, but also a linguistic phenomenon, pervading in almost every aspect of human life. Politeness is a significant means by which people can obtain successful communication. Ever since the early 1970s, dozens of theories have been proposed to explain politeness as a linguistic phenomenon, among which the Politeness Principle of Leech and the Face-saving Theory of Brown & Levinson are two most influential theories in the pragmatic field.English Business letters are an important means and play a significant role in business activities. English business letters are regarded as the lifeline of modern business communication. The significance of English business letters determines the application of politeness strategies, that is, what language forms are used to present the politeness of the English business letters.By taking English business letters as the carrier, and Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown & Levinson's Face-saving Theory as the theoretical foundation, this thesis studies the application of politeness strategies to good-news English business letters, bad-news English business letters and persuasive English business letters aiming at exploring the application of politeness strategies in the three types of English business letters and also the politeness theory reflected in the politeness strategies, to make the business communication more effective. The thesis provides a descriptive analysis on the application of politeness strategies in the three types of English business letters, based on thirty English business letters collected from the books and website concerning English business letter writing. The study is made from three aspects, which are lexical level, syntactic level and discourse level. It is found that some politeness strategies are applied to the English business letters in order to get successful communication. However, the application of politeness strategies is variously manifested, among which similarities and differences coexist. Hopefully, this thesis can be of some help and give some inspiration to business people working on English business letter writing as well as those teachers involved in teaching of English business letter writing.