Textual Functions Of Presupposition In English Business Letters

With the globalization of economy and its reform and opening-up to the outside world, China has welcomed a rapid development of international trade. There is no doubt that much more enterprises are involved in the foreign trade activities. English business letter (EBL) has been widely considered to be quite important in international trade, especially when businessmen have not the chance or time to have a face-to-face negotiation. It is applied to establish and maintain the cooperate relationship between dealers, so it is gradually attached importance. Therefore, it has aroused the interests of research for many scholars. Most of the previous studies on EBLs are made from the perspectives of stylistics and pragmatics. They focus on the language features and translation strategies of EBLs. There are some discourse analyses on EBL based on the theory of systemic functional linguistics, but few of them study the textual function of EBL realized by presupposition.Based on the review of the studies of presupposition from the perspective of philosophy, semantics and pragmatics, as well as the features of EBL discourse, the author adopts qualitative method to make an analysis of the textual function of presupposition in EBL discourse. Presupposition refers to what is assumed by the speaker when uttering a specific sentence, as the mutual knowledge shared by both sides of the participants, is an inevitable requirement for interpretation of the utterance. Based on the theory of textual function proposed by Halliday and Thompson, as well as the thematic progression patterns suggested by Hu Zhuanglin and Zhu Yongsheng, the present study discusses how presupposition serves as the theme of one clause and helps to form thematic progression patterns, so as to ensure the smooth information flow, how it realizes the transmission of information, as well as how it contributes to the cohesion and coherence of the discourse through cohesive devices.In the present thesis, the author chose60EBLs selected from the internet and several textbooks as the object of research, and they cover almost every stage of foreign trade. The research shows that presupposition serving as the theme of the clause could help the reader to encapsulate the asserted information of the previous clause, so as to ensure the smooth information flow.In addition, presupposition helps to construct four main thematic progression patterns in EBL discourse, which can be concluded as T1â†'T2(the same theme), R1â†'R2(the same rheme), R1â†'T2(the rheme or part of the rheme in the previous clause becomes the theme of the next clause) and T1+R1=T2(both the theme and rheme of the preceding clause are encapsulated into a noun phrase functioning as the theme of the frequent clause). In the four thematic progression patterns, the asserted information of the previous clause is usually presupposed in the theme accompanied with a new rheme of the following clause, which makes the clause more informative than the preceding one. This is consistent with the coherence constraint proposed by Zhu Yongsheng, that is, the information flow of the discourse is under the constraint of presupposition which determines the felicity of the clause in the whole discourse.Presupposition helps to promote the quantity and quality of information conveyed in EBL discourse, and more importantly, the most important information could be emphasized with the help of presupposition triggers. In addition, presupposition contributes to the cohesion of the discourse through cohesive devices including the third personal pronouns, demonstratives, comparatives and conjunctions. Nominalization which presupposes the previously mentioned information serves as the theme of the subsequent clause, which helps to realize the cohesive relations between clauses. Presupposition generated by ellipsis or substitution also has the same textual function. Presupposition which is assumed to be the mutual knowledge or known information shared by both sides of the participants is usually not explicitly expressed in the subsequent clause due to the writer’s assumption that the reader could interpret the missing information with the help of common knowledge. Therefore, presupposition contributes to both the clarity and coherence of the EBL discourse.The present study sheds light on the writing and teaching of EBLs. It is beneficial for the writer to have a good command of presupposition, since it helps to achieve the clarity and cohesion of the discourse. The proper use of presupposition in EBL writing puts forward the successful communication between the writer and the reader. What’s more, teachers are expected to attach more importance to presupposition in the teaching of EBL writing. Apart from other cohesive devices and essential writing skills, it is necessary for students to realize the importance of presupposition in achieving the clarity and cohesion of the whole discourse, so as to improve their ability of foreign language communication and English business letter writing.