语用学礼貌原则

CONTENT Acknowledgments (1)

Abstract in Chinese (1)

Abstract in English (2)

Part I Introduction (1)

1.1 Language and communication (1)

1.2 1. International business communication by letter"""""" (1)

1.2.2 The importance of international business letters........。 (1)

1.2.3 English language and international business communication 2

1. 3. 1 What's politeness? (2)

1.3.2 Face, positive face and negative face (2)

1.3.3 Positive and negative politeness (2)

1.3.4 Politeness Principle of pragmatics and international business

letters communicating pleasant and unpleasant news (3)

'art II Politeness Principle of pragmatics and pleasant-news

international business letters (11)

2.1 What are pleasant-news international business letters? (11)

2.2 The language characteristics of pleasant-news international

business letters.............。. (11)

2.3 The sequence of ideas of pleasant-news international business

letters (14)

2.4 Kinds of pleasant-news international business letters (14)

Part III Politeness Principle of pragmatics and unpleasant-news

business letters......。二。二。.. (21)

3.1 What are unpleasant-news international business letters? (21)

3.2 The language characteristics of international business

letters? (21)

3.3 The seduence of the ideas of unpleasant-news international

business letters (28)

3.4 Kinds of unpleasant-news international business letters (30)

dart IV Conclusion................................‘ (36)

3ibliography--" (38)

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks to Professor He Ruiyong

and Professor Zhu Pinfan for their valuable guidance and help

during the course of my writing the dissertation. Without their help,

I could not have finished the thesis in time. My thanks also go to all

the teachers who have taught and helped me here at Guangxi

Normal University.

语用学礼貌原则与国际商务报喜报优信函

九七级英语语言文学研究生农韦芳

导师:何瑞铺教授

朱品凡教授

语言是我们用以相互交际的信号系统。交际是语言的功能.交际即思想、感情、

信息的交流，乃人类一个重要的生存技巧。人们交际来满足各种各样的需要，含生理及心理需要。语言应用在人类交际中至关重要。“良言一句暖三冬，恶语伤人六月寒”。用得好，语言有利于我，用得坏，语言对我有害。我们生活在一个民主、进步的时代，这个时代一个令人关心的问题是，任何人的感情都不应受到伤害，至少不应受到语言的伤害，无论男女老少，尊卑贵贱，皆应如此。人生本来是平等的，我们应该平等待人。没有人喜欢受歧视，使感情、自尊心受伤害。人人喜欢赞美，无人喜欢贬损，这是人性。

人类思维的特点，就是在不同程度上把词与事物、人及思想联系起来，用来思

考的不是活生生的事实，而是词。日常生活中，人们总是把词和它们所指代的事物等同起来。同一个事物，用悦耳的言词来表达，人们就感到愉悦，用难听的话来表达，人们便感到不愉快，例如，对于报优的国际商务消息，若我们用积极肯定的语言来说，就可以减缓这个负面消息的冲击力，保存他人的消极面子，增加消极礼貌，保持顾客对我们的好感，增加我们的国际贸易。

语用学的礼貌原则与国际商务沟通密切相关。当书写报喜国际商务信函时，我

们应当遵循礼貌原则，多说有益于他人，赞扬、赞美别人的话，让高兴的顾客更加高兴，以此来增加积极礼貌，提高他人的积极面子。当书写报忧的国际商务信函时，我们应遵循礼貌原则，少说有损于人的话，减轻报忧消息对人的刺激，这样，就可以让本来已经大失所望的顾客，不那么失望和悲哀，本来令人不悦的消息也可以变得令人喜悦。

在人类交际中，语言应用至关重要。遵循语用学的礼貌原则，可以提高我们国

际商务沟通的能力和熟巧，加速，便利我们的国际商务沟通，使之更为有效。在这篇文章中，我们将从提高国际商务沟通能力及熟巧的角度，探讨利奇在礼貌原则下列出的六项准则，即得体、慷慨、赞誉、谦逊、一致、同情准则，在书写报喜报优国际商务信函中的应用，以便给我们带来更成功的国际贸易。

关键词:语言、交际、礼貌、商务

Abstract in English

Language is a common system of symbols by which we communicate with each other. Communication is the function of language. Communication is the exchange of ideas, feelings and information, and one of the most important human survival skills,

because people communicate to satisfy all kinds of needs, both physiological

ones and psychological ones. Language use is very important in human communication. " Donate people a good word, they will feel warm at heart even

in bitterly cold winter:wound people's feeling with a hurting word, and they

will feel cold even in swelteringly hot summer. "Well一used, language does good

to us;badly-used, it does harm to us. And one of the great concerns in the

democratic and progressive age in which we live seems to be to ensure that nobody' s feelings shall ever be hurt at least not by words, no matter who the person is,

male or female, young or old, rich or poor, well or unwell, high in social status

or low in social position. Everyone is created equal and we should treat one

another as such. No one likes to be discriminated against or prejudiced against,

likes his or her feelings to be hurt or his or her pride to be wounded. It is

human nature that every one likes to keep face and hates to lose face, likes praise

and dislikes dispraise, and likes to be treated politely and equally.

It is characteristic of human mind, in various degrees, of course, to

identify words with objects, persons and ideas, to think much of the time not

in terms of actual situations of flesh-and一blood life, but in reaction to words,

and it is certainly true in everyday life that people frequently act as though

they thought words were identical with what they designate. To the same thing,

if we use pleasant words to present it, people will feel comfortable;i f we use

unpleasant words to state it, people will feel uncomfortable. For example, for

unpleasant international business news, if we use positive language to break it,

we will be able to soften the blow of the negative news, preserve other's negative

face, promote negative politeness, retain customer's goodwill, and increase our

international business.

Politeness Principle of pragmatics has a great deal to do with international

business communication. While writing international business letters commu一

nicating pleasant一news, we should observe Politeness Principle of pragmatics to

maximize benefit, praise and compliment to other, and make the happy customers

even happier, in order to enhance other's positive face, promote positive

politeness. While writing our international business letters conveying

unpleasant一news, we should observe Politeness Principle of pragmatics to minimize

cost to other, to alleviate the sting of the unpleasant news, in order to make

the disappointed customers less disappointed and not so sad. In this way, what

is unpleasant news may be received as the pleasant one. Indeed, language use is

very important and powerful in human communication. Observe Politeness Principle

of pragmatics, we can improve our international business communication competence

and proficiency, accelerate and facilitate our international business communication, and make it more effective. In this dissertation we will discuss

the application of Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim, and Sympathy Maxim of Politeness Principle by Leech in writing international business letters communicating pleasant and unpleasant news from

the perspective of improving our international business communication competence

and proficiency, in order to bring about more successful international business.

key words:language, communication, politeness, business.

Politeness Principle and International Business letters

Communicating pleasant and unpleasant news

Part I Introduction

1.1 Language and communication

Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal symbols which permit all people in a given culture, or other people who have learned the system of that culture, to communicate or to interact (Finocehiaro 1964:8). "Communication is one of the most important human survival skill because it is the way we stay in touch 11th the world and the only way of know ng the world outside our skin". "Communication is the process of exchanging information and meaning behveen or among individuals through a common system of rymbols, signs, and behavor2". Communication is the art and science of encoding and decoding messages, a process in which proper encoding, clear transmitting and receiving, and accurate decoding are all involve氏the exchange of ideas, feelings and information. a process and a kind of activity.

1.2.1 International business communication by letter

Business is all those activities involved in providing the goods and services needed or desired

by people, i.e. the buying and selling of goods and services. Business communication is the

exchange of messages that supports the goal of buying and selling goods and sen-ice." International business communication is a process by which an oral or written message is exchanged between individuals of different cultures through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior, with a

view to producing actual effects in business" 3.

The importance of international business communication.Effective international business communication is the life blood of everw international business organization. Business communication is so important that without it a business organization cannot function since a

business organization is a group of people associated for business, its activities requiring human

beings to interact and react; to exchange information，ideas, plans. proposals; to co-ordinate; to

make decision. And communication to customers, inquirers and the republic can have a far-reaching

effect on the reputation and ultimate success of the company. Thus communicating effectiveiy can contribute in a vasiet<< of ways to the lifeblood of our business organization because successful messages eliminate unnecessan} additional correspondence, save time and expense, create favorable impression, enhance goodwill, and help to increase the company's profit

International business communication by letter.International business communication is concerned with the successful transfer of an idea from one individual to another. It is a vital factor in making the world of international business run smoothly and effectively. This communication may

take many forms, such as letters, interoffce memorandums, reports, telegrams, cables, telexes,

resumes and printed forms that are used for special goals. Here, we'll concentrate on letters.

1.2.2. The importance and the function of international business letter.

An international business letter has the purpose of communicating a message to sell something, to make an adjustment, to collect money, and so forth, and at all times to maintain goodW 1l for our business organization. But no matter how strong and powerful the message is in itself, it can be

effective only江the letter commtuticating the message is faultless. Thus the importance of letter

writing cannot be overemphasized. It is not without reason that it costs more to write a poor letter

than it does to write a good one because the international business letter is an image-maker. Its

format, grammar, stylistics and word usage cojoin to produce a tangible reflection on paper not only of the writer s ability and knowle电e and the typist's competence. but also of a business

organization's total image, Badly-written, business letters may create negative impression on our

recipient5} o they will have second thought about pursuing business relationships with our business organization. The letter, then, Is in fact an exponent of overall organizational syle, regardless of the size of the firm. And if there appears to be no pride in or concern for the qualit<" of something as

basic as our business correspondence, how then can there be concern for or pride in the qualiy of

our products and services? Thus, the impression created by a politely written international letter can be a crucial factor in doing business with our international business counterparts.

1.2.3. English language and international business communication by letter.

English language is the working language of our international business communication by letter. And in this dissertation we'll try to cope with the function and the usage of the English

language in our international business letters communicating pleasant and unpleasant news. Badly- used, English is harmful to us; well-used, it's helpful to us. How can we use English effectively while writing our pleasant-news and unpleasant-news international business letters? Observe Politeness

Principle of pragmatics } please

1.3 Politeness and Politeness Principle of pragmatics

1.3.1 What is politeness:'

"Politeness is one of the major social constraints on human interaction which regulates participants' communicative behavior by constantly reminding them to take into consideration the feelings of others (the interlocutor as well as a third pare not necessaw present,with an emphasis on the former)because it is necessay to consider their feelings so as to establish levels of mutual

comfort and promote rapport, which in turn accelerate and facilitate human communication.

Politeness is a linguistic universal.}4 In simple terms, politeness is the possession of good manners and consideration for other people. Central to the notion of politeness is the notion of face.What is face?What about positive face and negative face?

1.3.2 Face,positive face and negative face

Face is something that can be lost,maintained and enhanced,a kind of the spea- keis public self-image.To be simple,face is one's feeling, pride, digniy and self-respect.Face

consists of positive face and negative face. According to Browh and Levinson,positive face is the

desire to be liked and approved of,e.g. complimenting a friend on a new tie by saying"That is

really a nice tie",we enhance his or her positive face.Negative face is the desire not to be imposed on, bothered, and intruded upon.For example, borrowing money from other is clearly an imposition on that person. Such a request offends the negative face of the addressee, giving no consideration to his

2

or her desire to be free from imposition. Associating with positive and negative face is the notion of positive and negative politeness.

1J3 Positive politeness and negative politeness

1)Positive politeness is the politeness shown for the addressee's positive face,to let him or her

know that he or she is liked and approved ofthe politeness for the addressee's self-image and personality.It means that while expressing face threatening acts which pose a threat to either the

positive face or the negative face of the addressee,we take compensating action to protect the

addressee's positive face,such as praising,agreeing, intimating,complimenting the addressee on his or

her accomplishments, capabilities,attribute,appearance,and possessions; showing the addressee that

he or she is looked upon as a friend or a member of the speaker s "in-group",showing similarity in viewjpoint,affirming the addressee's words and ideas and so forth.

2)Negative politeness is the politeness shown for the addressee's negative face.It means when

stating face-threatening act,we should take compensating actions to protect the addressee's

negative face,show concern for the addressee's face want,such as apologizing,minimizing the imposition,impersonalizing, indirectness in making requests ,using interrogative sentences, the past tense, the subjunctive mood, plural form pronouns, words of thank, and so on. These commu-

nication strategies of showing negative politeness has a lot to do with our writing international

business letters conveying unpleasant news.

Politeness is a sharp weapon in international business world.Writing our international business communications without politeness is like fighting a battle without bullets.How can we enhance

positive politeness and maintain negative politeness while writing our international business letters communicating pleasant and unpleasant news? We can achieve this goal by obsenzng Politeness

Principle of pragmatics.

1.3..t Politeness Principle of pragmatics and international business letters communicating

pleasant and unpleasant news.

Language is a tool to know and communicate. And communication is the function and purpose

of language. Well- used,language is our friend and helpful to us;badly-used,it can be our enemy and

harmful to us.As the old Chinese saving goes,"A wound caused by a sharp knife is easily healed, but

the hatred aroused by a hurting word does not quickly disappear." In order to make language useful

and helpful to us and our international business communication more effective we should be

careful,correct,polite,appropriate and tactful in using it.How can we achieve this purpose more

effectively? We can do so by studying pragmatics and observing its communicative principles. But

what's pragmatics?

Pragmatics,a new subfield of linguistics,deals with particular utterance in particular situations

and is especially connected with the various ways in which the many social contexts of language

performance can influence interpretation.As a topic in linguistics, pragmatics is the study of context

to make inference about meaning. Pragmatics is the study of the intended meaning of a speaker.5

Pragmatics deals with the ways of looking at things, concerns language comprehension and language

production, and .the dynamic communicative meaning of language. It concerns how to express

ourselves well and understand others well. Application is the meaning in use. Pragmatics copes withapplication and the ways of how to use language correctly, politely, appropriately, and

effectively, Pragmatics can help us to develop our language communicative competence and

efficiency. It is of great importance to us because, if we say something grammatically and lexically

incorrect, we are at worst considered as spealang badly, but if we say something in-appropriately ,we

will be judged as behaved badly,such as insincere, untruthful, deceitful, impudent, insolent,

offensive,bad-mannered, ill-willed and so on. Pragmatic failure can cause misconception and

communication break-down. It's indeed a very serious problem. And Politeness Principle, one of

communicative principles of pragmatics, has a lot to do with our international business

communication concerning pleasant and unpleasant news. What is Politeness Principle of pragmatics?

Politeness Principle of pragmatics means to minn*,nE the expression of impolite beliefs and

ma."cimize the expressions of polite beliefs. Politeness is a universal because linguistic politeness

exists in all languages and politeness consideration regulates every human speaker's verbal behavior

in social interaction.We view politeness as one of the major social constraints on human interaction

which regulates participant's communication behavior勿constantly remind them to take into

consideration the feeling of others. It's necessary to consider their feelings so as to establish levels of

mutual comfort and promote rapport, which in turn accelerate and facilitate human communication

(HeZiran ,1992). The Politeness Principle of pragmatics has six ma."cims and four scales:

1) Tact Ma."cim: Minimize cost to other and maa ;} benefit to other. For example, in the

following sentences:

1) Pass me the salt.

2) Have another cake(We can see that (2) is more polite than (1) according to Tact Ma."cim.)

What is tact? Tact is the highest principle of pragmatics. It is the use of skill and understanding

shown、by somebody，who handles people and situations successfully and without causing

offence."'Tact' is a ready and delicate sense of what is fitting and proper in dealing with others, so as

to avoid giving offense; or win goodwill, skill and judgement in dealing with men or negotiating

difficult or delicate situations; the faculty of saving or doing the right thing at the right time."(The

Oxford English Dictionary 1966:536)"Tact' is the keen sense of what to do or say in a difficult or

delicate situation in order to maintain good relations with others or avoid offense."(Webster's Third

New International Dictionary of English Language 1961:1870) From these explanations we can see

5) Agreement Ma."cim: Minimize disagreement bet

between self and other.

6) Sympathy Maxim:minimize antipathy between self and other, ma."}imize sympathy between

self and other.e.g.

(1) A: It was a large order, wasn't it?

B: No, it wasn t very large (impolite, a quite rude reply).

(2) A: English is a diffcult language to learn.

B: True, but the grammar is咖to easy.(a polite answer, showing politeness by preferring

partial disagreement to complete disagreement)

The above maxims are Leech's (1983:132) maxims of Politeness Principle. Here, "self' means

the speaker, and "other is identified with the hearer, but it may also be applied to a third party,

present or absent.

Four scales are:

1) The cost and benefit scale is used to measure the proposed action as a cost or a benefit to the

speaker or the hearer. If the proposed action is a cost to hearer, we should observe Tact Maxim and

Generosity Ma."cim well when communicating with others.

2) The optionality scale is the scale on which speech acts are ordered according to the amount

of choice the speaker allows to the hearer. This scale depends to some extent on the cost-benefit

scale, i.e.江the proposed action is beneficial to the hearer, then the more direct and imposing the

speech act is, the more polite it will be; but if the proposed action is a cost to the hearer, then the

more indirect and optional the speech act is, the more polite it will be.

3) The indirectness scale is the scale on whic玩from the speakers point of view, speech acts are

ordered with respect to the length of the path connecting the speech act to it's force or from the

hearei s point of vew, speech acts are ordered in terms of the length of the inferential path, by which

the force is derived from the speech act. It also has to do with the cost and benefit scale.

4) The social distance scale is the scale that is based on a distinction between power and

solidarity. This scale has two dimensionals, for on the one hand, it measures the social distance in

terms of the power and authority of one participant over the other; on the other hand, it measures the

social distance in terms of solidarity or intimacy between the participants. This two-dimensional

scale is very useful in defining the relationship between the speaker and the hearer in social

interaction, for it can locate the participants on a coordinate with its vertical axis of power and its

horizontal a.}cis of solidarity (HeZiran 1992:3' For instance, how much should we maintain or

enhance othei s face, or how polite should we be towards our interlocutors? This depends on the

contextual features of the on-going interaction. Generally speaking, we should be more polite to

people who are of higher social status and in a position of power; to people who are socially

distant,we may be less polite to our inferiors or our close or intimate friends.

Politeness Principle of pragmatics is very useful in our international business communication.

But how can we observe it more effectively? We can do this by adopting empathy in our

international business communication.

Adopting Empathy. Empathy is also termed as you-attitude or consideration. Empathy is a senseof experiencing the feelings of another, a sense of knowing how another feel, an attitude that enables

a person to identify another s frame of reference (knowledge, feelings and emotions) and to project

or communicate understanding back to the person. The phrases "walking a day in your moccasins",

"putting myself in your shoes", or "putting ourselves in our reader's shoes" mean that empathy

requires us to experience another person's situation, try to see things from our audience's perspective

rather than from our own, try to imagine how he or she will feel about what we write. Empa勿

means we are genuinely thinking of our correspondents and consider their probable reaction to our

messages. It also means that the reader is kept in mind, that we show respect for our readei s feeling

and attitudes, and try to put ourselves in his or her place and handle the matter from their point of

view,and that we should乡ve our consideration to the recipient's request, desires and emotion and

so on. Empathy means we bear our reader in mind while writing our international business

communications conveying pleasant and unpleasant news, keep asking ourselves these questions:

"What are our customer's needs, his or her wishes,interests, problems, and how can we meet them?"

"What would be our own feelings if we were to receive a letter of the kind we propose to write?"

"What will be the most likely receivers' reaction to the message we are preparing to send, what

would our reaction be?" "what does our reader need to know? How can we most effectively, clearly

and politely communicate the information to our reader? "and so forth. Writing from our own point

of view is easy, but not effective. Our message may make perfect sense to us, but our customer may

be confused. Thus the best business writing is empathy-oriented or reader-focused. Indeed, empathy

is of great importance in our international business communication writing.

What is the importance of empathy? Firstly, empathy assists us to keep in touch with the

customers feelings in international business-related situation. Under- standing the situation from

another's point of view makes sense because our receiver W 11 appreciate our attempt to understand

their feelings, that is, our being in touch with them.The outcome may be mutual trust, which can

greatly improve our international business communication and our customer s feeling about us, our

ideas and themselves. In other words, empathy is an excellent way to establish rapport and

credibility, create goodwill and to build long-lasting business relationships. When adopting empathy,

we are often reader-centred rather than self-centred or writer- centered, use you-expressions instead

of we-expressions or 1-expressions. In this way, we can carry out international business

communication more politely and more effectively. For instance:

1) In accordance with your request, } are pleased to forward herewith our catalogue describing

Easy Home Cooking (There is certainly nothing offensive in this sentence; it is simply cold and

mechanical, somewhat aloof, because "we" is the subject of the sentence, and it receives emphasized

attention, and the sentence sounds self-centred or writer-centered). A better way to put it:

Here is the Easy Home Cooling catalog yQU asked for. We hope it will show you the way to a

happy, carefree way of life. (It's more polite than the former sentence because it focuses on the

receiver, expresses a warm wish, and it sounds good-willed and friendly, it certainly helps to

establish mutual comfort, promote rapport, accelerate and facilitate the communication between the

sender and the receiver)

2) } won't be able to send you the brochure this month (we-attitude. Impolite. When thespeech act is a cost to the hearer, the more direct it is, the more impolite it will be. It is inappropriate

for us to emphasize the negative and the unpleasant and state what we can't do instead of what we

can do. This sentence will disappoint the reader because it is written without tact)一We will send

you the brochure next month (This sentence is written with you-attitude, focusing on the positive

and the pleasant instead of the negative and the unpleasant, concentrating on what we can do rather

than what we aren't able to do. It is more polite,tactful,and ac ceptable to the receiver than the former

sentence. It also helps to soften the blow of the unpleasant news and build goodwill, and leave a

good impression on the customer).

3) May I take this opportunity to express my thanks for the account you recently opened with

out store? mare pleased to furnish a wide variety of products for the home or individual.闷卫血want

you to make good use of } store services, for } have the largest stock in the city. Also}make

deliveries of our customer's purchases free of charge within thirty miles of our store.

卫上一always like to receive visit from。‘‘customers, but } also fill orders by phone. Qut customer service department aims to fill every order wathin the same day 1} receive it.

When shopping at }c store downtown, customers are invited to use the free customer parking privilege provided just across the street from

} welcome you to Beckinsori s. If scan be of additional service in any manner, please call

on }. (The above we-attitude department store letter contains twenty "we-our-us-my" pronouns and

only three "yours". Grammatically and lexically spea- king, there is nothing wTOng with it. But pragmatically speaking, it sounds aloof, dominating, superior, arrogant condescending, and lacks politeness, warmth, con- siderateness and friendliness)-一

Thank you for the account yQ,u recently opened at Beckinsori s. Serving you Wth your needs for clothing and home furnishing is a pleasure.

You will find thim}-hvo departments at Beckinsor's stocked with a variety of qualir<} items. And courteous sales clerks are here to assist you in selecting the merchandise that best meets Xour requirements.

If yoy prefer to shop within the comfort of yoyt home, instead of coming to the store, yQU need

only to telephone 782-118217 and ask for "Personal Shopping Service." A Personal Shopper will

gladly take yottt order for any number of items, answers~ your questions about brands and sizes available, and see that the goods}ou ordered reach you by store delivey within a few days. When

yQU shop at our store downtown, ypy are invited to use the free customer parking privilege provided

just across the street. you_are always welcome at Beckinson's. Please call on us whenever yon need additional service.(The second letter contains eighteen you-your pronouns and only two "we-our-us" pronouns. It is full of empathy. It shows interest in the reader, has respect, concern and considerateness for the customer by seeing things from his or her perspective, and emphasizing the benefit on the part of the customer. Its tone is warm, considerate and friendly, such a you-attitude

helps to enhance the receiver's positive face, promote positive politeness, build good- will, establish

good international business relationships, thus it can facilitate and accelerate our international

business communication).

Secondly, adopting empathy,seeing a situation or problem from the receiver's point of view not

that the word "tact" comprise s at least the following content: (1) coma口unication object(target)一others; (2沁ommunication context--situations; (3) communication (4) communication politeness principle--avoid offense; (5)communication effect--ready or keen sense. Tact is very important

indeed in our international business communication.

2) Generosity Maxim: Minimize benefit to self and maximize cost to self.

3) Approbation Maxim: Minimize dispraise of other; maximize praise of other.

4) Modesty Maxim: Minimize praise of self; maximize dispraise of self. e.g.

(1) A: Your business is prosperous

B: Yes, isn't it? (impolite).

(2) Please accept this small sum of money as a token of our esteem (polite).

Please accept this late sum of money as a token of our esteem. (not polite)