商务英语函电的礼貌策略分析_英语论文

Analysis of Politeness Strategy in Business English Correspondence

摘要

中国对外经济贸易总额已排名全球第一，商务英语函电在对外经济活动中具有重要作用。本文以某外贸公司十七份商务英语函电为语料，以布朗和列文森提出的礼貌策略为理论依据，分析礼貌策略在商务英语函电中的具体运用。

论文分为四个部份。第一部分简要介绍商务英语函电的基本信息，其中包括定义和分类。第二部分讲述包括面子理论，面子威胁行为和礼貌策略在内的礼貌理论。第三和第四部分是本论文的重点，第三部分分析积极礼貌策略在和谐类和合作类商务英语函电中的运用，而第四部分则注重分析消极礼貌策略在竞争类和冲突类商务英语函电中的运用。

论文分析表明，积极礼貌策略和消极礼貌策略礼貌策略在商务英语函电中均均有不同程度的运用，但积极礼貌策略普遍适用于合作类和和谐类商务英语函电，消极礼貌策略则在竞争类和冲突类商务英语函电中应用更为广泛。分析还表明，不同礼貌策略的使用频率与外贸磋商阶段密切相关，前期外贸磋商广泛采取积极礼貌策略，而后期磋商更倾向于使用消极礼貌策略。因此，本论文对掌握商务英语函电写作技巧具有一定参考价值。

关键词：商务英语函电；面子理论；礼貌；礼貌策略

Abstract

China's foreign trade volume ranking the first worldwide, business English correspondence (BEC) is gaining its momentum in foreign business activities. Taking seventeen business English correspondence from a foreign trade company as the corpus, politeness strategies put forward by Brown and Levinson are employed to analyze how politeness strategies are represented in the business English correspondences.

This paper is composed of four parts. The first part gives a brief overview of the business English correspondence, including the definition and classification. The second part introduces face theory, face-threatening acts and politeness strategies which all of them belong to politeness theory. The last two parts are the point body of this paper, the third part illustrating the application of positive politeness strategies in convivial and collaborative business English correspondences, the last part emphasizing the application of negative politeness strategies in competitive and conflicting ones. 

The analysis reveals that positive politeness strategies are widely employed in the convivial and collaborative business English correspondences while the negative ones are frequently used in competitive and conflicting correspondences though both of the two strategies are found in four types of BEC to varying degrees. It is also found that the ratio of different politeness strategies is bonded to different phases of trade negotiation— positive politeness strategies are more often used at the early stage of the trade negotiation than at the last stage, while the negative politeness strategies are employed wider at the last stage of negotiation than at the early phase. In this paper, the result of analysis is of value for the writing of business English correspondences.

Key words: business English correspondence; face theory; politeness; politeness strategy