Luận văn language used in business response letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies

Abstract: Understanding the impartance of language used in commercial correspondence especially in business response letter, with the eves of a teacher and a language user, the researc

IN TERMS OF SPEECH ACTS AND POLITENESS STRATEGIES

Nguyen Thi Minh Trang' — Ulis

Abstract: Understanding the impartance of language used in commercial correspondence

especially in business response letter, with the eves of a teacher and a language user, the

researcher has conducted a dacumentary research to figure out the types of speech acts cand

politeness strategies used as wellas their frequency in business response letters In the process

of analyzing letters, the researcher had divided them inte different party in order to deeply

understanding the purposes of the writers in using a particular type of strategies From than,

the effects of the speech acts and politeness strategies in conveying the writers ‘messages are

analyzed The result from analyzing 50 business response letters showed that representattves,

directives, expressives and cammissives were faur mast frequently used types af speech acts

Resides, the frequency of negative paliteness strategies overwhemed the positive ones, Based

tn the results of the research us a male of a language user, the: reseeurcher is ale ta evabate

the effectiveness uf different language used! sirutegies in writing u business response letter:

as a role of a teacher the researcher hopes to raise ESP teachers’ awareness of helping

students differemiate the use of language in different types of response letter rather than

copying the formats

Keywords: speech acts, politeness strategies, business response letiers

1 INTRODUCTION

It is clear that letters have been a crucial communication channel for human being

to exchange information since writing letter was invented Nowadays, with the rapid

development of technology, fax and email have gradually replaced handwritten letters

However, in whatever forms, language is the key to make a successful fetter It reflects the

language competence and the attitude of both the writer and his company (Ashley, 2003)

Besides, business correspondence is considered the medium (o connect sellers and buyers, business partners, creditars and dehtors in case it is unable or inconvenient for them to hiave direct meetings In these kinds of correspondence, whether they are letters, faxes or emails, appropriate language uscd helps to express the aims of the writers in the mont professional way This means, besides the information of intraducing, promoting or trangtrang L989/0)gmail.eom

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concluding transactions, language in business letters conveys the good will of the writer

as well as his respoct to the readers It decides the success or failure of transaction in business community

Furthermore, English is widely used as an intemational language Thus, a large

sumber of business correspondences have been written in English Among those letiers, response letters account for a hig proportion ‘I’his type of letters plays an important role

in connecting the providers and the consumers If enquiries letters serve the purpose of

exploring the information related to goods or services, letters for responding do not only

reply to the enquiries but also provide a wide range of information about goods and

services, prices or transport in order to sell the products In many cases, the providers may suggest alternatives or refer the customers to another place if they no longer produce the products In all cases, the writers are expected to be wise writers so that their words convey

clear meanings (Forbes, 1981) and impressive messages to persuade the readers and also

to create the formalily In other words, producing speech acts maintaining politeness and

protecting the face of both readers and writers are the crucial criteria of a response letter

In order to achieve these goals, the writers can use various politeness strategies such as

positive or negative strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson (1978), politeness rules

by Lakoff (1973) or politeness principles by Leech (1983)

Besides, commercials correspondences have been taught in many universities but mainly focused on letter formats, Therefore, thiy research hupes to raise awareness

of teachers in helping students understand the different meanings of language used in

commercial carrespondenccs, especially response letters

The aforementioned reasons leave a place for the researcher to carry out a research paper entitled “Language used in business response letters in terms of speech acts and

politeness strategies”

2 SPEECH ACT

2.1 The concept of speech act

The term “speech act” is believed to be first mentioned by J.L Austin, a British

philosopher of languages in

series of leclures at Harvard University in 1955 Those lectures were edited and published posthumously by Oxfard Tiniversity Press as a book entitled How to Do Things with Words (1962) Later on, one of his fellows, 8 Searle

developed his own ideas on the field based on Austin's though, Searle’s arguments were

discussed deeply in his work Speech Acts (1969) Generally speaking, both philosophers

agreed that there existed other meanings or actions via utterances themselves

Austin paid much attention in “speech situation as a whole” (Austin, 1962, p.137) as

it was believed to be an important factor correlated with the meaning of an utterance Also,

by means of asgaciated linguistic conventions, the speaker, with an associated intention,

actually performs an act to the hearer, which induces a certain response from the hearer,

Like Austin, Searle believed the meaning could nat be accounted without the existence

of the context of speech act In Searle, sentences themselves do not express a proposition Instead, tokens or sentences in a context, express propositions However, Searle focused

more on explaining the illecutionary force In his work (Scarle, 1969), Searle responded

to Austin’s call for a gencral thcory of specch acts by providing three dimensions of an

ullerance which were rules proposition and meuning Searle goes further than Austin in

providing nal only the necded gencral framework for a theory of speech acts bul also a

ticher specification of the detailed structures of speech acts themselves In Searle’s ideas,

he discussed speech acts in three main aspects including the rules governing speech acts,

the various meanings of a proposition regarding different elements such as words order

and toncs, and the relationship between convention meaning and its effects Searle tended

to analyze more detailed than presenting general theory like Austin did

2.2 Classification of speech act

2.2.1, Austin’s dassifieation

In the latter part of the William James Lectures, Austin introduced the concept of

iNocutionaryacts,and carefully distinguishesthem from /ocutionaryactsandperfocutionary

acts, According to his classification, locutionary acts include phonetic acts, phatic acts, and rhetic acts Perlocutionary acts are, on the other hand, acts attributed to the effect of

uttering a sentence By these distinctions, Austin has shown that, unlike locutionary acts,

illocutionary acts have a force Unlike perlocutionary acts, illocutionary acts are valid and complete without being reduced to the effect of it In other words, illocutionary acts

including verdictives, exercitives, commissives, behabitives and expositives are using a

sentence to perform a function Although this clarification is considered not complete, it

is best seen as an attempt to give a general picture of illocutionary acts

2.2.2 Searle’ ideas

The speech act theorists after Austin have focused more on explaining illocutionary

acts in a narrow sense For instance, John Searle inherited Austin’s ideas and elaborated

on some of them in his paper (1969) Besides, he also developed the theory in his own style such as performing an illocutionary act is expressing an illocutionary intention (Searle, 1979) Searle's notion of the speech act theory was developed along this line Then, in their works, Searle (1983) and Scarle and Vanderveken (1985) attempted to

explain illocutionary force in a formal model which was compatible with the formal

analysis of propositional contents.

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In A Taxonomy of Lllocutionary Acts (1975), Searle analysed weaknesses of Austin’s classification which were confusion between verbs and acts; not all the verbs are illocutionary verbs; overlapping among the calegories amd within one category; and unclear principles to classify speech acts

Accordingly, Searle suggested an “alternative taxonomy” (p 354) including five types of speoch acts which arc representatives , directives, commissives, expressives and declaratives This way of classification is clear and logical Bach calegory has ils own Principle and does not overlap others

2.3 Direct and indirect speech acts

In his book, Yule (1996) introduced a ditterent approach to speech acts types made

on the basis of structure He argued that in English there were three basic structural forms

going with three communicative functions

He pointed out that “whenever there is a direct relationship between a structure and

a function we have a direct speech act” and we would have indirect speech act when

“there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function” As people can use

various ways to express their wants, indirect speech avls are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech acts (Yule, 1996, p.56)

3, POLITENESS

3.1 The concept of politeness

People may have different ways of defining the rm “politeness”, Some people feel appropriate behaviors in ceriain circumstances mean politeness Some other value more

on cultivated men or women (Richard, 2003) According to some traditional rescarchcrs

such as Lakoff (1973 & 1977), Brown and Levinson (1978 & 1987) and Leech (1983),

politeness belongs to the linguistic pragmatics area and bases on some particular rules

In some later research, researchers like Eelen (2001), Mills (2003) have analyzed more

on the nature of politeness concerning some affected factors such as situations or genders besides linguistic devices or strategies

3.2, Politeness strategies

Brown é& Levinson (1987) held the view that nearly all speech acts were FTAs, Some threaten the hearer’s negative face by imposing on him Other FTAs threaten the hearer’s positive face by indicating the speaker's lack of concem for the hearer’s seli-image, Thus,

in order to avoid FTAs or minimize the threat of these ucts, people use various ways which are called politeness strategies According to the face-threatening degree of speech acts, speakers ean choose to do or not to do the FTAs in which the risk of face lost will be increased or decreased as the following figure (Brown & Levinson, 1987).

4, BUSINESS RESPONSE LETTER

Theterm “business letter” refers to all types of formal written communication starting

with a salutation, ending with a signature and whose eontents are professional in nature (

Wickford, 2011) A business letter is usually used when writing from one company to another, or for correspondence between such organizations and their customers, clients

and other external parties It is considered the primary mean (Nguyen, 2008) to help companies keep in touch with their customers

There are various types of business letters such as sales, ordors, complaints, enquiries and replics Each of thom has its awn functions, among thosc, replies ar rospons letters play an important role in maintaining and developing the business of a firm If an inquiry

indicates interest of potential customers in the company, the inquiry reply should be designed not only to increase that interest, but also to inspire the inquirer to action (Nguyen, 2008)

Therefore, the language uscd in response Ictters is essential to create the success of them

‘The writers need to take the correspondents’ fecling inta account hy expressing politer

5 METHODOLOGY

50 letters of responding are selected ftom Oxford handbook of commercial correspondence (Ashley, 2003), The language of business correspondence in English

(Nguyen, 2008) and from example response letters of some companies such as Sun Lee

Consultancy Ltd or Vieam |landicraft company The chosen letters have the correct form of a letter, formal language and appropriate length (at least 99 words) The letters

were numbered from 1 to 50; speech acts and politeness strategies used were classified

The author uses two analysis methods which are content analysis and statistical analysis Hirst, content analysis method is used in the process of reading the collected letters and categorizing language used into different types of speech acts and politeness

strategies Then, the author figures out the frequency distribution of these types by

statistical analysis method applying the following formula:

A= x *100%

M

A: Frequency distribution of a speech act/ politeness strategy

X: The mimber of sentences used the speech acts/ politeness strategies

¥: The total number of sentences used speech acis/politeness strategies

Finally, the findings were summarized and conclusions are drawn by the researcher

to answer two research questions:

1 What ave the types uf speech acts used in studied response letters and their purposes?

2, What are politeness strategies used in studied response letters and their purposes?

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6 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

6.1 Realization of speech acts used in business respanse letters

6.1.1 Representatives in business response letters

The priority of a response letter is to reply to the inquiry of the customer in terms of

products status, price and methods of payment As a result, representati

in all collected response letters to ceport an action, to present the conditions or terms of

the inquiry and to inform new information

are employed

First, the writers use representatives to report their companics’ actions such as

enclosing catalogues, price lists or samples Besides, representatives are used to describe the condition of the inquiry or the terms of payment or to introduce some people who ure

going to be directly assigned to take over the transaction with the customers, For many

letters, representatives are used ta report that the company has received the inquiry

By using representatives, the writers have presented the needed information clearly and precisely, the goal of describing, reporting the inquiry status or explaining the terms

related to the products as well as the role of related people are still made Moreover,

representative speech acts also help the companies to advertise their products Thanks to

this type of speech act, more than introducing their products, the writers also convince the

readers to believe and to purchase the products or to show their regrets iC the inquiries are out of the capability of the supplier

In short, representatives are the most frequently used speech acts in the 50 collected

response Jellers This is one of the effective ways to serve many requirements of the

writers like reporting, describing, introducing or informing information

6.1.2 Directives in business response letters

Directives are rated the second frequently used in collected business response letters

‘Most of the letters in general and in business response letters in particular, the writer finishes his wriling by a phrase “7/We look forward tu’ This phrase is nol merely a

goodbye sentence but more than that, it conveys the hope of actions from the readers

Apart from a fix phrase, many writers apply imperative to direct the customers to

purposive actions By imperative semlences, the requests or eommunds ure stated clearly,

which helps the reader understand easily Not only serving the purpose of the writer, directives in the form of imperative sentences also creates positive effects to the readers

as they immediately bear in mind the messages Besides, the indirect directives are uspally

employed to show the respective attitude of the supplicrs when they have desires referring

to cnstomers’ actions.

Generally, directives sentences are applied in both direct and indirect requesting structures in business response letters The dircet ones have a great effect of supplying

information and call for customers’ order Meanwhile, the indirect structures can create

positive emotions to the readers and show the respect of the writers

6.1.3, Expressives in business response letters

Response letters are considered a ridge connecting the customers and the suppliers When receiving an inquiry, it is necessary for a company to show their attitude towards that inquiry which will decide the success of business transactions, If the suppliers show that they are interested in the order and willing to provide their products and services, the customers will feel to be weloome and eager to continue the business To complete its role, expressive speech act in business response letter is indispensible

In most of the collected letters, the writers begin with a thank you sentence referring

to the customers’ inquiries Besides using direct words “thank you” to express thankful

attitude, the writers make use of expressive speech act to remind the readers the inquiries”

information In uddition, expressive sentences play a significant role in showing the companies’ enthusiasm in serving the customers

To conclude, the main role of expressive speech act in business response letters is

to thank the customers for their inquiries Besides, it helps to transmit the emotion of the

writers like interests, enthusiasm or regret

6.1.4 Commissives in business response letters

Expressing commitments in terms of providing high quality products and services

along with appropriate contract terms are also the purpose of business response letters

‘Thus, commissives are applied in lots of the letters

When replying for an inquiry, there are many possible situations that need specific

actions from the suppliers For example, the suppliers may present negotiable prices,

confirm the delivery time or send representatives to directly discuss with the customers

In such cases, commissives are effectively applied to show the suppliers’ commitments

regarding the quality of the products Most of the commissive sentences are placed at the last paragraph of the letters With good will attitude and formal structures, these sentences play a remarkable role in transmitting the message of business response letters

6.2, Overview of speech acts used in business response letters

‘The following table and pie chart describe the frequency of speech acts employed in

50 collected response letters

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Representatives

e Expressives

= commisves

Figure 4

: Speech acts in business response letters

In conclusion, representatives and directives are the two main tools to setve the writers’ purposes in writing response letters Besides, commissives and expressives play their role in creating positive impressions and showing the suppliers’ cooperative wants,

6.3 An analysis of business response letters in terms of Politeness Strategies

In order to analyze the data more easily, the researcher categorized the components of 50 collected letters into 10 acts the salutation, the closing, the signature, the context, the pre-closing, the enclosing, the informing, the confirming, the suggesting and the requesting

Each of the above acts was analyzed for the evidences of politeness strategies including the percentage number of specific types of politeness strategies used, According to the researcher’s findings, positive and negatives politeness strategies are applied in all 50 letters

‘Thus, the researcher has summarized the findings in the followings tables Table 4.1 lists the types of positive strategies used and their frequency of occurrence together with the data And Table 4.2 shows the types of negative politeness strategies, their frequency of occurrence and corresponding examples The percentages in Table 4.1 and 4.2 were calculated from the times

a given politeness strategy identified within each act

Table 4.1 Positive strategies in business response letters

Number of | Rate of

‘Act Politeness strate; *Y | occurrence | oceurrence (%) Example

(Letter 12)

‘We look forward to hearing from you We do hope, however that it will be

'Theykodug Đkop One & possible for us to make an offer in

Please find enclosed our current

‘The Enclosing | Dircemess 19 30 yrochure and price list (leer 17)

We can also confirm that the jab

“The contirming | Bo optiraiste 1 100 will bo completed before the end of|

Febroary (Letter 37)

Table 4.2 Negative strategies in business response letters

strategy occurrence accurrence (9%)

forms

Simon Kong

Managing Director

The context Goonrecord 42 913 Thnk you for your enquiry about the

as incurring @ availability ofa single room (or six

The enclosing He pessimistic 10 50 We would he pleased th quote prices and

hherewilh a fairy [ull eollevtion of our latest and best selling designs (letter 10) We're please to enclose our lateat

brochure, (Letter 6) The Be pessimistic 2 100 May we suggest thot we send two

We invite you ta test the samples (letter 13) The Insperyonalize 15 100 We're please (u inform you thal we bave informing seuder and seal you, by pareel post (lelter 14)

company on the inauguration of the new

route (Letter 4)

We regret (0 inforin you that we

ae not in a position to meet your requirements (Letter 12)

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The Goonrecord 6 190 ‘We shall, therefore, he obliged if you requesting as incurring a Tet us know the quantities, the times of

Be pessimistiv

Hedges Minimize imposition

please do not hesitate to Tet us kniow your exact requirementa (Letter 10)

Ascan bescen from Table 4, und Table 4.2, positive politencss strategics arc used in

conducting five acts including the context, the pre-closing, the enclosing, the confirming

and the closing; whereas, negative strategies are applied in nine over 10 acts Also,

from Figure 3.2, it’s clear to sce that negative strategies arc uscd much morc frequently

than positives ones (89.5% and 10.5%, respectively) This is an understandable trend as according to Brown and Levinson (1987), the greater use of negative politeness strategies,

the more effective the act would be, especially in such circumstances that far distance exists hetween the addressor and the addressee

Table 4,3 Comparison of the occurance of positive and negative politeness strategies

in business response letters

Positive strategies Negative strategies Twat purpber uf

ae Number of [Rateofccurrence Number of | Rate of ecurrence