The Analysis Of Cooperative Principle And Politeness Principle In English Business Letters

With the development of the science and the society, the scope of the whole world isbecoming smaller and smaller. English business letters not only improve the businessdevelopment but also enchance the cooperative relationship between the businessparticipants and shorten the distance between the participants. As an effective bridge andcooperative bond, English business letters play more and more important role in jointventures. The leaders focus on the application of the English business letter.It is helpful to use the English business letters in powerful way to enchance theconstructive relationship between the business partners and to improve the positivedevelopment of the business trade in the long run. From the linguistic aspects, bothCooperative Principle and Politeness Principle are widely used in English business letter.Cooperative Principle (CP) and Politeness Principle (PP) are extensively used in thewritings of English business letters all the time. This paper focuses on the application ofthe two principles in English business letters and analyzes the usages through concreteexamples in daily communication. The paper reviews the study of the CooperativePrinciple (CP) and Politeness Principle (PP) by famous linguists including Grice whoproposed the Cooperative Principle (CP) and Lakoff who proposed the PolitenessPrinciple (PP) and Leech who proposed the maxims of principles (quality, quantity,relation and manner). When the partners make communications with each other not onlyin daily conversations but also in formal special communication—businesscommunications through writing English business letters, the two sides should respecteach other and take the others’ feelings, needs, expectations and mood into seriousconsideration in order to build constructive and communicative relationship. The facetheory is one of the most important aspects of Politeness Principle which should be paidmore attention to. In order to improve the cooperation, the participants of thecommunication should preserve face for each other.This paper is divided into three chapters. The first chapter is to make briefintroduction of the two widely used principles–Cooperative Principle (CP) and PolitenessPrinciple (PP). Grice’s definition and understanding of Cooperation Principle (CP) arelisted clearly and more detailed information and examples are used to analyze theprinciple in the first section. The importance of Cooperative Principle (CP) and the principle’s impact on communication are studied as well. The Politeness Principle isproposed by Leech who made great contribution to the study of linguistics andpragmatics. Politeness Principle (PP) which analyzes how the rules or maxims areapplied in the conversation is regarded as a convenient way to communicate with eachother. The second chapter introduces the English business letter including the notation orconcept, the kinds or types and the characteristics or traits. The English business lettersplay significant role among the communication of the business participants. The thirdchapter which is the most important chapter of the paper analyze the usage ofCooperative Principle and Politeness Principle in English business letter. The languageand words used in English business letters are sometimes quite different to that of thedaily communications, which should be seriously selected and strictly organized. Andthen the Cooperative Principle (CP) and the Politeness Principle (PP) are theindispensable principles for the successful organization of the English business letters.The Cooperative Principle (CP) and Politeness Principle (PP) show that the two sides ofthe communication tend to build up long termed and amicable cooperation and they arelooking forward to support each other in the future, therefore, the participants of thecommunication should obey the certain maxims of the Cooperative Principle (CP) andthe Politeness Principle (PP) such as the four maxims of Cooperative Principle(CP)–quality maxim, quantity maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim and use theface theory effectively.If the principles in the letters are used well, the trade will go on smoothly, otherwisethe trade may be interrupted. Therefore, the application of the Cooperative Principle andPoliteness Principle plays significant roles in the writings of English business letters.Focusing on the Cooperative Principle proposed by Grice and Politeness Principle putforward by Leech, this paper explores the theories and the practicality of these twoprinciples. The applications of these strategies are manifested among similar anddifferent contexts. The paper may give some help and inspiration to the people who workfor business or the people who want to study English business letters.