Luận văn a study on grammatical metaphor in english business letters

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor - Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation Figure 7; Direction of metapharization...- ‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor Table 2:

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

A STUDY ON GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN

ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS

(Nghiên cứu về ẩn dụ ngữ pháp trong thư thương mại tiếng Anh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2011

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

VU LE HUYEN

ASTUDY ON GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN

ENGLISH BUSINESS LETTERS

(Nghién citu vé Gn du ngit phap trong the throng mai tiéng Anh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60.22.15

Supervisor: Dr NGUYEN HUY KY

Hanoi, 2011

2 Objentives of the study

3 Scope of the study

4 Mcthods of the study

5 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER |: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND: OVERVIEW ON

SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

3.1, Introduction 0 etter aed

3.2 Delinition of Business Letters 22,

3.3 Classification of Busiess Letters cee BD 3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters .0 0.0.0.6 cece teeter need

3.4.2 Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters 26

3.5.2 Results 33

3.5.2.2 Types of Grammatical metaphor used 33

3.5.3 Discussion - 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

1, Recapifulation con nh kén nh nh He Hy nang ki Hà ccoØ Ê

2 Implications 38

RLIfERINCLS Fe KH KHE KH ce eee ete ghế ¬ eens

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

SFG: Systemic Functional Grammer

GM: Grammatical Metaphor

ESP: English for Specific Pumpases

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering

Figure 3: Independence of metafunctions

Figure 4: Mapping of components

Figure 5: Two perspectives an metaphor -

Figure 6: Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

Figure 7; Direction of metapharization -

‘Table 1: Types of grammatical metaphor

Table 2: Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in business leliers

Table 3: Types of grammatical metaphor used in the corpus

Metaphor, based on the association of similarity, is one af the two basic types of semantic

transference Gnetaphor and metonymyy) that have been an interest for a great number of

linguistic researchers According to Galperin (1981), the term “metaphor” can be understood

as the transfercuee of some gualily fiom one subject lp another Halliday gives @ more detailed notion, metaphor is a verbal transference; a variation in the expression of meanings which involves a nomliteral use of a word In particular, metaphor is an irregularity of content that consisis on the use of a word in a sense different from its proper one and relaled to il in terms of similarity Let’s see examples (1) and (2)

(1) The sky is crying,

(2) The old profe:

Following the previous definitions, (1) includes an example of metaphor, ie, “crying”

or emeritus is a rack thal is heeoming brittle with age

This word is used for something resembling that which it usually refers to, that is, it is used

to refer to the weather state of being raining although it usually refers to the physical and emotional state of being crying Example (2) includes a metaphor, too, In this case, the word

“zock” is used in an improper sense, it refers to beings having the quality of being hard and the reason for this transference is the resemblance belwacn the literal and metaphorical references of this term, thatis, the resemblance between rocks and hard persons

Metaphor is very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central intcrest in the study of stylistics But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical rietaphor, a term derived from the notion thal "the form of the grammar relates riaturally to the meanings that are being encoded” (Halliday 1994; xvii)

To be a teacher of ESP of business field, I have found that gramunatical metaphor seems to be

a strange notion to our students so I would like to make an investigation info grammatical

anctaphor in business Ictters with the hope of bringing this knowledge into my teaching work.

technology, business letters are still widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence To achicve desirable results in communicating through business Iett

Desides taking, some remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an aspect of the lexicogrammer which involves a higher level of complexity

in the process of production and interpretation of clauses — the usc of grammatical metaphor

should be paid a great attention, too However, it has not attracted enough research attention,

If we have a good knowlodge af graenatical metaphor, wo oan achicve the desired effsc when dealing with business letters, We may have a better and more thorough understanding of this written fype of discourse

A fictional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will be very helpful to benefit English lcamers in better understanding and cmploying target Janguage and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively,

‘Those theorcticat and practical significanees have inspired me to earry oul A Sturdy

on Grammatical Metaphor in English Business Letters

2 Objectives of the study

The objectives of this paper ara

@ to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional

It is hoped that with these objectives, a full understanding of the use of grammatical metaphor

in business letters will be achieved

Therefore, (hz research questions raised here are:

1) Whatis the ftequency of the use of granunatical metaphor in English business letters?

metaphor in the chosen corpus of Tinglish business letters The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the eBook titled Instant

Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawcett | think such a corpus is large enough for a M.A minor

thesis However, the conclusions are by no moans roprascntatives of business ieHors in all cases,

The theoretical framework for the analysis of grammatical metaphor in this paper is mainly

‘based on the systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Ifalliday, Christian Matthiessen,

and James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional linguistics After analyzing grammatical metaphor used in the chosen letters, some suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given wilh the hope of helping FSP students casily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letters in particular

4 Methods af the study

The study employs the combination of quafitative and quantitative methods Qualitative method helps the study approach the business letter samples and find out the general features and grammatical metaphor used in these letters After the qualitative analysis, the data is also quantitatively analyved In the investigation of data, the descriptive method is employed lo give a detailed description of grammatical metaphor found in the corpus «After the desciiption

of the data, the combination of analytic and synthetic methods will be smployed

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A: Introduction ‘rhis part introduces the rationale, the objectives, the scope and the riethođs of the sindy:

Part B; Development This part is divided into three chapters

Chapter | deats with the theoretical background of ths study An over view of

functional grammar is provided with important concepts relevant to the topic framework.

Chapter 3 is the main part of the study Virstly, some linguistic features of English

for further studies basing on the limitations af the thesis.

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW ON SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR

1.1 Introdnction

We use language (o irlaraeL wifh: one another lo conslrucL end rnainlain our interpersonal

relations and the social order that lies behind them and in doing so we interpret and represent the world for one another and for ourselves Language is a natural part of the process of living, itis also used to store the cxpericnee built up in the coursc of thal process, both personal and collective It is (amang other things) a tool for representing knowledge or to look at this in iermns of language ilsell, for constructing meaning (Matihiensen & Taltiday)

From this point of view, Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) was developed by Michael Halliday and his colleagues This has been a great contribution to lingnistic theory It is different from all the previous models of grammar in that it interprets language as interrelated sols of options for making meaning and sccks lo provide a olcar lationship between finetions and grammatical systems (Halliday, 1994) Our overview on the SFG will focuse on some of the key points (Language and social context, Comlext of cullure, Context of situation, Metafunctions ) of this theory in the next part

4.2, Language and context

A full understanding of a toxl is often impossible without reference to the coniexl in which

it occurs And context can be considered from two perspectives; the context of culture and the context of situation, The former refers to the broad sociocultural environment, which inchides ideology, social conventions and institutions, Halliday arguss that it is the social context for communication that regulates the way the semantics of language are employed

‘rhe latter relates to ths specific situations within the sociocultural environment (Droga & Humphrey, 2002)

Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a theory of language centred around the notion of Janguage function While SI'L accounts for the syntactic structure of language, it places the

this social context, Knowledge of context (culture and situation) tells us significant information about hov language will be used

‘A central notion is ‘stratification’, such that language is analyzed in terms of four strata:

Context, Semantics, Lexico-Grammar and Phonology

SFL troats language and social context as complementary Isvels of scmiosis, related by the

concept of realisation ‘he interpretation of social context then includes two communication

factors, genre (context of culture) and register (context of situation) (Martin, £992-495) The context of culture can be thought of as deriving fiom a vast complex network of all of the genres which make up a particular crdture Genres are staged, goal oriented social processes in which people engage as members of the culture

The context of situation of a text has bccn theoriscd by Halliday (Halliday and Hasan,

1985:12) im terms of the contextual variables of Field, ‘enor and Mode

Field of discourse: rcfors to wha is happening, lo the nature of the social action that is takings place: what is it the participants are engaged in, what is the text about?

‘Tenor of discourse: refers 0 who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their statuses

and roles: whal kinds of role relationship oblain among the participants, including permanent and temporary relationships of one kind or another

Mode of discowrse: refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the participants

arc oxpouting the langmags to da for thom in thal siluation: the symbolic organization of the text, the status that is has, and its function in the context, including the channel (is it spoken or written or some combination of the two’) and also the rhetorical mode what is being achieved

by the text in toms of such calegoris as persuasive, expository, didactic and the Tike

The summary of the relationship between language and contest is displayed in Figure ] below

Context of Culture (Register + purpose)

Figure 1: Genre, register and language

Martin and Rose (2003: 254)

1.3 Metafunctions

With respect to the context of situation, all the situational differences between texts can be

explained by three aspects of the context, namely, field, tenor, and mode Field refers to what

is to be talked or written about; tenor is the relationship between the speaker and listener or the

writer and reader; mode refers to the channel of communication (Butt, et al., 2000) These

three aspects reflect the three main functions, or metafinctions of language Halliday (1994)

describes the three metafunctions as follows:

(1) The ideational/experiential metafunction: It enables people to use language to represent

experience, and is influenced by field.

coherent texts, and is influenced by mode

Fach of the three metafimneltion is abont a differen! aspeel of the world, and is concerned with

a different mode of meaning of clauses, The ideational metafunction is about the natural world

in the broadest sense, including our own consciousness, and is concerned with clauses as representations, The interpcrsonal metafunction is about the social world, cspecially the relationship between speaker and hearer, and is concerned with clauses as exchanges ‘The iextual mctafimction is about the verbal world, espociatty the flow of information in a texl, and

is coneerned with clauses as messages The ideational metafunction relates to the context of cultre, the interpersonal metafinction relates to the context of situation, and the textual metafimction relates to the verbal context

In cach metafunction, an analysis of a clause gives a different kind of structure composed from

a different set of elements In the ideational metafimetion, a clause is analysed into Pracess, Participants and Circumstances, with different parlicipant typos for diffaroul process types Tn the interpersonal metafunction, a clause is analysed into Movd and Residue, with the mood element futher analysed into Subject and #inite In the textual metafunetion, a clause is analysed inlo Theme and Rhee

In this job | Anne we ‘re working | with silver

Vocative | Subject | Finite

Locative Actor Process Manner | kieational

Figure 2: Metafunctional Layering (Matthiessen & Bateman, 1991) Figure 2 shows an analysis of the sentence “In this job, Anne, we're working with silver” into three different structures in the three metafimctions ‘This kind of diagram is called a

“snotafunckonal laycring” diagram in SFG

system for the ideational metafimction in the clause network An important thearetical point is

that in general, in the system networks, the systems within cach metafmelion are closely

interconnected, but are largely independent of systems in the other metafunetions This is

Figure 3: Independence of metatunctions

(Matthiessen and Halliday)

In this network fragment, there are noumal dependency relationships within the mood region

of the interpersonal metafunction, between the mood type and indicative type systems and

between the indicative type and inlerrogative type systems, and there is also a further

interconnection: the tagging system can be entered either from the imperative feanire of the mood type system or fiom the declarative feature of the indicative type system, But there are

no interconnections at all between the mood region of the interpersonal metafimetion and the trasitivity region of the ideational metafunction

is related to the genres which make up a particular culturs Genres are staged goal oriented social processes in which people engage as members of the culture

The context of situation of a text can be analyzed in terms of the contextual variables of Ficld,

‘Tenor and Mode These three aspects reflect the three main functions, or metafimetions of Janguage Gdoational, interpersonal and toxtual) whieh then can bo realized through ene or more of the lexico-grammatical systems (transitivity, mood or theme) On this linguistic background, a phenomenon occurs It is called grammatical metaphor, which is introduced by

Ralliday Further discussion on this phenomenon can bz found im the next scelion,

CHAPTER 2: THE NOTION OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR

2.1 Introduction

As we know metaphor is a very important feature in human language There is no cxagecration when we say that language itsclf is a mctaphor So mctaphor is one of the most popular and widespread figuras of speech with a great variety of definitions given This chapler will deal with the discussion on metaphor, the iwo levels of metaphor: lexical and grammatical metaphors And of couse further discussion and focus will be put on grammatical metaphor

2.2 Definitions of Metaphor

We now start with the definitions of metaphors Aristotle is considered to be the first onc that builds a theory of metaphor He defines metaphor as a “transfer of a name belonging elsewhere” (cited in Michiel Leerenberg, 2001-33) Mowever, this definition is merely at the level of words,

‘Two cognitive linguists who have had a great contribution to the study on metaphor are Lakoff and Johnson with a very well-known bonk “Metaphor We live By” Tn this book, they defined metaphor as a process by which we conceive “one thing in terms of another, and its primary function is understanding” (Lakoff and Johmson, 1980: 36), They have also revealed that anetaphors are not jas! ound in postic or literary Tarysuage, bul also play an important role in coMoquial language and everyday use

A simplified definition is that metaphor is a “mapping of the structure of a source model onto

a targal model” (Ungerer and Schmid 1999: 120) Melaphor is also defined in “A Handbook of Literature” by William Harmon and Hugh Homan (1996) as “an analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first object one ot more of the qualities of the second”

In this definition, metaphor is viewed as the process of cxpressing one thing through another due to the similarities of two objects

We can see thai, most af the definitions discussed so far pay toch allention to the rietaphoriosl moverncnt al lexical level, the changes happen to words, and this is callcd lexical

metaphor.

Michael Talliday, one of the representatives for Systemic Functional Lingmstics, suggests that metaphor does not necessarily happen at the lexical fevel but often at the grammatical level, which is called grammatical metaphor And this interesting linguistic phenomenon will be discussed thoroughly in the next session

2.3 Grammatical Metaphor

Grammatical metaphor is one of the most interesting theoretical notions developed by

Iĩaliđay (1985/1994) within systemic-funetional Grammar In this research paradigm,

Janguage is regarded as a semiotic system which compriscs four differcnt strata (context, semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology) related to each other by means of subsequent realizations Fach realization involves making meaningful choices within the different systems which make up each stratum, Thus, semantics is realized through the lexicogrammar, which is

in turn realized phonologically With this general framework, grammatical metaphor may be defined Broadly speaking, a variation in the grammatical forms through which a semantic choices typically realized in the lexicogrammar, At cach of these two strata, there cxist different components which can map onto each other in ane way ar another, as shown in the following figura (Halliday & Malthicsson, 1999)

Lexicogrammar stratum clause complex clause participant

Figure 4: Mapping of components

In the figure, the solid lines indicate the usual mapping between the components in the two strala, The discourse thus resulls is referred to as the “congrucnt” form (Halliday & Matthiessen, 1999: 227), The dotied lines, on the other hand, indicate the unusual mapping

‘between the components and the resulting discourse is referred to as the “metaphorical” form,

In other words, when a scquence is mapped onto, and thus realized as, a clause complex, a figure mapped onto and realized as a clause, an clement mapped onto and realized as a

participant, the resutting clanse complex, clause or participant is congruent Towever, when a sequence is mapped onto and realized as a clause or even an element, a figure is mapped onto and realized as a participant, and an element is mapped onto a participant other than the usual one, the resulting clause or participant is metaphorical

2.4 Grammatical metaphor vs Lexical Metaphor

Halliday (1985) suggests that metaphor does not necessarily happen at the lexieal level but often at the grammatical level, which is called grammatical metaphor “We are looking at metaphor not ‘fiom below’, as variation in the meaning of a given expression, but rather

‘from above’, as variation in the expression of a given meaning” (1994: 342)

Halliday considered grammatical motaphor as a phonornenon “beyond the clause”, Metaphor can be viewed from two different perspectives: traditional and new Traditionally, metaphor is

‘viewed as variation in the use of words, ic variation in meaning: “a word is said to be used with a transferred meaning” (Ilalliday: 1985) In this sense, a lexeme with a certain literal mcaning can have metaphorical, transferred uses or meanings, This is calcd a view “from below”, taking the wards as starting point, and then saying something about the meaning these worils realize The ofher perspective introduced by Halliday is one “fram shave” Tn this point

of view, the starting point is a meaning, and metaphor is defined as “variation in the expression

of meanings” hese two perspectives can be seen clearly in Ligure 5 below

Kiterally metaphorically ‘many people (protested)

‘a moving mass ‘a moving mass of feeling

Taking the view “from above’, it is recognized that “lexical selection is just one aspect of Jexicogrammatical selection, or and that

Jexicogrammatical rather than simply lexical” (Halliday, 1994) ‘This brings Halliday to

“wording’, metaphorical variation is

grammatical metaphor: ‘here is a strong grammatical element in rhetorical transference, and one we have recognized this we find thal there is also such a thing as grammatical metaphor, where the variation is essentially in the grammatical forms although often entailing some lexical variation as well (ibid)

In the arca of grammatical metaphor, Halliday claims that the tem ‘literal’ is no longer appropriate ‘The variation between the different expressions of the same meaning is defined in ierms of markednoss: a corlain farms can be recognized as ummarked expressions of the given jueaning, confotming to the ‘typical ways of saying things’ these foums are the non- metaphorical variants, which are called “congruent” realizations

It is useful to point out some general aspects of the shift in the perspective: from a focus on Jexical variation (traditional vicw) to a focus on grammatical variation (new view)

‘The recognition of grammatical metaphor is a consequence of the ‘view from above’ Acoonting lo Halliday, the main feature of the -visw “from above’ is that il dofines molaphor as -vatiation in the expression of a given meaning, rather than variation in the meaning of a given expression, ‘’he main differences between the two perspectives can be summarized in Figure 5

comparison of the meaning of one lexeme

ổn differcni collocational contexts)

compatisen of various grammatical configurations as expressions of the sams

the concept of realization is not used in the _ the feature of congruency applies fo

traditional view on mctaphor roalizations of the same meaning

Figure 6 Two perspectives on metaphorical variation

2.5, Classification af Grammatical Metapher

Halliday makes a distinction between two main types of grammatical metaphor: There are two main types of grammatical metaphor in the clause: metaphors of mood (including modality) and melaphor of transitivity In terms of the model of somantic functions, there arc respectively, interpersonal metaphors and ideational metaphors, (Halliday, 1994:343) Some details of these two types will be discussed in the next part

2.5.1 Ideational Grammatical Metaphors

Ideational Grammatical Metaphors are called metaphor of transitivity The grammatical

variation between congruent and incongruent forms here applies to transitivity configurations,

and can be analyzed in terms of the fimetional structure of these configurations (Miriam Taverniers, 2002) In other words, the ideational function, with which we are coneemed here,

is closely tied to the transitivity system, which enables us to construe the world of our cxpericnc: into a limited set of process types (material, mental, rclational, behavioural, verbal, and existential) Processes are realized as a configuration of transitivity functions which represent the process, the participants in the situation, the attributes assigned (o participanls, and the circumslanecs associated with the process, Proc!

are typically realized by verbal groups, participants (Actor, Senser, Phenomenon, Cartier, ete.) are usually worded as nominal groups: participants” attributes are represented by adjectives, and cireumstances (of time, place, manner, cte,) arc generally associated with the process Processes are typically realized by verbal groups, participants (Actor, Senset, Phenomenon, Carrier, etc.) are usually worded as nominal groups, participants? attibutes are represented by adjectives, and circumstances (of time, place, manner, etc.) are generally associated with adverbial groups or prepositional phrases These are typical pattems of lexicogrammatical realization (what Ilalliday calls congruent forms),

‘but other less typical encodings are also potentially available ta the language user (1.6 metaphorical fous), By way of ilhustration, consider these two examples

(@) We walked in the evening along the river to Henley

(b) Our evening walk along the river took us to Henley

Tt may be casily observed thal both clauses (a) and (b) allow us lo describe the same situation, However, the process constituents in (a) have been realized in a congruent fhshion, whereas (t) evidences a preference for metaphorical modes of expression Thus, the material Process walk, realized by a verb in (a), is cncoded in (b) as a participant (Actor) which attains Jexical expression by means of a noun, ‘The two circumstantial elements of time Gn the evening) and place (atong the river) become in (h) respectively, a classifier and a qualificr af the new Actor, the circumstance of time is now realized as a noun, whereas the place element remains a prepositional phrase (although at a different rank within the olause) ‘The Actor of (a) is split into two parts, the first part fimetions as a possessor of the entity (our evening walk along the river), the other as Affected (us) of a new material process expressed by the verb

took Halliday (1994: 346) argues that a combined analysis shonld match the constitnents of

the ongruenl and molaphorical versions as much as possible so that il may be oasier lo grasp contrasts in grammatical function; this may also help us te show the simultaneous occurence

of lexical metaphor and, most importantly, to draw justified conclusions as to the possible

functional motivation for the choice of a mctaphorical variant:

‘on the fifth day” “they” “at the summit’ | ‘arrived’

circumstance: participant circumsianee: | proc

verbal group

most congruent form)

a Advanecs in technology are speeding up the writing of busiuess programs

, Advances in technology are making the writing of business programs faster

c Advances in technology are enabling people to write business programs faster

d Bocausc technology is advancing, people arc able to waite business programs faster,

2 Because technology is getting better, people are able to write business programs faster

A numiber of aspects are mentioned aboul the distribution af transitivity mtaphors Ideational xuetaphors are found in all types of adult discouse, However, complete congruzney and complete incongruency are rare: “It seems that, in most types of discourse, both spoken and written, we tend to operate somewhere in between these two extremes Something which is totally congrucnt is likely to sound a bit flat; whereas the totally ineongrment often sccms

artificial and contrived.” (Halliday, 1985: 349)

fi gonoral, it is argued that writlen language has more idsational metaphors than spoken discowse This is attributed to a more general difference in types of complexity, written language is said to be “lexical dense”, whereas spoken language is “gramunatically intricate”,

Tn writin language, various lexical moaning arc oflen “packed” into one single nominal group, This is the environment in which ideational metaphor occurs

Itis also needed to mention here the occurrence of demetaphorization: grammatical metaphors

anicaning of the process is expressed by the Range rather than the verb

(2) Examples such as: She har brown eyes (which has congruent form as her eves are brown) ot he has a broken wrist (congruent: his wrist is broken)

(3) Expressions such as; he writes good books (congrucnt: he writes books, which are good) owe sell bargains (congruent: the thing we sell are cheap)

3.32 Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphors

Two types of interpersonal grammatical metaphors can be distinguished as metaphors of mood

and of modality

2.5.2.1 Modality metaphors

The grammatical variation which ovcurs is baszd on the logico-scmantic relationship af

projection In other words, projection is involved when modality is expressed metaphorically

The projecting clause involved usually has a word or proposition which signifies belief,

likclihood, certainty, or other features which onc cannects with modality

La J think it’s going to rain

b Congruent: Tis prohably going lo vain

2 a He doesn’t believe it can be proved by statistics

b Congrnent: It probably can’t be proved by statistics

Speakers can express their opinions in separate clauses in various ways:

At ix obvious that

Everyone admits that

The conchusion can hardly be avoided that

Common sense determines thai

You can't seriously doubt that

However, “It is not always possibl: to say cxacily what is ant what is nol a metaphorical representation of modality” (Halliday, 198Sa: 334) due to the great diversity in expressions of modal meanings ‘The features of metaphorical expressions can be identified as following:

isn’t it (not: don’t 1)

(2) When the praposi on is negative, the negation can cither be expressed in the proposition itself, or in the projecting clause:

3 a, I think Jane doesn’t know

I don’ think Janc knows

2.5.2.2, Mood metaphors

In order to understand the notion of interpersonat metaphors of mood, it is necessary to

consider what the default types of encoding are In tenms of inoed, Halliday distinguished

three majar types of interactive fimetions: statements are expressions which gives information, questions are expressions which ask for information, and commands are expressians which ask for something lo fake place Fach of these functions has its standard, default type of

encoding: statements are encoded by declarative, questions by interrogative, and commands

declarative Thave never let you |Twonder where you You should tell me

interrogative Lave leverlet you | Where have you Could you tell me

imperative Adwit that Thave | Tell me whore you Tett ine the inh!

It is also not easy to decide whether a given expression should be interpreted as a mood metaphor because of the diversity of possible expressions of mood meanings

2.6 Summary

This chapter has focused mainly on the notion of grammatical metaphor within the fiamework

of systemic fimctional grammar To master the notion of grammabcal metaphor, the notian of

lexical melaphor, which is tradilionatty known, has bson also discussed As we can soz in this chapter, grammatical metaphor can be explained in relation to lexical metaphor, It is recognized that lexical selection is just one aspect of lexicogrammatical selection, or

‘wording’, and that nictaphorical variation is lcxicograrnmatical rather than simply lexical In

evolved to represent them (llalliday, 1994) Or grammatical metaphor is a lexicogrammatical

phenomenon which first involves the (rausealegorizalion of various clements in a elausc, and

second 1s a mapping of the semantic and lexicogrammatical components in a way which

deviates from the usual one (Ilalliday & Matthiessen, 1999), And the two types of realization

relationship between grammar and scmantics arc referred to as congrucnt (or non-

metaphorical) and incongruent (or metaphorical) Grammatical metaphor can be classified into idcational and interpersonal metaphor The fatter ean he further classified into interpersonal

suodality metaphor and interpersonal mood metaphor

In the next chapter, we will explore how grammatical metaphor oconrs in English business Jetters through the analysis of the corpus in terms of grammatical metaphor

3.1 Introduction

Due to the profound political and economic changes in the world, the commercial relations of different nations have noticeably increased and Linglish language is now considered by many nations as an intemational language According to Strcvens (1987; 56) "English is uscd by more people than any other language on the earth, although its mother-tongue speakers make

up only a quarter or a fifth of the total." ‘Today more and more people use English as a national, socond, or forcign language, or as a language for commerce, industry, scicnes, and other purposes

To be involved in the world business, there is always a need for an internationally accepted Janguage English is uscd in elobal business for transactions in goods and services, technical specifications, finaneial reports, and other purposes among non-native and native speakers throughont, the work In spite of widespread developments in conmmunicaliom Lechnology,

Should also be accepiable in respect lo sociocultural aspects, Writing for a business audience is usually quite different than writing in the humanities, social sciences, or other academic disciplines When you write a business document, you must assume that your audience has limited time in which lo read it and is likely to skim Your readers have an interest in what you say insofar as it affects their working world, ‘they want to know the "bottom line": the paint you are making about a situation or

problem and how they should respond (Freeman, 1997) Poe also states “A good business

letter is one that obtains the results the writers hoped for” (Poe, 1988: 3)

In the following section, some discussion on business letters will be dealt with

3.2 Definition of Business Letters

‘We will start with the definition of a business letter There are many ways to define a business

letter, however, we consider the following ones most suitable to the context of the present

study: According to Oxford Advanced Leamer's Dictionary, a letter is a written message

addressed to a person or an organization, usually in an envelope and is sent by post Business

refers to the exchange of goods or services for the reason of money or other goods So a

business letter is a letter dealing with business, used in the negotiation of trade conditions in

national or international business, concerning the quality of specified goods, specifications,

quantity, price, shipment, insurance, payment, disagreement, claim, etc The other definition

by Jacky Gamble eHow contributor (http://www.ehow.com/facts_5024015_business-letters-

definition html), business letters are formal letters used for business-to-business, business-to-

client, or client-to-business correspondence These two definitions share some common

features In general, business letters refer to business transactions With the combination of

these two definitions, we will have a general understanding a business letter Communication

in business is of great importance for the smooth development of the international trade And

business letters are very frequently used means in today's business communication by business

firms to keep in touch with their customers

3.3 Classification of Business English letters

Business is very complicated transaction involving series of different procedures Stewart

(1984) classified business letters as follows:

1) Classification according to the content of the letter The following types of letter are among the most frequent in use: request letters, letters answering requests, claim and

adjustment letters, credit and collection letters, sales letters, employment letters and social

business letters, ete

2) Classification according to the different functions in the process of a business trade

Business letters may be used in every part of business activities There are letters for

ete

3) Classification according to the naturz of the information given Slewarl summed up

four different kinds of information according to its effect on the reader's demands: good news,

neutral news, bad news and persuasion Accordingly, there are good-news letters, neutval-

news Ictters, bad-news Ictters and persuasive letters Good-news letters and ncutral-news

Jetters are together called everyday letters

3.4 Characteristics of Business Letters

3.4 1 Characteristics of Business Letters in general

Business letter communication is important since not all businessmen have the chance or time

to have a face-to-face negotiation In reality, most of the deals are achieved or supported by

iettcr communication A well-written business ictter promotes the trade as well as good

friendship ‘Iherefore, certain principles are needed for guiding business letter writing A good

‘busin

5 correspondence is brisf, friendly, taclfud, and courteous We should be well aware that our readers have a variety of communication assignments in their daily life, regardless of the size or complexity, ‘I'he number of business message increases everyday All this challenges readers’ altention, therefore, business letters have to be livelier, easier lo read, more

concise, and more interesting

“The followings are some of the important characteristics of a business letter

Scientific Expression must he of great consideration Scicntific expression means something

said directly and briefly, A good composition is essential for a business letter To that end, a jetter must be waitten clearly Clarity in writing letters is of particular importance because many poopte have a lol of letters to deal with and they canal waste their time trying to interpret the meaning of the composition A letter written clearly in simple language conveys the meaning immediately to the reader

Any business letter must be short The significance of a short letter is that the person reading

the letter must understand the significance of the letter in the minimum possible lines This is

must not be abrupt and vague In the busy world of trade and commerce, people do not have

much time in the midst of feverish selivi

‘the reader rather than pleasing hinvher

s Thus, a wordy and circunitocutory leticr imitates

The tone of the letter is another very important aspect of the (etter The letter must sound

polite, courteous and fim The letter should also sound convincing and nmust have a polite

tone

Accuracy is important in ø business letter Whalover you commmunicale in a tollsr must bs

accurate, The facts mentioned by you must be true and genuine The writer must employ a suitable style and correct format Rules of grammar and style mst be followed, Comect construction of sentences and punctuation are essential in a business letter

Association of ideas is also crucial The idcas and facts mentioned in the letter must be inferlinked it must be well-planned so that the reader is able to understand it easily The writer aust deal with various faets one by ong He must prepare a divgram in his rind and work upon it Coherence in wiiting makes it interesting and affects the reader positively Tharetore, association of interconnection of ideas is a plus point in good business commmmication ‘There anust be proper paragraph divisions in w Teller Rach distinel paint snest be expressed in a separate paragraph

Potiteness and optimism are the ‘passwords’ in the business world Business letters must be

determines the field of business letters

Nowadays, the business world is busily runing, Everyday, the businessmen will handle a Jot of telephone calls and dozens of transactions Although they are busy in managing everything, they should acknowledge that they would be rather careful and considerate with their customers Otherwise, their mistake or carcless fault will possibly result in failure or great loss in their business Therefore, they should always keep their subject in mind What they will do to deaf with the signing of Ihe contract? Ts il appropriate ta write a lollsr in this way? Is it economical to handle the business in this way? How can I remain the good and long-standing relationship with my customers? Is my bid tender competitive compared with the other biđđers? The businessmen take all these factors into consideration and then decide how to manage thom These factors, as a result, form the ficld of a business letter The ficld of

a business letter is to obtain complete understanding between the parties involved, and elicit the response required The first objective can be achieved through clarity of expression; the second demands the sight approach, This means that the businessmen should be courteous, honest, tactfil and genuinely interested in promoting a mutually beneficial business arrangement, Laking into account their customers requirements, tevel of understanding, ad probable reaction to the information

(i) Tenor

The tenor of business Icttors ics to the role rdationship balween participants in such situations The social roles have already been observed and very well detined, Now, for instance, considering the ultimate purpose of the shopkeeper or producer, there is a lot of persuasion, be il gentle or other, to effect a transaction, People are in business to make money

and not to waste time A cordial, cooperative tone in correspondence can do much to establish

satisfactory relations, and such retations ars important in business

Such considerations in the tenor of business letters arc necessary as business communication may include other aets in addition to the acts of buying and selling, Promoting

business communication there are already well-established sub-varieties such as letters of complaint, loticrs of application, loticrs af adjustments, ete

(iti) Mode

As this thesis focuses on the written business letters, the transmission charmel is through the written communication On the other hand, mode deals with the cohesion and textual structure of the written work

On ths lexical level, clarity is the first requirement of an effoelive Iotlor To accomplish this goal, the diction should be short, familiar, and conerete,

On the syntactic level, a sentence is the basic nnit of language containing a subject, a verb

or verb phrase and a complement in business letters, in order to achieve clarity and completensss, the sentence should be short and complete, Onc sentence is stated for one topic

“Try to avoid the long and complicated sentence and the use of sentence fragments

An analysis of businoss letters in terms of grammatical metaphor, onc of uscfil tools for a

‘Dusiness letter to create its characteristics, will be presented then to see how this Jexicogrammatical phenomenon is used in this type of discourse

3.5 The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters:

3.5.1 Data analysis framework

‘The corpus is a collection of 20 authentic real-life English business letters randomly chosen from the cBook titled Instant Business Letters Kit by Shawn Fawectt The samples arc Istters

of various types such as: contract, appreciation, complaint, inquiry, demand, introduction,