A Study On The Understatement In Business Negotiation

Understatement is a frequently used pragmatic strategy of polite language in the discourse of business negotiation. Researchers have done and achieved a lot with respect to the understatement in daily communication from different perspectives. However, with a view to the research and interpretation of understatement in business negotiation discourse, this kind of frequently used linguistic expression was seldom referred.This thesis is a tentative study of the understatement in business negotiation and intends to answer the four questions as follows: 1. Why do negotiators often use understatement as a device, or what is the fundamental cause of understatement in business negotiation? 2. What are those types of power influencing or controlling the speech acts adopted by negotiators in business negotiation? 3. What is the relationship between power and understatement? 4. What is the research value in this thesis?The theoretical framework referenced in this thesis is mainly derived from the classification of power (The Bases of Social Power) put forward by French & Raven and the Adaptation Theory proposed and elaborated by Verschueren. French & Raven's specific classification of power was more suitable to analyze different power exercised by those linguistic devices employed in business negotiation, and understatement is no exception. The two theories integrated as the Understatement Use as Adaptation-to-Power Model will be exploited to understand the production and interpretation of understatement in business negotiation through genuine case studies. This kind of model can give a clear explanation about relationship between power, understatement and negotiator's economic interest.The conclusion is drawn as follows: 1. There are various types of power including coercive power, reward power and etc. existing in the discourse of business negotiation. which ensure the production of understatements. 2. The use of understatement is the product of adaptation to each type of power. Moreover, in the light of presumption, the negotiator's using understatements is to adapt his/her linguistic behavior to different power for the purpose of-maximizing its own benefits (namely, reaching an agreement more easily and achieving a successful negotiation). 3. It is clear that the ideal co-operation in its real sense is difficult to achieve owing to the unbalance of power relation of either party. The Ideal Speech Situation does not exist in this world. It is presumed that the realization of an approximate successful business negotiation is a kind of restriction and balance in power relation between the two negotiation parties.The present study has its research values in both linguistics and business negotiation practices. To a certain extent, this thesis reveals the fundamental cause of the production of understatements in business negotiation from the angle of pragmatics and discourse researches. It also has certain implications for other linguistic forms in business negotiation discourse and other fields of discourses, for it provides a completely new model and method for those further researches. While in the perspective of genuine cases of business negotiation, this thesis also suggests that proper use of the understatements is necessary, blind use of the understatements or excessive self-depreciation will sometimes cause the negotiation to end in failure. To maximize one's own benefits or reach a satisfying agreement, the negotiator should adopt understatements appropriately and reasonably.