摘　要

随着世界经济的发展，英语商务信函已经成为商务活动中不可或缺的组成部分。作为企业间商务沟通的桥梁，英语商务信函不仅促进了商务的发展更拉近了企业间的关系。商务信函的有效利用可以促进贸易的发展和树立良好的企业形象。一份礼貌真诚的商务信函可以促进商务活动的顺利开展，而一份无理的信函不仅不利于活动的开展还会损害公司形象。本文以礼貌为原则旨在讨论礼貌原则在商务信函语篇中的运用。论文首先回顾了著名的语言学家Leech提出的礼貌原则和Levinson&Brown提出的面子理论。其次通过实例分析商务信函中的礼貌原则并提出了一些积极策略。

关键词：英语商务信函；礼貌原则；礼貌策略
 
Abstract

Along with the development of the economy, the scope of the world has becoming smaller and smaller, and the English business correspondence as an important means of communicating and doing business with each other has been an indispensable part in business transaction. As an effective bridge for business trade, English business correspondence not only improves the development but also make the participants more closely. Adopting business correspondence in a right way can enhance the cooperative relationship between partners and it is helpful for building a good image for the company itself. A courteous and genuine letter tends to establish a good image for the company and lead to a successful business. On the contrary, a disrespectful one can not only lead to the failure but also destroy the image which the company has built up. Politeness should be highly regarded while writing business letters. The main content of this paper is a research on the analysis of politeness principle in English business correspondence. At the beginning of this paper, it main discussed two famous linguistics’ theory about politeness, such as Leech’s politeness principle and Levinson & Brown’ face theory, all this theory pay a vital role in English Business correspondence. At the end of this paper, the writer through data studies and empirical and analysis to provide some positive suggests about writing English business correspondence. The main purpose of this thesis is to help improve business correspondence writing skills by presenting polite strategies in writing. What’s more important, is that it drawn people pay more attention to the usage of politeness in business letters and urge people to adapt proper methods to achieve the success.

Key Words: English business correspondence; politeness principle; positive strategy

1 Introduction
1.1 Definition of politeness
Politeness is the symbol of human civilization and as an important criterion of social activities. It reflects a person’s spirit, culture and cultural quality. In real life, many misunderstandings or conflicts are caused by the improper usage of a language. This illustrates the importance of politeness in language use. Based on different cultures, the understanding about the concept of politeness is unique. However in the field of pragmatics, the concept of politeness has its own unique theoretical connotation which has aroused many interests of a lot of linguists. For the study of politeness there are many researches by linguists from all over the world, each of them has his own understanding.