A Comparative Study Of Hedges In Letters From Business Writing Textbooks And Corporate Business Writing

This empirical study is designed to give an overall comparative investigation of hedges in business letters writing from home textbooks and from corporate business companies. It is carried out by adopting Varttala's classification of hedges and brings out three general research questions:1. Are there any differences in the use of hedges in business letters from textbooks and business companies? (1) If so, what are the general features of hedges used in the two types of letters? (2) What are the features of various categories of hedges used in the two types of letters? (3) What are the differences and similarities in terms of the various categories of hedges used in the two natures of letters?2. What leads to the above differences?3. What are the implications of this study for the teaching of business English letters writing as well as the development of business English writing textbooks?The data are chosen from 100 authentic business letters of which 50 comes from home business writing textbooks and another 50 comes from foreign business companies. Comparative analysis is mainly adopted in this study. Through the analysis of the results, we have the following major findings:1) Hedges do occur fairly frequently in the two types of data, and the overall frequency of hedges in corporate business letters is much higher than that in home business writing textbooks.2) In terms of various categories of hedges, adverbs is the most frequently used hedges in home business writing textbooks, and the following is full verbs, adjectives, modal auxiliaries and nouns while in foreign corporate business letters, full verbs is the most frequently used hedges followed by modal auxiliaries, adverbs, adjectives and nouns.3) The total number of hedges employed in bad-news message is a little higher than that employed in good-news message. Based on above findings, the reasons that lead to the differences are analyzed in the following:Firstly, appropriate hedges using plays an important part in business practices due to some pragmatic functions, so hedges are frequently employed in business letters both at home and abroad. However, due to cultural differences between English and Chinese,hedges used in corporate business letters are more than that used in home business writing textbooks. Secondly, the complexity of hedging categories, especially the modal auxiliaries, poses difficulty for Chinese native speakers, besides, Chinese is more direct in tone, thus, modal auxiliaries are lower employed in home business writing textbooks. Comparatively speaking, Chinese native speakers have less difficulty in using adverbs and full verbs, so these two categories of hedges are higher employed in home business writing textbooks. Thirdly, hedges in bad-news message can make sentences more indirect and polite, express tentativeness and possibility in social interaction and mitigate face-threatening acts in order to protect both the speaker and the hearer's face in communication while good-news message are usually written in direct approach, therefore, less hedges are employed in good-news message.Finally, several pedagogical implications of the present study are brought out, including the implications for the promotion of English learning motivation and vocabulary teaching and learning, in the hope to help learners at home improve business letters writing skill.