Abstract:
Business English correspondence, with the rapid development of economy and the increasing frequency of international trade, has become a widely-used way of contact and message-conveyer. A polite and well-designed business letter can not only convey the desire to deal with the other party, but also help to build a favorable business image for the company and promote the relationship between two parties. On the contrary, a letter without courtesy can not only lead to the failure of the business cooperation but also destroy the image, which the company has established. Therefore, politeness should be paid much more attention to in Business English Correspondence. This thesis will try to study Leech’s six maxims in the Politeness Principle and Business English Correspondence so as to point out the importance of politeness in Business English Correspondence. Besides, this thesis will list many examples to show the six maxims applied in business Englsih letter. Also, this thesis will present the application skills of politeness principle in the business correspondence. This dissertation is aimed to help people in the business world understand the importance of politeness in Business English Correspondence better and also help people use politeness skills in a more efficient way. Moreover, the application skills showed in this dissertation may, hopefully, be of some help to those who are engaged in business activities and also those business English teachers in their teaching practice.

Key words: business English correspondence; politeness principle; six maxims

摘  要：
随着经济的迅猛发展以及国际贸易的日渐频繁，商务英语函电成为了最广泛使用的联系方式和信息载体。一封礼貌，得体的商务英语函电不仅能将所有要表达的消息传输给对方，还能够帮助公司建立良好的商务形象，同时还可以改善和加强双方的关系。相反，一封没有礼貌的信函不仅会导致双方合作的失败而且会损坏双方所建立的良好形象。所以，在商务信函的写作时应该十分注重礼貌的运用。本篇论文将试着对利奇礼貌原则中的四大准则以及商务英语信函进行研究来说明商务英语信函中所体现出来的六大准则。这篇论文还展示了在商务英语信函中运用礼貌原则的实际运用技能。本文旨在让人们在商务沟通中更好的理解礼貌在商务信函写作中的重要作用，以及更有效的运用礼貌的实际操作技巧来实现交际意图。另外，希望本文中所展现的运用技巧能对从事商务活动的工作者们有所帮助，同时对从事商务英语教学的人们有一定的帮助。

关键词：商务英语函电；礼貌原则；六大准则

I Introduction
Politeness, as a universal phenomenon in every language community and permeating in every aspect of an individual’s everyday life has aroused great interests of many linguists. Therefore, in recent years, a growing number of linguists have brought out theories of politeness as language is the most important carrier of politeness and made efforts to examine politeness as a linguistic phenomenon. Among these, there are Leech’s Politeness Principle, Lakeoff’s view of politeness, Brown and Levinson’s Face theory and also Goffman’s face work (1955). All these theories have laid the foundations for the research on politeness and politeness strategies. This thesis, based mainly on Leech’s Politeness Principle, will examine six maxims and the use of politeness strategies in Business English Correspondence, which is an important way to make communications in international businesses. 、