Discourse Analysis Of Sales Talk In Chinese

People interact with one another in daily life. According to Speech Act Theory, our words work for us in speech acts, and speech acts are ways of doing things with our words. When people talk, they may be aware of the conversational style in everyday communication, and then they tend to realize that even a simple greeting formula manifests a specific pattern. So is sales talk. Thus, some researchers grow to be interested in searching for and providing sufficient information on actual patterns of sales talk in daily transaction.Currently, many studies on sales talk have been conducted, compared with which few statistics, based on empirical investigations, have been applied to analyze sales talk in Chinese. Therefore, this thesis, based on an empirical research, aims to conduct a study on sales talk in Chinese. To be specific, it aims to analyze and present the overall patterns of sales talk in Chinese. Meanwhile, spontaneous data, rather than elicited data, are collected by means of participant observation and non-participant observation. These data are then utilized to analyze the sequential structure of sales talk in Chinese, the pragmatic strategies employed in the realization process of negotiation and the social variables affecting the choice of negotiation strategies.This paper consists of six chapters. It first lists down the research questions and the significance of the study. Secondly, the paper reviews the previous studies on sales talk and the negotiation stage. Thirdly, the paper goes over the theoretical background. Fourthly, the paper discusses methodology employed in the study. Then detailed data analysis and discussion are handled. Finally, a conclusion is drawn and the implication and limitations of the study are stated.Under the guidance of Conversation Analysis and Speech Act Theory, many speech events are observed, described and analyzed in this paper, through which the results are summarized as follows: there is a sequential pattern that people tend to observe when they are in the process of sales transaction in Chinese; meanwhile, some pragmatic strategies are required in the realization process of negotiation; and some social variables play a significant role in people's choice of negotiation strategies.Despite the fact that there are certain limitations in this paper, we still hope that this thesis may contribute to the literature of speech acts study in Chinese. Meanwhile, it is my hope that research and analysis such as this will help, to some extent, provide information on sales talk in Chinese speech community and to facilitate interactions which are directly governed by rules or norms, not only in this practical area but also in other areas and aspects of our lives. And it is also my hope that future research will be conducted to further contribute to Chinese pragmatics and hence facilitate people's future social exchange in various aspects of life.