The Application Of Politeness Strategies In English Business E-Mails

Politeness,as an important means for successful communication,has attracted wide attention of scholars in different fields since the 1970 s.Many linguists have proposed different politeness theories,among which Leech's Politeness Principle and Levinson's Face Theory have the deepest impact in pragmatics.English business emails,as the major communicative tool in foreign trade,have a decisive influence on the conclusion of business.Therefore,in the process of business communication,besides having a good command of English language,the writer should be able to convey the information in a decent way by tactfully using politeness strategies.Based on Leech's Politeness Principle and Brown & Levinson's Face-saving Theory,the thesis takes English business emails as the carrier to discuss how politeness strategies are utilized in various sorts of English business emails with the help of the analysis of examples so as to find some corresponding rules.With a combination of the features of English business emails and the functions,the thesis divides English business emails into four categories: emails for establishing business relations,emails for business negotiation,emails for conclusion of business and emails for complaint and claim,and then analyzes the application of politeness strategies from lexical,syntactical and discourse levels.Through the study,it can be found that the strategies are various in different types of emails and they require the writers to choose proper words,sentences and organization of discourse to achieve successful business communication.This study could be helpful for the writers to implement appropriate politeness strategies in the writing of English business emails,but also could provide certain theory reference and practice guidance for those engaged in foreign trade and English language learners.