An Analysis Of Lexical Chunks On Business English Correspondence

“Lexical chunks” was first proposed by Becker and Bolinger in1970s, since then,endless researches on lexical chunks began, especially we steeping into the21st century. Nomatter foreign scholars or Chinese scholars both showed great enthusiasm on the study oflexical chunks. In the past few decades, linguists and scholars through numerous research andstudies have found such findings as most of the language which people use is composed oflexical chunks; language is grammaticalized lexis, rather than lexicalized grammar; lexicalchunks are creative and productive which make people learn a language more efficiently; themore lexical chunks you command, the more fluent of your language; learners acquirelanguage in the form of lexical chunks etc.Up to now, the research of lexical chunks involves very wide fields, such as lexicalchunks and cognition, lexical chunks and pragmatics, lexical chunks and the second languageacquisition, lexical chunks and corpus, lexical chunks and translation, lexical chunks andinterpretation, and lexical chunks and teaching, and the like. But so far there has been noclear definition and classification of lexical chunks. Each scholar gives a different nameaccording to his/her own research priorities. Taking prefabrication and formulae as anexample, the former one emphasizes that lexical chunks can be regarded as a whole unit forstorage which can be used at any time if needed; the latter one shows lexical chunks can beused as formulae repeatedly without having to create new forms. Lexical chunks, as thecombination of syntax, semantics and context, have their own characteristics and advantages,such as improving the fluency and accuracy of language output, saving time of the thinkingprocess both for speakers and listeners and maintaining social interaction, etc. as so to makethe conversation more smooth and harmonious.However, most of the previous studies focus on theoretical research, so few ofempirical researches are put attention on English For General Proposes (EGP for short). Atthe same time, English For Special Proposes (ESP for short) is neglected, not to mentionexperimental studies on business English correspondences. Taking lexical chunks in Nattinger and DeCarrico’s theory as the theoretic framework,this thesis analyzes the features of the lexical chunks in the four most common businessEnglish correspondences (inquiry, offer, shipment and complaint). We find that there are a lotof lexical chunks from the opening, the main body and to closing. What’s more, theproportion of lexical chunks in the correspondence is counted. We learn that the sentencebuilders are the ones which are used the most frequently in four kinds of lexical chunks, andin turn, is followed by phrasal constraints, poly words and institutionalized expressions. Nowmany colleges and universities have set up such majors as international trade and businessEnglish to meet the demands of market. Business English correspondences will be learned bymore and more people, and it will become a tool for work. Hence, understanding andmastering the characteristics and functions of lexical chunks in correspondences has a certainguiding significance for the learners, relevant staff and teachers in the future study, work andteaching.This thesis is divided into six parts. Firstly, it’s an overall introduction of this paper. Thefirst chapter reviews the main theory of lexical chunks, including the theoretical backgroundand the research status both at home and abroad. The second chapter is the introduction ofbusiness English correspondences, including classifications, functions, basic principles andcharacteristics and so on. The author emphatically introduces these four kinds of businessEnglish correspondences: inquiry, offer, shipment and complaint. The third chapter mainlydescribes the research questions, materials selecting and the process. Through the dataanalysis, we get the result. The forth chapter discusses the enlightenments of the theory oflexical chunks in business English correspondence and gives some suggestions for thelearners and teachers. The last part summarizes this paper, presenting the deficiency and theoutlook for future research.