坏消息商务信函中模糊语言的语用分析_英语论文

A Study on Vague Language in Bad-news Business Letters From the Perspective of Pragmatics

摘要

在商务沟通中，人们经常需要通过信函传达负面的、消极的信息，这类信函被称为坏消息商务信函。和一般的商务信函相比，坏消息商务信函具有本质上的面子威胁性，会影响到写信人和收信人之间的贸易关系。所以为了保证商务交流活动的顺利进行，商务人员在书写坏消息商务信函时会使用大量的模糊语言。模糊语言的使用在很大程度上提高了语言表达的灵活性，使商务信函更加的礼貌、得体。本文结合相关的语用原则-礼貌原则,对坏消息商务信函中的模糊语言进行分析，旨在帮助人们以更得体的方式书写坏消息商务信函，促进交易双方快捷有效地完成商务交易。

关键词：坏消息商务信函；模糊语言；礼貌原则

Abstract

In business communication, people often use letters to convey some negative news. This kind of letters is called bad-news business letters. Compared with general business letters, bad-news business letters are face-threatening and will affect the trade relationship between the writer and the recipient. So in order to ensure the business activities proceed smoothly, business people always use abundant vague language in bad-news business letters. The use of vague language has greatly enhanced the flexibility of language and made the letters more polite and appropriate. This paper tends to analyze the application of vague language in bad-news business letters and the pragmatic principles it reflects, to be more specific, the politeness principle. This article aims at helping people to write bad-news business letters in a more polite and appropriate way and promoting the both sides to complete the business deal effectively.

Keywords: Bad-news business letters; vague language; politeness principle

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

2.1 The definition of vagueness 1

2.2 Review of previous research on vague language 2

2.3 The definition of bad-news business correspondence 3

2.4 Previous research on vague language in business correspondences 3

2.5 Limitations of the previous research 4

3. Linguistic Realization of Vagueness in Bad-news Business Letters 4

3.1 Lexical vagueness 5

3.2 Syntactical vagueness 6

3.3 Hedges 7

4. Pragmatic Functions of Vague Language in Bad-news Business Letters 7

4.1 Alleviating the face-threatening effects 8

4.2 Enhancing the flexibility of language 9

4.3 Preserving some information 10

4.4 Strengthening the persuasiveness of discourse 11

5. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 13