Research Into Language Game Of Bargaining In Chinese Business Communication

Language strategies in bargaining play a very important role in determining the success of business communication. Previous studies generally discuss business communication from the view of pragmatics and cross-culture. By describing and analyzing the performance of bargaining in Chinese business communication, this study is launched to probe the mechanism of meaning conveyance in Chinese business bargaining, to summarize the bargaining strategies Chinese bargainers usually use, and to test the effectiveness of applying language game theory in discourse analysis, in the hope to fill the research gap that Chinese bargaining has never been analyzed by combining pragmatic theories and game theory.Cases of bargaining occurred in real Chinese business communication are collected by observation and participation. Based on the theoretic framework of language game which combines game theory and pragmatic theories, bargaining recorded and selected are analyzed by the research method of discourses analysis, so as to answer the following research questions: (1) Why do Chinese bargainers usually communicate in an indirect way? (2) How do bargainers ensure the success of meaning communication if they usually communicate indirectly? (3) What bargaining strategies do Chinese bargainers usually adopt? (4) What are the factors affecting the outcomes of bargaining?Affected by traditional Chinese culture and in order to protect face and to keep an advantageous position in the game, participants usually bargain in an indirect way. To ensure the success of meaning conveyance, bargainers have to take the elements of context into account, especially bargainers'motivation in the game of bargaining, and some of these elements can affect the outcomes of bargaining game. Power status, solidarity contact, affect and experience are the major factors affecting the outcomes of bargaining game. In Chinese bargaining, buyers are likely to use strategies of criticizing, complaining and promising, while sellers take compliment as the main strategy, and in few cases they may use strategies of warning or irony. Even though the language game models used as analysis tool are not perfect, they provide new angles and new ways to analyze bargaining discourses.Despite there are some limitations in this paper, it is hoped that it could broaden the horizon of applying language game theoretic framework, and push the research of language game theory forward in China. Practically speaking, it is my hope that the analysis and conclusion of this research can inspire Chinese bargainers to improve their bargaining skills and language proficiency.