本科毕业论文-—商务英语对话中的会话含义研究

学科分类号：050201

湖南人文科技学院 本科生毕业论文

题目（中文）： 商务英语对话中的会话含义研究

（英文）：

A Study of Conversational Implicature in Business English Conversations

学生姓名： 武 玉 洁 学 号 10403820 系 部： 外 语 系 专业年级： 英语专业2010级 指导教师（姓名）： 朱 芙 蓉

（职称）：

副 教 授

湖南人文科技学院教务处制

A Study of Conversational Implicature in Business English

Conversations

By Wu Yujie

May 15, 2014

内 容 摘 要

商务英语作为专门用途英语的一个分支,用词简短易懂,句式严密规范,语篇实用性强,是在特殊语境下使用的一种语言。包括商务英语谈判、商务英语信函，商务英语礼仪及其他众多方面。会话是商务运作中建立关系或达成一致的最常见的方式。通过会话商务合作双方可以相互理解对方并取得有利信息。

在言语交际中，人们通常会共同努力达成某种共同的目标或者努力让会话向期望的方向发展。会话双方都相信彼此说话时是相互配合的。然而人们并非总是合作的，有时候会故意违反会话指导原则,即合作原则。

在语用学的合作原则的视角下对会话进行研究和分析不仅可以使人们意识到言语交际的内在规律，提高人们的口头交际能力，还能从日常会话中常见的、从未被注意的现象中发现人们理解和把握世界的方法，揭示语言的本质。

关键词：商务英语对话；会话含义；合作原则

Abstract

Business English, as a branch of English for special purpose (ESP) is brief and concise in word use ,vigor and normative in sentence pattern, high functional in context. Business English contains Business English negotiation, English business correspondence, Business English etiquette and so on. Business English Conversation is a common way in business trade for setting up relationship or making a deal. According to the conversation, both parties involved have a better understanding of each other and get mutual benefit .

In social communication, both sides usually attempt to work to achieve their shared goal and try hard to let the conversation go on as they expect. But sometimes, people won’t cooperate with each other for some reasons, they will violate the guiding principle of conversation---cooperative principle.

The study and analysis of conversation under the perspective cooperative principle of pragmatics not only helps us realize the speech communication rules and improve our oral communication ability, but also reveals the way we understand and master the world from the familiar yet unnoticed daily conversational phenomena, and uncovers the essence of language as well.

Key Words：Business English conversation; conversational implicature；Cooperative Principle

Contents

Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 1. Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................. 2 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Conversational Implicature ..................................................... 2 1.2 A Brief Introduction to Grice’s Cooperative Principle ................................................. 3 2. Features of Business English Conversations ................................................................ 6 2.1 Adaptation .................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Accuracy ....................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Timeliness ..................................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Face-to-face conversations ........................................................................................... 9 3. Conversational Implicature in Business English conversations ................................. 9 3.1 Factors Affecting Conversational Implicature ........................................................... 10 3.1 .1 Factor of the Context .......................................................................................... 10 3.1.2 Factor of Politeness .............................................................................................. 12 3.2 Conversational Implicature by Violating Cooperative Principles .............................. 12 3.2.1 Violating the Quantity Maxim ............................................................................. 13 3.2.2 Violating the Quality Maxim ............................................................................... 16 3.2.3 Violating the Relation Maxim .............................................................................. 19 3.2.4 Violating the Manner Maxim ............................................................................... 20 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 22 Notes .................................................................................................................................... 25 References ........................................................................................................................... 26

湖南人文科技学院毕业论文

contribution one that is true and more specific: Do not say what you believe to be false.

Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

The third basic maxim is the maxim of Relation:”be relevant”. This maxim can be interpreted as making sure what you say is relevant to the conversation at hand. The point of this maxim is that it is not sufficient for a statement to be true for it to constitute an acceptable conversational contribution. The fourth basic maxim is the maxim of Manner : be perspicuous.

Avoid using obscurity and hard-to-understand words to expression; Avoid using ambiguous to expression;

The sentence use to express oneself must be brief and avoid unnecessary prolixity;

That the sentence use to express oneself must be orderly.

In short, these maxims specify what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, cooperative way: they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information. It should be noted that the above maxims are not rules. They are much more flexible, more like guidelines. Infringing a rule of grammar leads to an ill-formed utterance; however, the maxims can be creatively infringed and are to be followed by and large, to the best of one’s ability. Grice is at pains to emphasize that the maxims are not culture-bound conventions like table manners: they are rationally based, and would hence be expected to be observable in any human society. One way in which cultures can differ is in the relative

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importance allotted to the maxims. For instance, a strict adherence to the maxim of quality may lead to no information at all being given. In some cultures, this may come across as rudeness, and to avoid this result, it may be preferable to provide fictitious information in order to make up a seemly response.

In Grice’s opinion, implicatures cannot be inferred in a semantic way. They are based on both the content of the utterance and some specific assumptions about the cooperative nature of ordinary talk exchanges. These inferences or conversational implicatures exist in at least two distinct ways: one is the speaker’s following the maxims adhering to the cooperative principle; another is the speaker’s violating the maxims deliberately. If the participants both have the expectation to achieve a successful conversation, they must cooperate with each other, and speak sincerely, sufficiently, relevantly and clearly. To put it another way, they must observe the cooperative principle and the maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner. If someone who participate the conversation flouts the cooperative principle and any of the maxims, he must have intended to do so. And the receiver can infer the speaker’s intended meaning in particular contexts.

2. Features of Business English Conversations

Business English conversations have some features. They are adaptation, accuracy, timeliness and communicative function. As the business communicators in a conversation, he or she uses tool conversation carefully and with consideration of their customers and their intended

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湖南人文科技学院毕业论文

conversational goals. Effective business communicators will find that their efforts pay off in better relationships and business success.

2.1 Adaptation

Because of the cultural differences, the communicator in business English conversations must have a good knowledge of the others’ working background and supply proper information.

Business English conversations are different from normal conversation because of their adaptation and specification. “The more specific conversations are, the more they meet the needs of the audience” [5]. Therefore, before coming to business English conversations, communicator should be clear about the background knowledge of the group people they would talk with, and the content they would convey to their audience.

Even in small organizations, it is wrong to assume that everybody will have the same needs, interests and desires when it comes to business conversations. Business conversations are adapted to meet the needs of specific listeners or audiences. Employees working in an administrative setting, for instance, will have different needs and different access to information than employees working in a manufacturing environment. That’s why the communicator in business English conversations must have a good knowledge of the others’ working background and supply proper information.

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2.2 Accuracy

Due to the special prosperities of business conversation, participants are reaching a common goal by mutual efforts. So, the delivered information needs to be clear and concise enough.

When information is inaccurate, it will its credibility and cause many troubles. The people who send the information also lose its’ credibility. So the sender must be sure about the information sent is accurate in business English conversations. The accuracy includes the context conveyed and expressions that include grammar, spelling and punctuation.

2.3 Timeliness

All the employees need to know what is going on in their organizations and in the external environment that impacts them which is good for their future plan especially in business English conversations. The content one conveyed in business English conversations should be in time with the new changes or development in or outside his company or organization, for building a timely and harmonious business relationship. “Today’s technology-driven environment makes it more challenging than ever before for businesses to communicate with employees in a timely manner, but it is critical for effective business conversation” [5].

In addition, it cannot be assumed that a message has gotten across if it is sent just one time. Business conversations occur frequently to ensure that they

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湖南人文科技学院毕业论文

have been received by all employees. Employees leave, new employees join the company and employees transfer from one role to another, requiring new and updated information in time.

2.4 Face-to-face conversations

“Face-to-face conversations are still the most effective and should be used whenever possible and practical”[6]. It means that via Face-to-face communication, the speakers talk in person with the listeners and they will fulfill maximize the communicative function. Of course, in very large organizations this can be challenging, but alternatives can be videoconferencing or the use of webinars. In face-to-face business conversations, employees can get the opportunity to share their feedback, opinions and thoughts with managers and employers. Effective business conversations offer the opportunity for two-way communication to benefit employees and employers.

Face-to-Face business English conversations give the conversation listeners a chance to make a two-way interaction. As the speakers, they can understand more about the requirements of the listeners and listeners also can express their suggestions.

3. Conversational Implicature in Business English conversations

On account of reducing misunderstanding in Business trade, hearer must

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