A Study Of Pragmatic Failure In Business English Letters From The Perspective Of Adaptation Theory

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the international economy, business Englishletters are playing a more and more important role in business communication. However, theimproper use of the language usually leads to the failure of business transactions. Only whena writer delivers the message in accordance with the understanding of the reader can he or sheachieve his communication purpose effectively. This thesis aims to analyze the causes ofpragmatic failure from the perspective of adaptation theory, and then proposes some measuresto language learners to reduce pragmatic failure in business communication.First of all, the author has collected different types of business English letters and carriedout a research work among university students in three different grades. Through analyzingthe letters written by students from different grades and letters written by students of the samegrade, the author finds that students'pragmatic competence is not completely in parallel withtheir language proficiency. It shows that students of language proficiency also makepragmatic failure. Then the author analyzes pragmatic failure in business English letters fromthe perspective of Adaptation Theory, and points out that in the process of linguistic choicemaking,when language users fail to make adaptation to the ingredients of the language reality,the social world, the mental world, and the physical world, pragmatic failure may occur,either because of the writer's improper choice of language forms or because of the reader'smisinterpretation. Finally, the author draws a conclusion that pragmatic failure occurs whenlanguage users unconsciously fail to make adaptation to communicative context and languagereality.All in all, making adaptation is an effective way to avoid pragmatic failure in businessEnglish letter writing. However, the utmost thing is that language teachers should try todevelop the language learners'pragmatic competence so that pragmatic failure can be reducedor avoided.