摘  要

礼貌是人与人在社会交往中所必须遵循的言语行为准则。作为人际交往不可或缺的一部分，礼貌用语的应用引起了各界的广泛关注。语言学家纷纷提出礼貌现象及礼貌策略的相关理论，尤以利奇的礼貌原则及布朗和列文森的面子威胁论影响最大。作为商务交流最常用的沟通媒介，商务信函是开发客户、树立企业良好形象，为企业谋取双赢的途径之一。随着文化差异在全球商务活动中扮演的角色日益突出，礼貌策略的运用是缓和双方可能因利益纠纷产生的紧张关系的一帖灵药。本文从不同类别和角度分析了礼貌策略在信函中的应用，使所传达的信息更易被对方接受，从而为商务信函中表达方式的合理选择提供理论依据，以帮助商务人士进行成功的商务交际。

关键词：商务信函；交际；礼貌；文化差异；礼貌策略

Abstract

Politeness, as the basic principle in people’s interpersonal relations, is a set of patterns to show the consideration for others and to achieve harmony in communication. And polite language is essential condition to reach harmonious contacts among the whole society, which has aroused great attentions from scholars. Linguists have put forward influential theories which related to politeness and politeness strategy, especially Leech’s Politeness Principle and Brown & Levinson’s Face Threatening Acts. The paper introduces some basic information of business letters, which as the most commonly used communication media among the enterprises, not only are the method of attracting and developing customers, but also one of the ways to build good image of the company and seek a win-win situation of the two sides. With rapid process of globalization, the cultural difference has played an increasingly prominent role in business activities. It is shown that the application of politeness strategies in business turns to be an effective way to ease conflicts between the two parties due to their relevant interests. From different categories and aspects, this study analyses how politeness strategies is presented in business letter, aims to make the message easier accepted by the other party. Through theories basis for expression selection, the paper will help businessmen develop a more successful business communication.

Key words: English business letter; communications; politeness; cultural difference; politeness strategies

1 Introduction
Politeness, as the commonly used phenomenon existing in various speech behaviors, has great influence on everyday life. People adopt politeness in communication to better development personal relations with others. Ever since the early 1970s, dozens of researchers began to show their interest in politeness. Politeness is also cultural factor. It is oblivious that cultural differences have an important impact on international trade in recent years. Different cultural backgrounds intentionally or unintentionally control the trade behaviors. However, business correspondence has to face this influence. When conflict occurs both sides are more sensitive because that will hurt both interests, so how to express their point of views and attitudes with appropriate, decent and polite language in a short letter is particularly vital, to achieve their communication goal as well as not affect the harmonious relationship and then continue next cooperation.