A Study Of Frames In Letter To Shareholders Of Unilever And P&G

The letter to shareholders is an important narrative section in the annual report.In this thesis,the author tries to analyze the LTS of two big consumer goods giants—Unilever and P&G by applying Lakoff's ideas in the frame theory including surface and deep frames.The results show that the two companies share almost the same surface frames in both negative and positive years in synchronic view.However,the frequency of each surface frame and the specific choices of sub-frames in one company are different from those of the other.By conducting a diachronic analysis in the deep frames of the two companies,the author concludes that the phenomenon is closely related to different corporate values.Whether in positive or negative years,the deep frames reflected by the surface frames in the LTS of Unilever and P&G are consistent with their corporation values respectively.Although there are different deep frames between and within the two companies in different years,their ability to handle frames,that is,to make the deep frames in the LTS correspond with its corporate values,sets good examples to other similar companies in writing the letter to maintain their corporate images while facing financial losses as well as behaving properly when they are in good conditions.This ability is also beneficial for a company to give out the most instructive information,present credibility and transfer its original cultures to its shareholders.This thesis attempts to broaden the understanding of the role frames plays in business discourses and deepen people's comprehension of the frame theory.In addition,this thesis provides linguistic and other functional insights to meet requirements of certain readers by applying the frame theory to analyze the LTS.Although some limitations exist due to a variety of reasons,it is hopeful that the potential in applying frame theory to other business discourses is huge,thus providing more insights for people from various business fields.