从礼貌原则视角谈被动语态在商务信函中的运用

题 目从礼貌原则视角谈被动语态在商务

信函中的运用

题目类别 商 务 英 语 学生姓名 钟 小 红 考 籍 号 071111100266

中 南 大 学

CENTRAL SOUTH UNIVERSITY 高等教育自学考试英语专业毕业论文

单位或学校 中南大学继续教育学院

联系电话 15200638207 完成时间 2012年8月

A STUDY ON THE APPLICATION OF PASSIVE VOICE IN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF

POLITENESS PRINCIPLE

by Zhong Xiaohong (071111100266)

August 2012

Further Education College of Central South Unive

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my respected supervisor Miss Zhang Ni for her enlightenment and sufficient support in both my academic study and daily life. This thesis is accomplished under the guidance and exhaustive revisions of her, to whom goes my deepest gratitude and admiration.

I am also grateful to all the other teachers of my undergraduate studies in school for their excellent lectures and great helps in my academic study.

Thanks also go to my friends and classmates, who gave me assistance in study and made my life colorful in three years.

Last but not least, my special gratitude must go to my family for their encouragements and constant supports. Without their unselfish help, I could not have completed this thesis.

Contents

Abstract ····································································································· i 摘 要 ······································································································· ii Introduction ······························································································ 1 Chapter 1 A Brief Introduction to Business Correspondence ················ 2 1.1 Writing Principles of Business Correspondence ······························· 2 1.2 Classification of Business Correspondence ······································ 4 Chapter 2 An Overview of Politeness Principle ······································ 7 2.1 Definition of Politeness ···································································· 7 2.2 The Development of Politeness Principle ········································· 8 2.3 Strategies of Realizing Politeness ····················································· 9 Chapter 3 Application of Politeness Principle within Passive Voice in Business Correspondence ························································ 12 3.1 Application of Tact Maxim ····························································· 12 3.2 Application of Generosity Maxim ·················································· 14 3.3 Application of Approbation Maxim ················································ 15 3.4 Application of Modest Maxim ························································ 16 3.5 Application of Agreement Maxim ·················································· 18 3.6 Application of Sympathy Maxim ··················································· 19

Conclusion ······························································································ 21 Bibliography ··························································································· 22

Abstract

With the further development of economic globalization, business correspondence has played an increasingly important role in promoting economic communication and cooperation of all countries. Thus more and more profound study of all kinds of principles and strategies used in business correspondence has been made by a great number of scholars and businessmen.

This thesis mainly analyzes and studies the application of passive voice in English business correspondence from the perspective of Polit- eness Principle. Based on different strategies of politeness in business correspondence, it studies the important functions of passive voice in helping negotiating parties achieve their goals through the concrete case analysis in business correspondence. Negotiators can realize the negotiating goals and obtain more benefits. Thus, negotiating parties should make full and concrete use of passive voice under the guidance of Politeness Principle in business correspondence.

Key words: business correspondence, Politeness Principle, strategies,

passive voice

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摘 要

随着经济全球化的进一步发展，商务信函对于促进各国之间的经济交流与合作发挥着越来越重要的作用。因此，越来越多的学者和企业家对商务信函中使用的各种原则及策略的研究也不断深入。

本论文主要从礼貌原则视角分析研究被动语态在英语商务信函中的运用，基于商务信函写作中所使用的各种礼貌策略，通过对商务信函具体案例的分析，探讨被动语态对商务信函中各方实现谈判目标所起到的重要作用。谈判者能够实现其谈判的目的，获得更多的利益。因此，在商务信函中，各方应充分、正确地运用礼貌原则指导下的被动语态。

关键词： 商务信函， 礼貌原则， 策略， 被动语态

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Introduction

In recent years, with the development of economy, business correspondence has become more and more important, many people begin to realize its importance. Business correspondence is an effective way to exchange information, build up and maintain harmonious business rela- tionships. Without business correspondence, business activities cannot go smoothly.

With the globalization of world economy, the popularity of the Internet, English business correspondence, including not only traditional letters but also emails and facsimiles is widely used. Politeness strategy is to be adopted in business correspondence so as to realize the maximization of profit and achieve other preplanned goals have been arresting the interest of scholars both at home and abroad.

Among all the politeness strategies studied in writing business correspondence, passive voice is one of the most important one, which is proved to be very useful and effective for the construction of friendly, harmonious and comfortable business relationships.

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Chapter 1

A Brief Introduction to Business Correspondence

As this world is becoming closely integrated, communication between all countries has been more and more frequent especially economic communication. With the development of economy and the prosperity of trade, business correspondence, as a means of economic negotiation, has gained increasing importance, and gradually people begin to realize its importance. So how to write business correspondence appropriately and tactfully appears extremely vital.

1.1 Writing Principles of Business Correspondence

Business correspondence is the written communication between two parties, a means through which views are expressed and ideas or in- formation is communicated in written form in the process of business activities. The principles of business writing are summarized by eight Cs: consideration, conciseness, correctness, courtesy, clarity, completeness, concreteness and credibility.

(1) Consideration. Consideration focuses on the reader instead of the writer, and it conveys the information that the most important person in the

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correspondence is the reader. You-centered writing is the key to successful business. Effective writers can make the reader believe that the reader plays the most important role in the business correspondence or in the business relationship.

(2) Conciseness. Conciseness means omitting unnecessary words and expressions so that the correspondence gets to the main point directly and effectively, which can save a lot of time for both the writer and the reader.

(3) Correctness. Correctness means giving accurate facts and figures and using the correct level of language, using acceptable writing mechanics and applying to correct all other C qualities.

(4) Courtesy. Courtesy means being sincerely tactful, thoughtful and appreciative, omitting expressions that irritate, hurt, or belittle the reader. (5) Clarity. Clarity means being clear by choosing short and con- versational language, constructing effective sentences and paragraphs and being straight-forward. The writer had better avoid using jargon and buzz words so as to achieve appropriate readability.

(6) Completeness. Completeness means answering all questions asked so that the writer accomplishes his/her goal in one letter without needing following letter. It also means giving all necessary information.

(7) Concreteness. Concreteness means using specific facts and figures. There are many ways to achieve concreteness, such as using specific facts

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and figures, using specific words, using strong verbs, choosing vivid, image-building words and so on.

(8) Credibility. Credibility means being honest and fair in all business dealings. It means being ethical and honest, avoiding exaggeration, giving credit, avoiding euphemisms that cause doubt and confusion, avoiding withholding facts the reader needs to accomplish his/her goals, being fair and balanced by presenting pros and cons, and keeping confidential matters private and not spreading gossip.

Apparently, as a tool for communication, business correspondence conveys the writer?s views and ideas and plays an important role in business activities. Keeping the eight Cs in mind is of great help to the successful writing of business correspondence.

1.2 Classification of Business Correspondence

Business correspondence may be classified from various perspectives. The most commonly used ways of classification are as follows:

According to the contents of the letter, the business correspondence can be classified into request letters, letters answering requests, claim and adjustment letters, credit inquiry and collection letters, sales letters, em- ployment letters, social business letters and so on.

According to the functions in the process of a business traction of the

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letter, business correspondence can be grouped into quotation letters, negotiating letters, ordering letters, confirming ordering letters, payment letters, shipment and insurance letters, claim letters, adjustment letters and so on.

According to the nature of the information given, business corres- pondence can be divided into good news letters, neutral news letters, bad news letters and persuasive letters.

According to Leech?s categorizations of illocutionary acts, business letters are classified into four categories, competitive letters, convivial letters, collaborative letters and conflictive letters.

Competitive letters includes persuasive letters, such as letters of request, collection and sales, which aims at persuading the reader to do something accordingly. So in fact, it is impolite. However, this impoliteness can be shifted into politeness if the persuading skills are available.

Generally speaking, letters of approval, appreciation and invitation belong to convivial letters which aim at establishing favorable business relationships with the counter party through exchanging beneficial information.

Collaborative letters refer to letters of inquiry, offer, confirmation, notification, recommendation, instruction and directions. The messages these letters deliver are usually neutral news.

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And conflictive letters conclude letters of refusal, claims, adjustment, counter-offer and so on, which, if not written skillfully, may lead to a conflict or even ruin the bilateral cooperative relationships.

When dealing with different types of business correspondence, the writer needs to consider which it belongs to and then adopts relevant methods and strategies so that he/she can realize his/her goals.

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Chapter 2

An Overview of Politeness Principle

Politeness which is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette is a technique of communication. And the goal of politeness is to make all of the parties relaxed and comfortable with one another. Since people are living in different cultures, the understandings of politeness are different.

2.1 Definition of Politeness

The concept of politeness is very important in verbal communication. On many occasions, our friendly relationship is established and maintained through polite use of language, and so are our daily affairs, including business activities. As for the definition of politeness, different linguists have different understandings.

According to Lakoff, politeness is a form of behavior developed in societies to reduce friction in personal interaction in society, and it is a universal phenomena. According to Leech, politeness is a form of behavior to create and maintain harmonious interactions. According to Brown and Levinson, politeness is a form which allows communication to take place

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between potentially aggressive partners. Pan, Y. says in 2000, politeness is the ideology of how human relationships are perceived and how an individual is related to others in a certain context.

All in all, politeness is a quality of making peace with others, paying respect to others and living friendly and harmoniously with others. In this highly competitive world, knowing what politeness is will not only help restrict our impolite behaviors in the business activities and tell us which words sound polite and could be used in business correspondence writing, but also help us understand Politeness Principle better.

2.2 The Development of Politeness Principle

As a kind of communication skills, politeness plays an important role in people?s daily communication. It shows your attention to other?s face in a social interaction. Long time ago, many linguists have proposed their theories about politeness, among which Leech?s Politeness Principle is considered the most important.

In 1983, based on Brown and Levinson?s Face-Saving Theory, J. Leech proposed his Politeness Principle in the book “Principles of Pragmatics” which accounts for certain conversational behavior that Grice?s Cooperative Principle does not satisfactorily explain. In order to formulate the principle, Leech made a very careful observation of people?s

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linguistic interaction. He finds that although in our interaction with others, we normally wish it to be conflict-free to satisfy one another?s needs and interests, we are very often faced with situations in which one has to lose, however minimally, for the other to win. In such cases, there is the danger of insult, and consequently, there may be a breakdown of communication, and good social relations will be difficult to establish and maintain, not to say, develop. Leech suggests that while the Cooperative Principle regulates what we say, Politeness Principle maintains the social equilibrium and friendly relations, which enables us to assume that our speakers are being cooperative.

This is especially true in business correspondence writing. We are usually faced with bargaining, claim and failure. Under those circum- stances, if parties adopt the Politeness Principle, a lot of loss would be saved. Therefore, here comes the necessity of Politeness Principle as the guidance of business correspondence writing. In order to make the Polite- ness Principle more concrete, Leech also holds that it is possible to specify a number of general principles for being polite in social interaction within a particular culture.

2.3 Strategies of Realizing Politeness

In order to obtain maximum profit, cultivate and maintain a friendly

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long-term relationship, parties had better make full use of possible and available strategies of politeness they can think of.

Generally speaking, strategies of realizing politeness can be divided from the aspects of grammar, lexis, and you-attitude.

As to grammar, passive voice is one of the most commonly used grammar for the purpose of avoiding impoliteness, rude, or even conflict. Writers resort to passive voice in business correspondence just in order to show that they have no choice but to do something.

English passive voice sentence often puts the actor or subject at the end of the sentence or omits it, which lays little emphasis on the actor or subject. Thus, it is one of the best methods to prevent a tone of blame in business correspondence, which shows the politeness and consideration of the writer and benefits for the construction of the business relationships.

Among lexis, hedging words and phrases stand out. As for hedging words and phrases, or hedges for short, nowadays, Lakoff?s explanation is widely used. Lakoff defines hedges as:

“For me, some of the most interesting questions are raised by the study of words whose meaning implicitly involves fuzziness-words whose job is to make things fuzzier or less fuzzy.”

When conflicts appear between both parties, the writer can apply the hedging words and phrases, such as “a number of”, “some”, “others”,

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which can avoid making the other party lose his face if the mistake is pointed out clearly. This method not only leaves a larger space for both parties to make a further negotiation but also lays a solid foundation for solving the problem at last.

In elementary terms, the you-approach involves the use of pronouns that do not project the writer, but focus on the reader. Avoid first person pronouns such as “I”, “we” and “our”; prefer the second person, and use “you” and “your” liberally.

In a broader sense, the term you-attitude signifies a style of writing in which the communication is reader-centered. The writer has these questions in mind: Who are my readers? How does this transaction begin? What do they expect to gain from it? In other words, what is in it for them? What questions will they want to rise? Audience awareness, as it is called, is one of the keys to successful communication.

The you-attitude recognizes that communication takes place between real persons, not between robots. The language, therefore, is personal, simple and direct. It is free from highfalutin clichés.

It is quite easy to understand politeness and Politeness Principle. However, the specific strategies of applying Politeness Principle in business correspondence writing are by no means an easy thing.

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Chapter 3

Application of Politeness Principle within Passive Voice in

Business Correspondence

Since business correspondence plays a rather important role in international trade, much more attention should be paid when negotiating parties write business correspondence. As we all know, passive voice can be used to deliberately phrase sentences to exclude the true subject, which is of great help in business correspondence when disagreement, conflict, or other unhappy affair occurs. It is not only beneficial to avoid impoliteness and rudeness, but also to maintain and cultivate a friendly and amicable business relation between parties. The application of passive voice in business correspondence reflects Leech?s six maxims of Politeness Principle.

3.1 Application of Tact Maxim

According to Leech, tact maxim means to minimize cost to hearer/reader and maximize benefit to hearer/reader.

Business negotiation between parties by means of business corres- ponddence is very different from face-to-face negotiation. If some in-

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appropriate sentences are used, disagreement, conflict or even the break- down of business relation will inevitably happen. Although the writer un- consciously adopts impolite sentence pattern, unnecessary misunder- standing would appear between parties. Among all the sentence patterns, passive voice sentence is the most safe and tactful one. Taking the fo- llowing sentences excerpted from a business correspondence as an exam- ple:

(1) a: You did not enclose the cheque in your order. b: The cheque was not enclosed with your order.

It is evident that the two sentences are just talking about the same thing, that is, the other party has forgotten enclosing the cheque. However, sentence is an active voice sentence which points out the mistake made by the reader and blame him/her directly. It leaves the reader a sense of impoliteness and blame. And it seems to express the unsatisfaction and complaint of the writer. This kind of sentence makes the receiver lose his face. It violates Leech?s tact maxim, that is, minimize cost to hearer/reader and maximize benefit to hearer/reader. As a result, the negotiation will no doubt end with an unhappy result. While sentence b is a passive voice sentence which sounds polite, comfort and tact. It seems just to state a fact, at the same time, it also lets the reader realize that he/she has made a mistake. This type of sentence saves the other party?s face and minimizes

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At the beginning of this sentence, the writer takes the initiative to admit his carelessness, which enlarges the degree of agreement and lessens the degree of disagreement. In the latter part, the writer employs a passive voice sentence and further expresses his /her apology, which lets the other party firmly believe that the mistake is not made on purpose. It adheres to Leech?s agreement maxim, that is, minimize disagreement between self and other: maximize agreement between self and other. As a result of this, disagreement is eliminated.

3.6 Application of Sympathy Maxim

In Leech?s definition, sympathy maxim means that minimize antipathy between self and other, in other words, maximize sympathy between self and other.

The key of sympathy maxim is to express the shared feeling between self and other. In the process of international trade, sympathy maxim is usually adopted to show one party?s sympathy to the other who is suffering much loss. For example:

(6) “We regret these faulty goods were sent to you and have today sent a replacement, we hope you will be pleased with the new lot.”

In this case, the writer has made a mistake, that is, to send the faulty goods to the client, so at the beginning of this letter, the writer uses “We

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regret” to show his /her apology and sympathy, and then he puts forward a method to solve this problem, and at last the writer makes the use of the sentence “we hope you will be pleased with…”to express his/her attitude that he/she wishes that his/her counterpart would be satisfied. Meantime, the writer chooses passive voice “faulty goods were sent to you” not “we sent you faulty goods”, which can arouse much more sympathy of the other party. This passive voice sentence fully indicates that the writer is not on purpose and it makes the reader forgive his/her counterpart more easily. This adheres to Leech?s sympathy maxim, that is, minimize antipathy between self and other, in other words, maximize sympathy between self and other, which sets a solid foundation for the friendly business relationships.

The detailed analysis of the application of six maxims within passive voice in Politeness Principle is really important and effective in achieving negotiating goals. Thus, both parties in business negotiation must learn to use it correctly and effectively.

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Conclusion

As business correspondence becomes more and more important in the broader and deeper development of business, more and more scholars and businessmen realize the significance of using right principles to promote the smooth advance of business correspondence. Politeness Principle, as one of the most important principles adopted in business correspondence has grasped the interests of more and more scholars and businessmen and also is studied in details by them. Politeness Principle, by combining with the application of passive voice, is proved to be very useful and effective in helping negotiating parties achieve the business negotiating goals.

This thesis, through the study of cases of business correspondence, analyzes the application of six maxims within passive voice in business correspondence and the important functions of passive voice. With the further development of business correspondence, more and more concrete strategies should be studied in future research to help the negotiating parties achieve the negotiating goals.

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