Language used in business response letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER language used in business respons

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

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

YEAR OF ENROLMENT : QH 2010

HANOI – 2014

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TR¦êNG §¹I HäC NGO¹I NG÷

KHOA TIÕNG ANH S¦ PH¹M

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NG¤N NG÷ Sö DôNG TRONG TH¦ PH¶N HåI KINH DOANH TR£N PH¦¥NG DIÖN HµNH VI LêI NãI

Vµ C¸C CHIÕN L¦îC LÞCH Sù

GI¸O VI£N H¦íNG DÉN : PGS.TS NGUYÔN XU¢N TH¥M

Hµ NéI – 2014

ACCEPTANCE PAGE

I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Minh Trang – QH2010.F.1.E.1 , being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Date

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The researcher wish to show the gratefulness to all people who have encouraged

and assisted me during the time this study was conducted

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to

Dr Nguyen Xuan Thom, my supervisor, for his great support His valuable

suggestions, insightful discussions and encouragements help me overcome

difficulties and confusion in the development and completion of this study

Second, I am thankful to my beloved family for being by my sides and

encourage me Owing to their support and sympathy, I became more confident of

myself and had the motivation to complete this research successfully

Last but not least, I wish to show my special thanks to my friends who have

helped me to collect data and to access literature documents Especially, I also

would like to thank my close friend, Nguyen Tien Duc for his priceless support in

the process of gathering the data Without all their cooperation, this research can

never be completed

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ABSTRACT

The principle objectives of this research are to figure out the types of speech acts and politeness strategies used as well as their frequency in business response letters From that, the effects of the speech acts and politeness strategies in conveying the Writers‟ messages are analyzed

The research method involved observation of document 50 business response letters were collected base on three criteria which are form, language and length The data analysis showed that there are four types of speech acts used in those letters which were representatives, directives, expressives and commissives Among these types, representative speech act is used the most frequently In additions, positive and negative politeness strategies are applied in all collected data Between two types of strategies, the frequency of negative ones overwhemed Although the research was conducted seriously and carefully, limitations were inevitable Since the limitation of data sources, the researcher could not enlarge the scale Due to the small number of samples, generalization was far from being achieved Besides, the number of native and non-native English writers was not big enough to make any comparision between speech acts or politeness strategies used

by two groups Therefore, the researcher would like to call for further research on a larger scale and to consider the differences in two groups of writer

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEP TANCE PAGE i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 2

CHAP TER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .2

1 Speech act 3

1.1 The concept of speech act 3

1.2 Classification of speech act 5

Table 2.1: Types of speech acts base on structure (Yule, 1996, p.54) 7

2 Politeness 8

2.1 The concept of politeness 8

2.2 Politeness strategies 12

2.3 Tone 14

3 Business response letter 14

4 Related studies 15

CHAP TER 2: METHODOLOGY 16

1 Selection of subject 16

2 Data collection instruments 17

3 Data collection procedure 17

4 Data analysis method 17

CHAP TER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18

1.An analysis of business response letters in terms of speech acts 18

1.1 Realization of Speech acts used in business response letters 18

1.1.1 Representatives in business response letters 19

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1.1.2 Directives in business response letters 21

1.1.3 Expressives in business response letters 23

1.1.4 Commissives in business response letters 24

1.2 Overview of speech acts used in business response letters 26

2.An analysis of business response letters in terms of Politeness Strategies 27

2.1 Realization of Politeness strategies used in business response letters 28

2.2 Tone in business response letters 40

PART 3: CONCLUSION 43

1.Summary of the findings 43

2.Implication of the study 44

3.Limitations of the study 45

4.Recommendations for further studies 45

REFERENCES 45

APPENDICES 47

Appendix 1: Letter 1 47

Appendix 2: Letter 2 48

Appendix 3: Letter 5 49

Appendix 4: Letter 10 50

Appendix 5: Letter 12 51

Appendix 6: Letter 14 52

Appendix 7: Letter 18 54

Appendix 8: Letter 21 56

Appendix 9: Letter 25 57

Appendix 10: Letter 28 58

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 2.1: Types of speech acts base on structure … 7

Table 2.2: Leech‟s Politeness scales 10

Table 3.1: Speech acts used in business response letters……….……… 26

Table 3.2: Positive strategies in business response letters………….…….……….30

Table 3.3: Negative strategies in business response letters………… ….………31

Table 3.4: Comparison of the occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies in business response letters ……… ……… …33

Figure 2.1:The cooperative Principle………10

Figure 2.2: Leech‟s Politeness Situations……….………11

Figure 2.3: Face Threatening Acts………12

Figure 2.4: Circumstances determining choice of strategies …13

Figure 2.5: Data collecting procedure ………… ………17

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FTAs : Face Threatening Acts

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study

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

Besides, business correspondence is considered the medium to connect sellers and buyers, business partners, creditors and debtors in case it is unable or inconvenient for them to have direct meetings In these kinds of correspondence, whether they are letters, faxes or emails, appropriate language used helps to express the aims of the writers in the most professional way This means, besides the information of introducing, promoting or concluding transactions, language in business letters conveys the good will of the writer as well as his respect to the readers It decides the success or failure of transaction in business community Furthermore, English is widely used as an international language Thus, a large number of business correspondences have been written in English Among those letters, response letters account for a big proportion This 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 wi de range of information about goods and services, prices, transport, etc 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 “crystal clear” (Forbes, 1981) and impressive messages to persuade the readers and also to create the formality 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

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strategies such as positive or negative strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson (1978), politeness rules by Lakoff (1973) or politeness principles by Leech (1983) Therefore, 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 Aims and objectives of the study

This study aims at figuring out the types of speech acts as well as the politeness strategies used in letters for responding Then, the effects of those strategies on expressing the listed speech acts are also analysed To be more particular, it answers the two questions:

1 What are the types of speech acts used in studied response letters?

2 What are politeness strategies used in studied response letters?

3 Significance of the study

As this primary study is finished, it is believed to bring an overview of language used in response letter in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies Accordingly, people who are interested in the field, especially ones who have to write letters for responding everyday can take this study an effective reference source Furthermore, findings of the study are expected to contribute to related literature as reliable content

4 Scope of the study

Within the framework of this paper, the research focuses on speech acts and politeness strategies used in 50 letters of replying to enquiries It also investigates how often these speech acts and politeness strategies used as well as the impact of those on each other

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a review on related literature including the notion and

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classification of speech acts and politeness strategies, tone in writing and business response letter Also, it explains how the researcher fulfills some related studies

- Speech act

.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 his series of lectures at Harvard University in 1955 Those lectures were edited and published posthumously by Oxford University Press

as a book entitled How to Do Things with Words (1962) Later on, one of his

fellows, J.S 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

- Speech act as perceived by Austin

Through his lectures, Austin presented a way of analyzing meaning by describing the linguistic elements with the social situations to understand what genuine intention of the speaker was He argued that when people produced utterances, they often performed actions via those utterances For example, when someone says “It is hot in here”, he does not only describe the fact but he may want others to open the door or to turn on the fan

Austin paid much attention in “speech situation as a whole” (Austin, 1962, p.137) as it was believed an important factor correlated with the meaning of an utterance Also, by means of associated linguistic conventions, the speaker, with an associated intention, actually performs an act to the hearer, which induces a certain response from the hearer Like in the above example, the hearer may open the door

to cool down the room

Austin divided speech acts into three types which were locutionary acts,

illocutionary acts and perlocutionary acts These types will be discussed further in

the next part

- Speech act as perceived by Searle

Like Austin, Searle believed the meaning could not be accounted without the

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existence of the context of a 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 illocutionary force

In his work (Searle, 1969), Searle responded to Austin‟s call for a general theory of

speech acts by providing three dimensions of an utterance which were rules,

proposition and meaning Searle goes further than Austin in providing not only the

needed general framework for a theory of speech acts but also a richer specification

of the detailed structures of speech acts themselves

First, Searle argued that language was a rule-governed activity by

distinguishing between regulative and constitutive rules

- Regulative Rules: these regulate pre-existing activity whose existence is

independent of the rules For example, different cultures have theirs own rules of polite table behavior regulate eating, but eating itself exists independently of these rules

- Constitutive Rules: these constitute an activity the existence of which is

logically dependent on the rules Considering the signaling to turn left, this is a

product of those constitutive rules which bring it about that behaving inside moving vehicles in certain pre-determined ways and in certain pre-determined contexts

counts as signaling to turn left According to Searle (1969), speech acts are acts

characteristically performed by uttering expressions in accordance with certain constitutive rules

Second, concerning proposition, Searle believed that the semantics of natural

language should revolve around propositions and force In a sentence, the proposition and the force indicator were under the grammar of the sentence Force could be indicated by word order, stress, intonation, punctuation, etc For example, the following utterances "Will John leave the room?" "John will leave the room.",

"John, leave the room!" and "Would that John left the room." would have the same propositional content which is “John leaves the room” Yet, the order of words and the tone of sayings may result in various meanings

Third, in Speech Acts (1969), Searle discussed Grice‟s account of meaning He

accepted Grice‟s idea on the intention of the speakers in an utterance but added the

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matter of convention in that meaning Accordingly, a speaker, in performing an

illocutionary act, intends to produce a certain effect by means of getting the hearer

to recognize his intention to produce that effect Further, if the words are used literally, he intends this recognition to be achieved in virtue of the conventional connection between the sentence and that effect

In short, 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 tones; and the relationship between convention meaning and its effects Searle tended to analyze more detailed than presenting general theory like Austin did

.2 Classification of speech act

.2.1 Austin’s classification

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

of illocutionary acts, and carefully distinguishes them from locutionary acts and

perlocutionary acts According to his classification (Austin, 1962, pp.94 -95),

locutionary acts are the sayings of something which are meaningful and understandable by producing utterances with particular forms and determinate meaning base on the rules of the given languages Locutionary acts include

phonetic acts, phatic acts, and rhetic acts Phonetic acts are acts of pronouncing

sounds, phatic acts are acts of uttering words or sentences in accordance with the phonological and syntactic rules of the language to which they belong, and rhetic acts are acts of uttering a sentence with sense and more or less definite reference Perlocutionary acts are, on the other hand, acts attributed to the effect of uttering a

sentence Austin said that in uttering a sentence the speaker performed an

illocutionary act of having a certain force, which is different from the locutionary act of uttering the sentence, which is to have a meaning, and also from the perlocutionary act performed by uttering the sentence, which is to achieve certain effects 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, an illocutionary act is using a sentence to perform a function Austin classifies

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illocutionary acts into five types

- Verdictives: “are typified by the giving of a verdict, as the name implies, by

a jury, arbitrator, or umpire” (Austin, 1962, p 150) such as acquit, grade, estimate

or dignose

- Exercitives : which “are exercising of powers, rights, or influence” (Austin,

1962, p 150) such as appoint, order, advise, and warn

- Commissives: which commit the speaker to do something, but also include

declarations or announcements of intention such as promise, guarantee, bet and oppose (Austin, 1962, pp 150-151)

- Behabitives: “a miscellaneous group” concerned with attitudes and social

behavior such as apologies, criticizes, bless and challenge (Austin, 1962, p 151)

- Expositives: which clarify how utterances fit into ongoing discourse, or how

they are being used such as to argue, postulate, affirm or concede

Although it is often argued that Austin‟s classification is not complete and those coined categories are not mutually exclusive, Austin‟s classification is best seen as an attempt to give a general picture of illocutionary acts: what types of illocutionary act one can generally perform in uttering a sentence One can exercise judgment (Verdictive), exert influence or exercise power (Exercitive), assume obligation or declare intention (Commissive), adopt attitude, or express feeling (Behabitive), and clarify reasons, argument, or communication (Expositive)

.2.2 Searle’s 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 Searle and Vanderveken (1985) attempted to explain illocutionary force in a formal model which was compatible with the formal analysis of propositional conte nts

In A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts (1975), Searle analysed weaknesses of Austin‟s classification which were confusion between verbs and acts; not all the

- Representatives: a speech act which describes states or events in the world,

such as an assertion, a claim, a report

Example 1: This is a German car

- Directives: a speech act that has the function of getting the listener to do

something, such as a suggestion, a request, or a command

Example 2: Please, sit down

- Commissives: a speech act that commits the speaker to doing something in

the future, such as a promise, or a threat

Example 3: If you don‟t stop fighting, I‟ll call the police

- Expressives: a speech act in which the speaker expresses feeling and

attitudes about something, such as an apology, a complaint, to thank someone, to congratulate someone

Example 4: The meal was delicious

- Declarartives: a speech act which changes the state of affair in the world

Example 5: I now pronounce you are man and wife

Searle‟s way of classification is clear and logic Each category has its own principle and does not overlap each other

.3 Direct and Indirect speech acts

In his book, Yule (1996) introduced a different 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 (as shown in Table 1)

Table 2.1: Types of speech acts base on structure (Yule, 1996, p.54)

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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” For

example, if a person says a statement “It is hot outside” in order to inform the listener about the weather, this is a direct speech act However, if he says so to request the listener to turn on the air conditional instead, it is an indirect speech As people can use various ways to express their wants, indirect speech acts are generally associated with greater politeness in English than direct speech acts (Yule, 1996, p.56)

- Politeness

.1 The concept of politeness

People may have different ways of defining the term “politeness” Some people feel appropriate behaviors in certain circumstances mean politeness Some other value more on cultivated men or women (Richard, 2003) According to some traditional researchers 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 besides linguistic devices or strategies Those factors can be situations, genders, etc

.1.1 Lakoff’s theory

Lakoff is widely considered the first to discuss politeness matter She regarded

politeness as “a system of interpersonal relations” aiming at minimizing possible

misunderstanding leading to conflict or confrontation in communication (Lakoff, 1973)

In her work (1977), she developed three rules of politeness The first is

formality which means “do not impose” and keeps appropriate distance from the

listeners The second is “hesitancy” or giving the audience his options and giving

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him chance to response “Equality” is the third rule in which the speaker considers

the listener equal to him and tries to make the listener feel good In Lakoff‟s idea,

to avoid conflict, interactants need to be clear and polite while communicating

.1.2 Leech’s theory

If Lakoff focused on pragmatic competence, Leech approached politeness in a

linguistic way He introduced semantic and general pragmatic in his own

explanation Accordingly, semantic is rule-governed or grammatical and general pragmatic is principle control or rhetorical which was conceptualized as “the general condition of the communicative use of language” (Leech, 1983, pp.5-10)

In addition to general pragmatics, Leech established two pragmatic systems which were pragmalinguistics and sociopragmatics Pragmalinguistics includes the speakers‟ intentions and illocutionary acts This system accounts for the more linguistics application of politeness Alternatively, sociopragmatics refers to how

the speaker wants to be perceived socially It studied “the more specific local

condition in language use” Leech also introduced two rhetorics for conversation

including textual and interpersonal rhetoric Interpersonal rhetoric addresses

politeness and has three principles:

a The Politeness Principle: regards to the relationship between the speaker and

the audience While communicating, they need to build and remain the relation within a group This principle help to make sure that the participants contribute to the conversation constructively and acceptably

b The Irony Principle: shows how the speaker can be perceived as being polite

whatever his original intention is

c The cooperative Principle ( i.e Grice‟s Conversational Principle): This

principle concerns the attempt to maximize or minimize the cost and benefit elements of the interaction and is divided into seven maxims (Rosidi, 2011)

Tact Maxim

Approbation/

Praise Maxim

Generosity Maxim

Minimize costs to speaker Maximize benefits to audience

Maximize benefits for others Minimize benefits for self

Minimize dispraise of audience Maximize praise/approval of audience

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In order to determine how the maxims should be applied, Leech‟s theory of politeness developed five scales:

Table 2.2: Leech’s Politeness scales

the speaker and the audience

allow the audience

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understand the speaker

onto the audience

and audience

According to Leech (1983), different degrees of politeness will be created

depending on different situations The following are the four major ones

.1.3 Brown and Levinson’s theory

Expanding upon Lakoff‟s rules and adapting Goffman‟s analyses (1967), Brown and Levinson (1978) developed a theory of politeness base d on the notion of

“face” Accordingly, Negative Face (desire to express one‟s ideas without

resistance) and Positive Face (desire to have one‟s contributions approved of) are

two basic desires in the process of exchanging information In their work, Brown and Levinson (1987) emphasized politeness as strategies employed by a speaker to

Politeness

Situations

Convivial Competitive

Speech goal is indifferent to social goal

Negative Politeness: Minimize impoliteness

of impolite situation

Positive Politeness: Maximize politeness

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obtain a variety of objectives such as promoting or maintaining harmonious relations According to their formulation, polite speech is the use of verbal strategies that take the addressee‟s feelings into account by showing respect for his

or her „face‟ (Brown&Levinson, 1987, p.61) Compared to the presentation of Lakoff‟s politeness rules, the approach of Brown and Levinson is close to a fundamental notion of human being which is “face saving” This helps to explain the desires of people in communication even across cultures

Brown and Levinson (1987) theorized that because of vulnerability, it is very important to maintain face of both the speaker and the hearer during a conversation Interlocutors must be able to “save face” when they are confronted with a “face-threatening act” (FTA), which threatens the faces of the addressees (Fraser, 1990) outlined the four potential face-threatening acts, proposed by Brown and Levinson,

as follows

.2 Politeness strategies

Brown & 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 concern for the hearer‟s self-image Thus, in order to avoid FTAs or minimize the threat of these acts, people use various ways which are called politeness strategies According to the face-threatening degree of speech acts, speakers can choose to do or do not do

Face Threatening Acts (FTAs)

Threat to speaker‟s POSITIVE face (apologizing,

accepting compliments and confessing)

)

Threat to speaker‟s NEGATIVE face (accepting offer, accepting thanks, promising unwillingly) )

Threat to audience‟s POSITIVE face (complaining, criticizing, disagreeing, raising taboo topics) )

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the FTAs in which the risk of face lost will be increased or decreased as the following figure (Brown&Levinson, 1987, p.60)

Figure2.4: Circumstances determining choice of strategies

From the figure, Brown and Levinson suggested that the more an act threatened speaker‟s or hearer‟s face, the more the speaker would want to choose a high-numbered strategy Considering how a student acts if he wants to use a pen and he sees a cup on pens on his teacher‟s desk

There are five options for him to say:

Option 1: Applying Bald On-Record strategy with no effort to minimize threats

to the teachers' "face"

Say: "Ooh, I want to use one of those!"

Option 2: Applying Positive Politeness strategy In this situation he recognizes

that the teacher has a desire to be respected It also confirms that the relationship is friendly and expresses group reciprocity

Say: "Is it O.K if I use one of those pens?"

Option 3: Applying Negative Politeness strategy, which is similar to the Positive

Politeness in that he notices that his teacher wants to be respected however, he also

assumes to be in a way imposing the teacher

1 without redressive action, baldly

with redressive action 2 positive politeness

3 negative politeness Lesser

Greater

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Say: "I'm sorry to bother you but, I just wanted to ask you if I could use one

of those pens?"

Besides, some other examples would be to say, "I don't want to bother you but"

or "I was wondering if."

Option 4: He can apply Off-Record indirect strategies The student tries to

avoid directly imposing by asking for a pen Instead, he hopes that the teacher would realize and offer him one

Indirectly say” "Hmm, I sure could use a blue pen right now."

Option 5: Don‟t do the FTA

If the risk of face lost is too high, the student may choose not to say anything

meaning of the message It can bring three benefits First, appropriate tone sets

suitable distance between the writer and the reader It is suggested that too casual tone may causes offense, especially in business transaction Yet, too formal tone

with teammates could appear unfriendly Second, the right tone can help create

positive influence to the reader‟s attitude By this, the reader will have desired

response to the message Third, by using the right tone with carefully choosing

words, the message is conveyed more accurately which connects the interactants

In most business messages, the writers try to be confident, courteous, and sincere; that uses emphasis and subordination appropriately; that contains nondiscriminatory language; that stresses the "you" attitude; and that is written at

an appropriate level of difficulty" (Ober, 2009, p.88)

- Business response letter

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The term “business letter” refers to all types of formal written communication starting with a salutation, ending with a signature and whose contents 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 principal means” (Nguyen, 2008) to help companies keep in touch with their customers

There are various types of business letters such as sales, orders, complaint, enquiries and replies Each of them has its own functions, among those, replies or response 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 used in response letters is essential to create the success

of them The writers need to take the correspondents‟ feeling into account by expressing politeness

- Related studies

There has been a number of research in the world conducted on speech acts and politeness, especially politeness strategies in business letters Among those, there are some notable ones such as the followings

In 2000, Nickerson, in the work named “The use of politeness strategies in

business letter written by native speakers of English” investigated 82 business

letters written by British people to figure out the most common politeness strategies However, she did not distinguish different types of business letters, so the readers could not see the differences of strategies used

In 2010, Jansen took a closer look at positive politeness strategies in business letters He figured out to what extent politeness strategies were perceived and evaluated as contributions to the quality of communication In this paper, the author

has discussed the effects of adding and combining positive politeness strategies to

letters denying claims to policy holders Yet, the research was carried out in a broad

sense of business letters

in terms of structure and speech acts ” written by Master Ngo (1997) In this paper,

he looked at language used in banking business letters in general and focused on structure and speech acts but not yet politeness strategies in particular Besides, there are also some theses concerning the way to convey messages in business correspondence like Nguyen (2007) Yet, there has been no study on response letters

The limitations of the above research leave a chance to the researcher to conduct this study to bring deeper and more detailed analyses on response letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies

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2 Data collection instruments

Document observation is chosen to be the instrument to collect data for this paper As the data for this paper is from 50 letters, this instrument is the most suitable It is not only time-saving but also highly effective Documents are not too difficult to collect from books and the Internet Besides, document observation requires no “compromising anonymity” so the participants can be described in detailed (Joseph, 2006) As a result, it is easily to the researcher if she wants to enlarge the number of participants

3 Data collection procedure

The researcher followed three steps in collecting data as below:

Figure 2.5: Data collecting procedure

4 Data analysis method

The author uses two analysis methods which are content analysis and statistical analysis First, 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:

Step 2:

Speech acts and politeness strategies used in those letters are classified

Step 3:

The effectiveness of politeness strategies and speech acts to serve the purposes of the letters is analyzed

Step 1:

50 letters for responding are

collected from the Internet and

the book “Oxford handbook of

commercial correspondence

(Ashley, 2003)”, The language

of business correspondence in

English ( Nguyen, 2008)

speech acts/politeness strategies

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

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, all the collected data is analyzed and discussed in details to figure out the answers for the two research questions

1 An analysis of business response letters in terms of speech acts

The aim of this part is to answer the research question 1: “What are the types of

speech acts used in studied response letters?”

1.1 Realization of Speech acts used in business response letters

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1.1.1 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, representatives are employed in all collected response letters to report an action, to present the conditions or terms of the inquiry and to inform new information

First, the writers use representatives to report their companies‟ actions such as enclosing catalogues, price lists or samples For example,

- Example 1: The writer reports his company action by a representative

speech act: “A copy of our latest catalogue along with a range of samples of skins

used in the manufacture of shoes is being sent herewith.” (Letter 1 - See Appendix

1 for further evidence)

- Example 2: “The following prices are quoted per dozen CIF Hai Phong

Individual units are slightly higher.”( Letter 8)

Besides, representatives are used to describe the condition of the inquiry or the terms of payment as well as the discount rates like in the following letters

- Example 3: The manager describes the content of the enclosed catalogue

“You will see from the enclosed catalogue that the range has been extended to include some highly efficient portable extinguishers for use on construction sites.”

(Letter 2 - See Appendix 2)

- Example 4: “The machines can be dispatched within 3 months upon receipt

of your formal order”(Letter 11)

- Example 5: Payment method is described clearly “Payment will be made

in USD by irrevocable L/C to be opened through Northern Euro Commercial bank 15 days prior to the shipment valid for 45 days to the account of the bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, Hanoi branch in our favor for 100% value of the goods to be shipped.”(Letter 18 – See Appendix 7)

- Example 6: The discount rate is stated “we are offering a special 10%

discount off and all net prices, with delivery within three weeks from receipt of order.” (Letter 25 – See Appendix 9)

Also, in some letters, the writes introduce some people who are going be a

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directly assigned to take over the transaction with the customers For instance:

- Example 7: In addition to the attachment, the company has a representative provide detail information Thus, the writer explains the role of

this person by “He has been authorized to discuss the terms and conditions for

placing orders and negotiating a contact with you ” (Letter 1 – See Appendix 1)

For many letters, representatives are used to report that the company has received the inquiry from the customer like in letter 12

- Example 8: “We have received your letter of 30 th Nov for Vietnamese softwood” (Letter 12 – See Appendix 5)

- Example 9: “Your letter of 6 th May has been forwarded to us by Vietcomchamber for reply.” (Letter 16)

By using representatives, the writers have presented the needed information clearly and precisely They do not need to use too many words but still get the goal of describing, reporting the inquiry status or explaining the terms related to the products as well as the role of related people

Moreover, representative speech acts also help the companies to advertise their products like in letter 21:

- Example 10: “Our bamboo products are more and more beautiful and

attractive thanks to the technical process which make them durable and artistic

We therefore, believe that the offered goods will be favorably received by British customers and sell well there.”(See Appendix 8 for further evidence)

Thanks to this type of speech act, the writers do not only introduce their products but also convince the readers to believe and to purchase the products

In some cases, some of the inquiries do not fit the capability of the supplier,

so they have to show their regrets For example,

- Example 11: “Unfortunately, we are fully booked during this period.” ( Letter 5 –

See Appendix 3)

- In letter 12, it is easy to see this situation

Example 12: “We regret to inform you that we are not in a position to meet

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your requirements for the time being” (See Appendix 5)

- Example 13: “We would like to inform you that the terms you requested

namely shopping baskets and fruit plates are out of stock” (Letter 21 – See

Appendix 8)

In short, representatives are the most frequently used speech acts in the 50 collected response letters This is one of the effective ways to serve many requirements of the writers like reporting, describing, introducing or informing information

1.1.2 Directives in business response letters

Directives are the 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 writing by a phrase “I/We look forward to” This phrase is not merely a goodbye sentence but more than that, it conveys the hope of actions from the readers For instance, the suppliers can indirectly suggest the customers to do business with them or to order more products by writing

- Example 14: “We look forward to your increased order at this discount

rate.” (Letter 2 – See Appendix 2)

- Example 15: “We look forward to doing business with you.” (Letter 45)

- Example 16: “We look forward to your order which will have our best

attention.” With this sentence, the writer also expresses a promise of serving the

customer with the highest quality (Letter 10 – See Appendix 4 for more evidence) Apart from a fix phrase, many writers apply imperative to direct the customers

to purposive actions By imperative sentences, the requests or commands are stated clearly, which helps the reader understand easily

- In letter 7 and 23, the writer directly requests the reader read the information

in the attachment

Example 17: “please find the enclosed of our offer for bamboo salad bowl sets ”

(Letter 7)

Example 18: “Please find the enclosed our prospectus covering courses from

July to December.” (Letter 23)

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- In letter 22 and 26, the supplier begs the customer for future contact

Example 19: “Please contact us if we can be of any further help to you.” (Letter 22)

Example 20: “If there is any further information you require, please contact

us.” (Letter 26)

- Example 21: “Please note especially the items on safety and fuel economy –

the main selling points of this product.” (Letter 32)

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

Another direct way to have an action from the reader is to invite them like in the following example,

Example 22: “We invite you to test the samples” (Letter 13) This sentence can

bring the customer an impression of being served passionately

Besides, various structures are employed as tools to get the customers to do something

- When the product is not available, a directives is used to call for other order

Example 23: “We do hope, however, that will be possible for us to make an

offer in the very near future.” (Letter 12 – See Appendix 5)

The indirect directives are usually employed to show the respective attitude of the suppliers when they have desires referring to customers‟ actions Considering the following sentences,

- A polite request is posed

Example 24: “We would like to draw your special attention to our exclusive

quality “Gold Ring” which has been an outstanding success ” The sentence leaves

a place to the reader to think and consider the product but do not force the reader to act The writer ingeniously introduces the product as well as suggests the customer

to purchase it (Letter 10 – See Appendix 4)

- Example 25: A reluctant request is posed politely “We shall, therefore, be

obliged if you will let us know the quantities, the times of shipment you require ”

(Letter 16)

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Generally, directives sentences are applied in both direct and indirect requesting structures in business response letters The direct ones have a great ef fect 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

1.1.3 Expressives in business response letters

Response letters are considered a bridge connecting the customers and the suppliers When receiving an inquiry, it is necessary for a company to show their attitude towards that inquiry This 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 welcome 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 For instance:

- Example 26: “Thank you for your letter of Friday, 22 November 2013

concerning the creation of a new image for the Yunan route.” (Letter 4)

- Example 27: “Thank you for your inquiry about the availability of a single

room for six nights from Monday, 30 December 2013 to Monday, 6 January 2 014.”

(Letter 5 – See Appendix 3 for further evidence)

- Example 28: “Thank you for your enquiry of 28 June in which you

expressed an interest in relating a selection of our products in our shops in France.” ( Letter 17)

Besides using direct words “thank you”, many writers choose other motivate language such as

- Example 29: “We certainly appreciate your interest in Maxine Sportswear ”

(Letter 9)

In those sentences, besides expressing thankful attitude, the writers make use of expressive speech act to remind the readers the inquiries‟ information They do good in assisting the readers in following the content of the letters

In addition, expressive sentences play a significant role in showing the

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companies‟ enthusiasm in serving the customers Considering these examples:

- Example 30: “We have much pleasure in sending you herewith a fairly full

collection of our latest and best selling designs and hope some of them will interest

you.” (Letter 10 – See Appendix 4)

- Example 31: “we hope very much that we can reach agreement on the terms

quoted.” (Letter 36)

- Example 32:“We will be happy to help you become healthier, fitter you.”

(Letter 38)

In case, the inquiries are not appropriate or unacceptable, the writers still use

courteous language For instance,

- Example 33: “but regret we do not have the pattern cards you require.” (

Letter 13)

- Example 34: “We thank you for your inquiry, but regret that at present we

are not in a position to offer tea for immediate shipment ” ( Letter 16)

- Example 35: “We are sorry because the booklets cannot be in Indonesian.” (

Letter 47)

- Example 36: “I regret to say that we cannot send you the full range of

samples.” ( Letter 50)

In many letters, the writers one more time express his thankful attitude before

closing the letters For example,

- Example 37: “Thank you for your interest.” ( Letter 24 and 27)

- Example 38: “once again thank you for your letter/ inquiry” (Letter 25 and 34 – See Appendix 9 for more evidence)

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

1.1.4 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