Analysis of language used in business letters in term of speech acts = phân tích ngôn ngữ trong thư tín thương mại dưới góc độ hành động lời nói

Vinh University Department of Foreign Language ---o0o---Analysis of language used in business letters in term of speech acts Ph©n tÝch ng«n ng÷ trong th tÝn th¬ng m¹i díi 2... Model of

Vinh University Department of Foreign Language

-o0o -Analysis of language used in business

letters in term of speech acts

( Ph©n tÝch ng«n ng÷ trong th tÝn th¬ng m¹i díi

2 Aims of the study……….………….……… 1

3 Scope of the study……… 2

4 Method of the study……….….……… 2

5 Design of the study……… ……….……… 2

Part B: Development Chapter I: Theoretical background 1.Discourse ……… 3

1.1 What is dicourse? ……… 3

1.2 Spoken and written discourse ……… ……… 3

1.3 Discourse analysis ……… 4

1.4 Context ……… ……… 5

1.4.1 What is context? ……… 5

1.4.2 Context versus co-text ……… 6

2 Speech acts ……… ………… 7

2.1 Definition of speech acts ……… 8

2.2 Utterance and speech acts ……… 8

2.3 The process of speech acts ……… ……… 9

2.4 Classiofication of speech acts ……… 10

2.4.1.Classification of Austin ……… 10

2.4.1.Classification of Searle ……….……… 11

2.5.Direct and indirect speech acts in business letters … ……… 12

3 Politeness ……… ……… 13

4 Letters and business letters as popular texts ……… 15

Chapter II – Analysis of language used in business letters in term of speech acts 2.1.Business letters ……….………… 16

1.1.What is business letters? ……… ……… 16

1.2 Why business letters are written? ………… ……… 16

1.3 What is the style of business letters? ………17

2.2 Model of speech acts in business letters and language means expressing types

of speech acts ……… …… 18

2.2.1 Letters of sales ……… 18

2.2.2 Letters of inquiry ……….……… 21

2.2.3 Letters of order ……….……… 23

2.2.4.Letters of complaint ……… ……… 26

2.2.5 Letters of adjustment ……… 28

2.2.6 Letters of credit ……….……… 30

2.3 Direct and indirect speech acts in business letter……… 33

2.3.1 Direct speech acts ……… 33

2.3.2 Indirect speech acts ……… ……… 34

Chapter III – Some implications for English learning and teaching and translating. 3.1.Language used in business letters in term of speech acts ………….…… 37

3.2 Teaching and learning English ……….……… 40

3.3.Suggestion for translating ……… ……… 40

Part C – Conclusion Conclusion 1 Review of the major findings ……….………….…… 41

2 Suggesion for further works ……… 42

References

Appendixes

This thesis would have never been completed without the support of my dedicateteacher, friends and family members.

First of all, I would like to acknowledge my deepest gradtitude to my supervisor,

MA Le Thi Thuy Ha who has given me useful references and value advice during myresearching process and edited my works carefully

I am also deeptly indebted to teachers in Foreign Language Departement,especially Mrs Van Huong, Mr Tran Ngoc Tuong, Mrs Kim Anh who provided me withmany references

Last but not least, my sincere thank and gratefulness goes to my family and myfriends whose love and encouragement have contributed to the completeness of thisthesis

is considered as an international language Especially, in Viet Nam, our country hasbeen a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), many investors intend toinvest into our potential country, thus the transactions are made in the international

language It is very necessary to know a constituent part of business communicationbecause more and more agreements or contracts are made in English.

English is used in the global business for transactions in goods and services,technical specifications, financial reports and other purposes among native-speakers andnon-native-speakers through out the world The business transactions are developingquickly linking with the growth of the economy of the country in which the internationalcooperation is very important

Business letters written in English are viewed as a form of business communicationand contribute to the success of the company Although the communication technologyhas been widespreadly developed in the modern society, business letters are used as amain channel of business correspondence

Speech acts have been researched for a long time by many linguistic philosophers,especially by Austin and Searle This subject researched what speech means within aparticular discourse In addition, business letters are considered as a popular discoursesand written in a particular situation Therefore, when we understand the speech acts of atext/ a letter, we will know the writer’s meaning in order to react in the way that createsmutual benefits in business

For all above reasons, we choose “Analysis of language used in business letters interm of speech acts” as topic of the graduation thesis

2 Aims of the study.

This thesis aims at:

- Emphasizing the importance of speech acts in business letters on surface

- Making the matter of business letters less complicated and upgrading the style

of English business letters for the learners

- Providing the utilities of speech act types within certain kinds of businessletters

- Giving some implications for learning, teaching and translating of businessletters

3 Scope of the study

This thesis analyzes language used in business letters in term of speech acts.However, we only research the speech acts in business letters on surface There are alarge number kinds of letters written in business, we can not include all in this thesis,but only 6 kinds of business letters:

We also study a little about the directness and indirectness in those kinds of letters

4 Method of the study.

- Revise the theoretical publications

- Collect business letters from published books

- Analyze the collected letters

- Investigate the letters to get statistics

5 Design of the study.

The thesis comprises of three chapters:

Part A: Introduction

This part discusses the rationale, aims, scope, methods and design of the study

Part B: Development

This part is subdivided into three chapters:

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

Chapter 2: Analysis of language used in business letters in terms of speech acts Chapter 3: Applications

Discourse definition has been discussed by many linguists with their own views

In discourse analysis, David Nunan defined discourse as “a stretch of languageconsisting of several sentences which are perceived as being related in someways”(1993:5)

Cook (1997:156) gives definition of discourse as “stretches of languageperceived to be meaningful, unified and purposive”

Also, Crystal (1992:25) stated discourse as “a continuous stretch of (especiallyspoken) language larger than a sentence often constituting a coherent unit, such as asermon, argument, joke or narrative”(quoted in Discourse Analysis, Nunan, 1993:5)

Cook showed that there are 2 kinds of language for study: one used to teachlanguage or literacy and another to communicate something (may respond to a correctsentence or a series of correct sentences “The later kind of language, language in use,for communication- is called discourse”(1997)

1.2 Spoken and written discourse.

Although spoken and written discourse are similar in some aspects, they are quite different in form The difference makes the gap between speech and the writing lager Brown and Yule (1983) showed that:

(a) The syntax of the written language is better organized than that of the spokenlanguage

(i) Spoken language contains short sentences which are incomplete, thehearer can base on various elements to interpret meaning

For example: For what? Cutting

(ii) In spoken language, “and” is the most popular The speaker usuallyforgets to use other subordinations during conversation.

(iii) The active declarative forms are much more found in conversationalspeech than others, the speaker wants to points out clearly agent, actionand result of the action

(b) In written language, the relationship between clauses is marked by a largenumber of metalingual markers such as: that, when, while…whereas inwhereas inspoken language, markers: “and”, “but”, “than” are popular, “if” is rare.(c) The heavily premodified noun phrases presents more frequently in writtenlanguage than in the spoken language For example: “ The federal ALPcaucus aboriginal affairs committee” ( quoted in the The graduation thesis ofHoang Dinh Thuy Duong 2005:7)

(d) “ whereas written language sentences are generally structured in predicate form, in spoken language topic-comment structure of Givon (1979b) is found” ( Nguyen Hoa, 2000:19)

subject-For example: The flowers they grow up quickly with enough water

(e) In informal speech, active structures with interminate group agents areused with a large number

For example: Something she bought in the holiday+ she gives them to herfriends

(f) “ In informal conversation about immediate environment, the speaker mayrely on gaze direction to supply a referent” ( Nguyen Hoa, 2000:19)

For example: The girl gazes the boy and asks her friend “how is he?”

(g) Similar expressions can be used in speech to show the variety of language.(h) The speaker often uses a set of generalized vocabulary such as: a lot of, get,

do, thing, nice, stuff…whereas inwithin their talk

(i) “The same syntactic form is repeated several times by the speaker as in: Ilook at fire exists + I look at what gangways are available + I look at electriccables what + are they properly covered.” ( Nguyen Hoa, 200: 19)

(j) A large number of prefabricated “fillers”: well, erm, I think, you know, ifyou see what I mean, of course, and so on maybe produced in writtenlanguage

After analyzing some differences in form between spoken and written language,

it is concluded that written language is better organized, coherent than spoken one Insome case, these distinctions are useful, particularly, in cross- languages

1.3 Discourse analysis.

“Discourse analysis is concerned with the study of the relationship betweenlanguage and context in which it is used” (MC Carthy 1991:5)

This subject has been researched since the 1960s and early 1970s and consisting

of linguistics, semiotics, psychology Discourse analysts study language in use, from thespoken data to written texts of all kinds and from conversation to highly institutionalizedforms of talk

At the time when linguistics was as largely concerned with the analysis of singlesentences, “discourse analysis” paper was published by Zellig Harries(1952) with thedistribution of linguistic elements in extended text and the link between the text and itssocial situation In 1960s, Dell Hymes provided a sociological perspective, linguisticphilosophers were influential in the study of language as Austin(1962), Searle(1969) andGrice(1964).With the emerge of pragmatics which study the meaning in context, thesephilosophers researched the speech acts theory and the formulation of conversationalmaxims.

Cook (1989) defined discourse analysis as a tool to “examine how stretches oflanguage, considered in their full, textual, social and psychological context, becomemeaningful and unified for their users”

Discourse analysis is affected by sources, styles and manners of countries InBritish, it was greatly influenced by M.A.K.Hallyday’s functional approach to language

in which his framework forced on social functional structure of speech and writing.British philosophers Sinclair and Coulthard also developed a model for the description ofteacher- pupil talk in the classroom and debates and in business and so on While inAmerica, the discourse analysis has been dominated by works within the ethnomethodology tradition which emphasizes the research method of close observation ofgroups of people communicating in natural setting Its purpose is to examine types ofspeech events such as storytelling, greeting, ritual and verbal duels in different culturaland social settings

Discourse analysis has grown into a wide-ranging and composing differentelements which find it unified within the description of language above sentence and aninterest in the contexts and cultural influences which affect language in use Now, thissubject is applied in the second language learning and teaching in order to have a betterunderstanding about language

1.4 Context.

1.4.1 What is context?

Context is an important factor in the interpretation of discourse Context refers tothe situation giving rise to the discourse and in which the discourse is embedded.However, the concept of context and context of situation are not overlapped For somescholars, context seems just to be a minimal stretch of language that helps to understandwhat is written and spoken When an utterance is produced, the hearer must base on thecontext to have an appropriate interpretation The following example is offered byBrown and Yule to illustrate the same utterance but clearly different interpretation

a)Speaker: a young mother, hearer: her mother-in-law, place: park, by a duckpond, time: sunny afternoon in September 1962 They are watching the mother’s two-year-old-son chasing ducks and the mother-in-law has just remarked her son, the child’sfather was rather backward at this age The young mother says:

I do think Adam’s quick

b)Speaker: a student, hearers: a set of students, place: sitting around a coffeetable in the refectory, time: evening in March 1980 John, one of the groups of students

has just told a joke Every one laughed except Adam Then Adam laughed and one ofthe students says:

I do think Adam’s quick

(Nguyen Hoa, 2000: 39)

In the first example, the meaning of the utterance is conveyed apparently whenAdam compared favorably with his father Also, the intonation’s role exists, we canunderstand the utterance’s meaning easily On contrary, in the later instance, Adamcompared unfavorably with the rest of the group of students If we base on linguisticcontext, the meaning of the statement can not be interpreted completely Rather, it isextra-linguistic factors when other students enjoy the joke immediately but Adam later.Therefore, we have to base on linguistic and non-linguistic factors to interpret thediscourse in order to have a full understanding

1.4.2 Context versus co-text.

When we want to interpret an utterance, the physical and extra-linguisticelements are useful but may be not enough for a full interpretation The previousdiscourse or context in traditional sense of the words is considered as an importantfactor and called co-text According to Halliday, “co-text is the stretch of language thatoccurs before or after the utterance which need to be interpreted’’

For example:

“The same evening I went ashore The first landing in any new country is veryinteresting’’

(Brown and Yule, 1983:47)

In above example, the word “landing “ is determined with a specific meaningbecause of previous discourse or the phrase word “went ashore” decides meaning of

“landing” by ship not by other means

In conclusion, both context and co-text are important to interpret the discourse.But the difference is that context refers to non-linguistic elements: topic, purpose,setting…whereas inWhile co-text focuses on linguistic elements: previous discourse

2 Speech acts.

Since the early the twentieth century, the relationship between language andphilosophy has attracted the attention of many philosophers, especially Oxford-basedphilosophers However, there is a disagreement among them and they are divided intotwo different trends: one trend by G.E Moore and the other trend by Bestrand Russell(both of them are logical positivism philosophers) While Moore was attracted with “thelanguage of common sense”, Bestrand considered everyday language “somehowdeficient and defective” Both of trends claimed that it is rather ambiguous, impreciseand contradictory However, their last purpose is to get an ideal language by refining thelanguage and removing its imperfections and illogicalities

Responding to this view, in 1962 Austin and his group observed that ordinarypeople seem to communicate effectively and fluently with language just the way it is

He suggested that we should try to understand how they manage with the ordinarylanguage rather than get rid of everyday language of its imperfections Austin believed

that the language has not only the meaning of its words and phrases He coined thespeech acts theory through the series of lecture at Oxford University between 1952 and

1954 and then collected into “How to do things with words” (1962) He studied thingsrelated to speech :what kind of thing we do, how we speak and how our acts “succeed”

or “fail” The first part in this book is “per formative hypothesis” which states thedifference between “truth condition –approach” and words as action” of Austin In hisview, most utterance has no “truth condition”, there are actions than statements orquestions

Based on the distinction between constative and performative, Austin has provenhis idea The philosopher has given the assumption about statement that: “The business

of a statement can only be to describe some state of affairs or to ‘state some fact’ whichmust do either falsely or truly”(Austin 1962:1) Then the statements in the case arecalled “constatives”, for example, the sentence “there are six flowers in the vase” is true

if the vase mentioned contained six flowers but it is false if the vase has 5 flowers

“Perfomative”, on the contrary, can not be treated in the same way, for instance “I willkill you if you move” can not be judged false or true but it can be understood as anaction –the action of warning

We do not only use language to judge the statement true or false but alsoperform action via language explicitly or implicitly

2.1 Definition of speech acts.

Proverb “Actions speak louder than words” is very well known When peopleutter something , it is not only a simple speech, but also contains action within thespeech These actions are called speech acts, for example: apology, complaint,invitation, promise or request

The term “speech acts” was originally introduced by linguistic philosopherAustin(1962) and then developed by Searle(1969) According to their views: “ Whenusing language, we not only mark propositional statements about objectives, entities,state of affairs and so on, but we also fulfill functions such as requesting, denying,introducing, apologizing, etc” (quoted in David Nunan, 1983: 65)

David Nunan defined “ speech acts are simply things people do throughlanguage- for example, apologizing, complaining, instructing, agreeing and warning”(1983: 65)

In the everyday conversation, speaker often wishes to convey a “message” orinformation , then the intention will be expected to realize by the hearer in that situation

In order to get that “message”, the action of utterance will be performed by three relatedacts: locutionary, illocutionary, perlocutionary acts In modern English, the term

“speech acts” and illocutionary are similar, they emphasize that “ in saying something ,

we do something”

2.2 Uttrerance and speech acts.

Jame R.Hurford &Brendan Heasley stated that “An utterance is any stretch oftalk, by one person, before or after which there is silence on the part of that person Anutterance is the use by a particular speaker, on a particular situation, of a piece oflanguage, such as a sequence of sentences or a single phrase or even a single

word”(1983:15), for example: “ Hello” or “How are you?”…whereas in Utterances are physicalevents Events are ephemeral Utterances die on the wind.

John Lyons (1995) gives his view of utterance as a process-sense and sense The term “process” is broader than “action” and “activities”: an action is aprocess controlled by an agent; (an act is a unit of action or activities).The term

product-“utterance” refers to the process of uttering or to the product of that process(oractivities) Nowadays, utterances in the first of these 2 senses are commonly referred asspeech acts

Referring to this problem, Austin (1962) found out that utterance must satisfythese conditions:

A They do not “describe” or “report” or constate anything at all, are not “true orfalse”; and

B The uttering of the sentence is, or is a part of, the doing of an action, whichagain would not normally be described as, or as “just”, saying something

(1962:5)For example, sentences “I name this ship the Queen Elizabeth” or “I give andbequeath my watch to my brother”(Austin 1962:5).These utterances are not regarded as

“true or false” statement but they contain actions: name the ship and bequeath thewatch Austin pointed out that many of our everyday utterances are pseudo-statementthan either the vertificationists or their opponents had realized For example: “ I promise

to pay you $5”, this utterance aims at making a promise to the addressee The speaker isnot saying something true or false, but one’s state of mind but committing oneself to aparticular course of action

These statements are not constative but perfomative utterances A constativeutterance is defined as a statement-making utterance while “ the performativeutterances, in contrast, are those in the production of which the speaker or writer,perform an act of doing rather than saying”

(John Lyons, 1995: 238)

2.3 The process of speech acts.

When the speaker produce something, the speech acts of the utterance consists of

3 related sub-acts: locutionary, illocutionay and perlocutionary

The locutionary act is the basic act which produces a meaningful linguisticexpression or the actual words uttered According to Austin, producing an utterance with

a particular form and a more or less determinate meaning is called a locutionary act.Therefore, uttering a sentence is necessary to perform a locutuionay act However, there

is a note that two speakers can show the same meaning without necessarily uttering thesame sentence In fact, people use various ways to express the every expression “say thesame thing”

The illocutionary act is the intention of the speaker behind words In otherwords, the locutionary act is performed with some purposes or functions in mind calledillocution Austin emphasized that “in saying something, we do something” When thespeaker utters or performs a locutionary, he/she will be performing such an act as:

asking, answering, warning, promising, threatening and so on This is also known as theillocutionary force of the utterance.

The perlocutionary act is the intention of the speaker or the effect of theillocution on the hearer Perlocutionary act is “what we bring about or achieve by sayingsomething, surprising or misleading” (Austin, 1962:109) In most of situation, thespeaker’s meaning and the literal meaning are identical However, in some cases, thesemeanings are different from each other

For example:

“Would you mind turning down the volume on the radio?” Hearer (H)reacts by lowering the volume for the speaker (S) In this case, S performed thelocutionary act of getting H to turn down the volume On the other hand , with the sameutterance, the literal meaning of the question is that S is soliciting a yes or no answerfrom H while speaker means to lower the volume

Of the three acts, the most discussed is illocutionay force In deed, theillocutionary act/force of an utterance is interpreted to “speech act” In order to help the

H to recognize the intended illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) and felicityconditions are very important IFIDs is the expression of explicit verb naming theillocutionary act being performed Other IFIDs which help hearer to recognize are wordsorder, stress and intonation The felicity conditions are appropriate circumstances orcontext in which the utterance occurs

The three sub-acts are related to each other, they form a process For example,when I utter: “it’s not here!” it is a locutionary act which is interpreted as: the speakerneed some fresh air (illocutionary act) The hearer might open the window as aperlocutuionary effect

2.4 Classification of speech acts.

*Exercitives: appoint, dismiss, name, claim, veto, direct…whereas inExercitives that alsomean they are issuing verdictives

*Commissives: promise, undertake, bet, swear, argue…whereas in “The whole point of acommissive is to commit the speaker to a certain course of action” (Austin, 1962:157)

It also includes declarations or announcements of intention

*Behabitives: apologies, congratulate, commend, thank, welcome…whereas inThis typedeals with attitude and social behaviors It reacts to other behaviors, attitudes andexpresses the feeling

*Expositives: affirm, deny, answer, accept, and identify…whereas inIt is not easy to defineexpositives They involve in argument and conversation, especially they are useful tomake reasons and opinions clearer in communication.

Of 5 classes, Austin found the 2 last classes are troublesome, they seem to becross-classified The behabitives are complex and miscellaneous altogether whileexpositives are numerous Thus, some factors of behabitives are also included inexpositives He himself realized that there is unclear distinction in his classification

*Commissive: The speaker commits himself to do things or some future actionssuch as promises, refusals, threats, pledges The commisives form varies according tosocial relationship between the participants in a speech event

For example: “I will be back” ( George Yule 1996:54)

In a wedding, the pries says; “I now pronounce you husband and wife”

*Representatives (Assertives): the speaker tells hearer how things are They can

be statements of facts, assertions, conclusions and description which may be judged true

or false because they describe a state of affairs in the world

For example: The sun rises in the East and sets in the West

*Declaratives: The speaker can change something in the world with hisutterance This type makes both the world fits the words and the words fit the world

*Expressives: Statements express the feeling and attitude of speaker or “sincerity condition of speech acts” They are psychological states such as: joys,disappointments, likes, dislikes or state of affair: thanking, apologizing, regretting…whereas inTheform of expressives may be diverse even within one language

For example: “Congratulation”, “ I’m terribly sorry!”

When Austin classified speech acts, he based on the illocutionary force, i.e theirfunctions Then Searle claimed that Austin’s classification sometimes overlaps and hehas his own categories which are a little different Following is the categories of Searle

of functions of speech acts which George Yule summarized:

Speech act types Direction of fit S = speaker

X = situationDeclarations

(Yule 1996:55)

2.5 Direct and indirect speech acts.

Apart from the classification of speech acts in term of illocutionary force(Austin) and meaning (Searle) speech acts are also typed base on the structure Theutterances have 3 structural forms: declarative, interrogative and imperativecorresponding with the three general communication functions: statement, question,command/request

For example: (a) You do your homework (declarative)

(b) Do you do your homework? (interrogative) (c) Do your homework! ( imperative)Searle said that when there is a direct relationship between form and function,the speaker is using a direct speech act expressing the literal meaning of conventionalwords James R Hurford and Brendan Heasley stated that “ The direct illocution of anutterance is the illocution most directly indicated by a literal meaning of thegrammatical form and vocabulary of the sentence uttered”(1983:259)

With above example: a declarative form functions as a statement or assertion, aninterrogative form as a question and an imperative form as a request or order

On the other hand, If the relationship between form and function is indirect, wehave an indirect speech act expressing a different meaning from the apparent surfacemeaning One speech act is performed through another one

For example: (22) a Move out of the way!

b Do you have to stand in front of the T.V?

c You are standing in front of the T.V

d You’d make a better door than a window

(George Yule, 1996: 55)The four above sentences have the same illocutionary act, the speaker want hearer tomove away from the T.V or the basic function of these utterances is a request The firstutterance is an imperative form as a direct speech act The second utterance isinterrogative but the speaker does not expect the answer yes or no but an action ofmoving away from T.V- an indirect speech act The two last utterances in the declarativeform also have function of a request/order- an indirect speech act

In the daily life, indirect speech acts are common However, people usually donot distinguish easily between direct and indirect speech act because “utterances oftenhave more than one of macro function (‘representative’, ‘COM missive’, ‘directive’,

‘expressive’ and so on)” ( Joan 2002:19) In English, the interrogative form is the mostcommon type of indirect speech act, not used as a question ( the speaker does not expect

an answer but an action) The indirect speech acts usually happen in a particularsituation, thus the addressee must use background knowledge and the context ofutterance to understand the intended meaning of the speaker One more thing, theindirect speech acts are related to politeness

3 Politeness.

In the civilized society, politeness becomes a need in the daily communication.

In written communication, it is very necessary, especially in letter, business letter,politeness is one of seven important criteria

Politeness is regarded as the “polite social behavior” or etiquette within aparticular culture Sometimes, it is shown by an action (use 2 hands to bring somethingfor someone) or also by linguistic means or linguistic interaction when we want tounderstand an interaction, we have to base on various factors Those which involvestatus of participants are external factors like age and power The social distancebetween the speaker and hearer determines the utterance (interaction), politeness level ofthe utterance and structure of utterance However, other factors such as “amount ofimposion or degree of friendliness” are internal to the interaction

For example: (1) Set the table

(2) Can you set the table?

(3) Could I possibly ask you to set the table?

The more indirect the utterance is, the more polite it is Utterance (1) is an imperativeand it functions as a direct directive Utterance (2) is an interrogatives and functions as aquestion about the hearer’s ability to do the action According to the above order, thelast utterance is the most polite, the speaker asks permission from the hearer to make arequest The hearer in utterance (3 has more freedom to refuse the request According toYule (1996) both external and internal factors not only have an effect on what is said butalso how the interpretation is Nguyen Quang (2003:13) stated that there are differentapproaches to politeness, of which the three sociological factors approach is discussedmost Brown and Yule (1987) admitted that the three sociological factors decides thepoliteness level which speaker lays on the hearer They are Relative power (P), Socialdistance (D) and Ranking of imposition(R) Besides, Lackoff(1977), Grimshaw(1980),Leech(1983) also confirmed that there are important factors that effect to interaction

The usage of the appropriate language to show politeness is different from one toanother culture Therefore, before uttering something, we should consider their culture,especially their speech directness or indirectness to avoid being impolite incommunication Being tactful, modest and nice to other people can make us more politewith the speech That help us to show tactful, generous, modest and sympathetic towardothers

Speaking about politeness, we can not omit the concept “ FACE” Moreover,form and styles of politeness in business letter relate to the face needs of the reader.Yule(1996) defined “face” as the “public self-image” of a person Brown and Levinsonanalyzed that politeness involves us showing awareness of other people’s “FACEWANTS”

Within the daily conversation, most people behave to another like theirexpectations to be received from others Thus, the “FACE WANTS” or the “public self-image” is very appropriable within the social interaction When the speaker represents athreat to another person’s self-image, it is regarded as “a face threatening act” On theother hand, if the interpreted action threats another’s face, the speaker representssomething to lessen the possible threat, it is described as “a face saving act”

Linguistic politeness with each culture is different from each other When speech

is directive, politeness seems not to be appropriate within this culture If people speakindirectively, avoiding direct imposition, that culture may orient to politeness.Therefore, we should know something before integrating into it otherwise you will beappreciated impolite

For business letter, learners should recognize the difference between cultures tohave good products

4 Letters and business letters as popular texts.

Of all written forms in English such as essays, reports, instructions and so on,letters seem to be the most popular text The writer sends a message to a particularperson or group and they have a certain relationship Thus, letters are contextual Whenwriting letters, especially business letters, the writer has to consider both external andinternal factors Moreover, cross-culture is also an important factor in writing Americanwriters tend to centre on the reader’s requirement, they focus on solving the reader’sdemand On contrary, the writing style of French business letters centre on the writers,not the reader, they often express their power, position and role While Japanese lettersare the combination between two above styles, both the addressee and addresser arementioned respectively Business letters provide many sentence forms, particular texts,

we can use them as texts Then, we will analyze the appearance of the structures orforms of the sentence of business letters to have a better understanding about the speechacts interpreted.

Chapter II- Analysis of language used in business

letter 2.1.Business letters.

2.1.1.What is business letters?

Letter is defined as “a written message addressed to a person or an organizationusually put in an envelope and sent by post”

(English- English- Viet names dictionary)Business letter is similar to that definition but used for business purpose Letterwriting is considered as a vital part of communication, especially an intimate part Nguyen Trong Dan (2004:9) stated that: “the business letter is the principal meansused by a business form to keep in touch with customers” This kind of letter isusually written in a formal language and used when writing from one businessorganization to another or between such organizations and their customers, clientsand other external parties.

Letters are an essential part of business and served as technical communicationbecause they are more formal and reliable than electronic mails and more preciseand permanent than telephone or face-to-face conversations Moreover, manyexecutives prefer this written document over than other form of communicationbecause in some cases this form can serve as a contract, the facts will be on record inwriting and executives do not have to rely on memory

2.1.2.Why are business letters written?

In the modern society, although there are effectively communication means,letters still retain its effects in keeping goal relationship with customers andcolleagues The effective communication in electronic age is very complex andimportant, especially to get success in business Thus we must base on purpose andavailable means to choose suitable communicative means

The letter’s role is to keep in touch with the outside world of an organization,through out letters the relationship between the company and customers is set up andimproved Depending on different kinds of letters we have different equivalentpurposes such as: inform the specific information to recipients, persuade customers

to order, advertise, complain about inconvenient goods and so on The writtencommunication enables recipicients to keep and study information as long asnecessary It also allows more than one person to read the same message at differenttime and place

2.1.3 What is the style of business letter?

Letter style is how you write the letter Writing business letters is like any othertypes of technical communication, we have to keep the reader’s attention to the letter

in order to be responded quickly This is particularly important if the reader receives

a large number of letters per day and has not much time to read Thus, your lettermust make a good impression to the addressee

Each letter –writer may have different characteristic ways of writing: style, theway of expressing feeling, facts ,etc However, it is emphasized that business lettersare conventional, requiring certain idioms, patterns and grammar which are found ingeneral used today In order to write a successful letter, an appropriate style may bethe biggest factor for business letter write After a long time studying, some criteriafor a good letters are recommended that the writer should meet the seven-Cs ofbusiness letter writing They are clear, concise, correct, courteous, conventional,convincing and complete You are convincing the reader to act in your expected wayand respond quickly Your business letters should be more formal than the letter for

friends or relatives within the culture Even in many other cultures, the style is moreelaborate, old-fashioned, the writer must gear the letter to the expectation offormality However, the tone of the letter will vary from familiar to formal and itshould sound natural, do not carry formality to extreme The courtesy of the lettermeans that the letter should be reader-oriented and sound as if you share the reader’point of view.

Good writing does not call for elegant language of the poet but it does require to

be written in plain language accurately and meet the demand of the seven Cs of aletter Plain language is clear, concise language It is simple and direct to the factand easy to read and understand but not simplistic Using plain English does notmean that all writing must sound the same There is not only one “right” way toexpress an idea, each writer can create their own style Words the writer chooseshould also reflect the relationship between the addresser and addressee Goodquality paper, an attractive letter head, grammatical and spelling correctness alsoplay their important role in attracting the attention of the reader

A good business letter must be well-organized we should prepare what we want

to say in advance, including necessary information to the message, especially in alogical order Moreover, the purpose of the letter must be clear, you mustacknowledge if the letter is to request information, to explanation something or toinform

A business letter has many parts in which there are both compulsory andoptional parts They are:

(1)Letter head, (2)Dateline, (3)File number, (4)Confidential, (5)Inside address,(6)Attention line, (7)Salutation, (8)Subject line, (9)Body of the letter,(10)Complimentary, (11)Signature, (12)Added information, (13)Posts crisps,(14)Mailing instruction

All of these parts constitute a business letter and in term of format, the letter may

be constructed in two forms: block-style(with blocked paragraphs) and modifiedblock-style (with indented paragraphs)

2.2 The model of speech acts in business letter and language means expressing types of speech acts.

2.2.1 Letter of sales

2.2.1.1 A good sales letter.

Unlike advertisements on newspapers or posters, it is to sell particular goods orservices to some selected customers The specific purpose is to persuade the reader

to place an order; to request additional information; for example: introducecomputers to school or office; tourism service to office, etc This kind of letter iswritten in order to convince the reader to buy products or place an order that meansthe addressee will take a specific action by making a offer The writer must provethat his product is what the reader need and it is the best of all

According to Nguyen Trong Dan (2004) a good sales letter must contain 4essential elements:

-“Arouse interest”: Try to make the opening as impressive as possible becausethe reader will feel interested in and curious with your letter and go on reading.-“Create desire”: If the first part of your letter just only “arouse interest” of thereader, it does not mean he will buy your products which benefits for the reader’scompany Never mind how product is made or how many people/companies bought

it last year/month

-“Carry conviction”: Plus value of your product to prove what you say is exact.The difference between your product and others will be an advantage Your lettershould encourage reader to say “Yes, yes, I can not miss it” in his mind (If “yes,that’s true” is said more than three times during letter reading, your product has beensold)

-“Induce action”: Some specific directions or instructions should be providedwhen the reader wants to place an order Enclose an order model, it will be availablefor the reader to fill in

Before sending a letter of sales, the writer should research the market and thereader’s needs in order to get the rate of high possible order The letter alone doesnot persuade entirely customers while the most important quality of the sales letter ispersuasive Therefore, your product will be sold well if the persuasion is effective Inletter of sales, all necessary information for the reader about product should bestated such as: the name, description, quality, specification, quantity, price, packing,delivery time and term of payment For electronic units and machinery use,instruction, guarantee time and technical materials are also required If theinformation is too long to add in the letter, gather them in a document and attractthem with the letter

Following is the sales appeal to Economy:

Panton Manufacturing Ltd.

Panton works.Hounslow.Middlesex.TWW62BQTel:081 353 0125, Telex;21511, Fax:081 353 6783

Registed No England 266135

You will be surprised how little it costs For fifty two weeks a year, your Stenogramworks hard for you without lunch or holidays; you cant give it too much to do Andall for less than an average month’s salary for a secretary! It will take your dictation

at any time and anywhere-after office hours, at home or even while you aretraveling; It does away with mistranscriptations in shorthand, can even do awayaltogether with typewriting since recorded messages can be today posted

The Stenogram is efficient, dependable, time-saving and economical, and, backed as

it is by our international reputation for reliability, is in regular use in thousand ofoffice all over the world It gives superb reproduction quality; every syllable is asclear as a bell; It is unbelievably simple to use; you just slip in a pre-loaded cassette,press a button and your Stenogram is ready to record dictation, instructions,interviews, telephone conversations, or what you will Nothing could be simple ormore efficient, either Our unique after-sale service contracts ensure lastingoperation at peak of efficiency

Your customers are sure to be using the Stenogram Ask them about it before youplace an order; or if you prefer, fill in the enclosed card and we will arrange for ourrepresentative in your country to call and give you a demonstration

Yours faithfully, (signed)

D.PantonManaging Director

2.2.1.2.Model of speech act types in letter of sales.

As stated, the letter of sales is a sales tool of form, it therefore is more creativeand persuasive in content than other kinds of letter

Back to the above letter, the first part of the letter state the purpose of the letter,the writer wants to introduce his product named “Stenogram” The writer awakesinterest of the reader by asking the reader’s attitude toward his employee: “Have youever thought of how much time your typist wastes in taking down your letter?” He alsorecommends his product to the reader to try

The second paragraph lists advantages of the product The first sentenceexpresses the reader’s attitude if he knows the price of the product “You will besurprised how little it costs The last sentence states what advantages are When thewriter utters these sentences, he takes responsibility for what he says is correct

The third paragraph represents some benefits of the products and instruction forusing the machine The writer asserts about “international reputation for reliability’’ ofthe product Moreover, he also gives direction: “You just slip in a pre-loaded cassette,press a button and your Stenogram is ready to record…whereas in”

The writer reassures about the quality of the product by affirming the pleasure ofthe customer when using this product He also directs some action if the customer agrees

to buy

In summary, speech acts in sales letter can be:

1) Salutation

2) State the disadvantages of the current

product of the company

3) State the advantages of the product or which

the writer recommends

4) Plus more value of the product and

instruction

5) Express the hopefulness that the writer will

say “yes, yes” in his mind and give

direction if he accepts to buy the product

6) Complimentary close

- Expressive

- Representative

- Representative

- Representative & Directive

- Expressive & Directive

a request, the writer wants the reader to act early, “tact and courteously” therefore arenecessary factors First of all, your letter should be specific and short Go straight to thepoint of the letter and tell the reader only what you want In addition, the demand must

be reasonable, you should consider your demand in the view of the reader The readerwill act promptly if your demand is under his authority and control Lastly, theinformation in the letter must be complete and accurate

This kind of letter usually directs to the reader and consider as centre Its stylemust express politeness and respect toward the reader An query does not offerimmediate benefit for the reader but a prospect of a potential customer in the future.Thus, the letter should write in such ways to be responded soon The letter may startwith the request of the writer in the form of the question If you are writing for thatcompany for the first time, remember to tell him how you know his company and givesome description about your business, the kind of goods you need and for what purposethey are required

This is a letter of inquiry for wood

Worldwide dealer Ltd.

148 Mortimer streetLondon W1C 37D

Messrs Tocontap

36 Ba Trieu street 2nd June 200…whereas in

Ha Noi, SRVN

Dear Sirs,

Re: Solfwood for Pulp and Paper.

Your name and address have been given to us by the Japan- Viet Nam TradeAssociation

First of all we would like to take the opportunity of introducing ourselves as one of thecountry’s leading trading companies dealing in all kinds of materials for industry such

as woodchips, iron ore, coal, scrap, etc…whereas in

At present, we are extensively engaged in importing hardwoods and now are proposing

to extend our business into the softwood area and are investing the possibility ofimporting from Viet Nam

We would, therefore, be obliged if you will kindly let us have your offer of the goods inquestion

We are looking forward to receiving your reply

Yours faithfully,

(signed)

2.2.2.2.Model of speech act types in letters of inquiry.

Although a letter of inquiry is short and specific, it transfers enough informationfrom the writer to the reader This letter includes both general and specific description,the speech acts in the letter are various from a macro level For the first part of the letter,the writer states how he has obtained the name and address of the reader’s company.The next part represents information about the writer’s business and kinds of products.The writer also uses an directive to the reader but with indirect speech acts “we would,therefore, be obliged if you will kindly let us have your offer of goods in question”.Then the writer expresses the wish to receive early response from the reader

In order to understand more about speech acts in letter of inquiry, looking at thetable:

(1) Salutation

(2) State the reason to get the reader’s

name, address

(3) State details about your business and its

operation leading to the request

(4) Request the reader’s company to be an

+Name of commodity +Description: shape, size, color…whereas in

This is an order by letter from a new customer:

INTERNATIONAL IMPORT COMPANY

101 BabuhofstrasseHamburg

1.Commodity: fancy rush mats

2.Quality and specification: as per attached specification and designs

3.Quantity: 5,000( five thousand) pieces

4.Price, unit, CFR Hamburg including parking

:US$ 0,45Total: US$ 1,2505.Parking: to be wrapped in strong rush matting, steel hoped, 20 pieces in onebale, and marked 1001/2/19 INTERM

6.Delivery: 3,000 pcs in Sept, 19…whereas in

2,000 pcs in Oct, 19…whereas in7.Terms of payment: by irrevocable letter of credit to be established in favor ofthe seller to account of ngan hang Ngoai thuong Viet Nam and confirmed by London

Commercial Bank, 15 days prior to the first shipment, which mentions Partial shipment

is allowed

The goods are required to be insured under marine All Risks terms from WarehouseVietnam to Warehouse Hamburg The insurance is to be effected with a first class VietNames or foreign insurance company

Please confirm your acceptance of this order and such acceptable should arrive not laterthan 14 days after the date of this order

Yours faithfully,For International Import Co

(signed)M.belter, Manager, Purchase Department

2.2.3.2.Model of speech act types in letter of order.

The buyer writes the letter of order to require some kinds of goods from theseller When condition in the letter are accepted by the buyer and sent to the supplier, itwill become a contract binding legally both the buyer and seller Then the seller isresponsible for providing goods to the buyer and vice verse the buyer is required to payfor the seller If there is any damage with the goods, the seller will be responsible for

In above letter, the writer begins by expressing thank for last letter of the readerand gives pleasure in placing an order “We thank you for your offer No 303/p2 dated

10th July and have pleasure in placing an order on the following terms and condition”.The sentence expresses the willingness to corporate and expressive speech acts are used.Then conditions are listed to show the responsibility of the seller to provide correctmerchandise and of the buyer to pay enough The verb “insure” in the next part showpromise of the buyer in placing order Lastly the writer hopes acceptance of the orderwith direct speech act “Please, confirm your acceptance of this order and suchacceptance should arrive not later than 14 days after the date of this order” This issimilar to an indirect order from the buyer which asks the supplier to provide goodswithin 14 days

The table shows clearly about speech acts in letter of order

(1) Salutation

(2) Thank for last letter and pleasure

for the order

(3) State the conditions and terms of

- Representative & Expressive

- Expressive and Directive

- Expressive

2.2.4.Letter of complaint.

2.2.4.1.Letters of complaint.

In business, although businessmen are careful and exact with their works,mistakes, defects or unpleasant circumstances are possible to occur in the course intransaction They maybe the late or delayed consignment, the delivery of wrong,damaged or insufficient goods A complaint letter is known as a claim, its objective is toprovide or inform detailed information about the error or defect and also to getcompensation such as better goods or service or adjustment from other party Whenwriting a complaint, the writer may feel very angry, but it is not a good idea to show theanger in the letter In spite of unpleasant circumstances, the writer should be polite andcourteous if you want to get expected result

It is important to explain clearly the complaint and propose and possiblesolutions Do not blame all for the supplier because he may give a perfectly goodsdefense The writer need not to suggest the reason of the mistake caused, the supplierwill check this matter

The scope of a complaint letter should involve the relevant facts in details forbuyer to consider the level of complaint None wants to have mistake, especially, inbusiness relating to money Thus, you should show the regret about the complaint

Following is the complaint of damage written by L.Crane to Satext S.P.A

F.Lynch & Co., Ltd.

(Head Office), Nesson House, Newell Street, Birmingham B3 3EL

Telephone: 021366571 Fax: 0212368592 Telex: 341641

00146 Roma

Att.Mr D.Causio

Dear Mr.Causio,

Our order No.14478

I am writing to you to complain about the shipment of sweaters we received yesterdayagainst the above order

The boxes in which the sweaters were packed were damaged, and look as if they hadbeen broken open in transit From your invoice No.18871 we estimate that thirtygarments have been stolen to the value of $ 115.00; And because of the rummaging inthe boxes, quite a few other garments were crushed or stained and can not be sold asnew articles in our shops

As the sale was on a CIF basis, we suggest you contact your forwarding company withregard to compensation

You will find a list of the damaged and missing articles attached, and the consignmentwill be put to one side until we receive your instructions

Yours sincerely,

(signed)

L.Crane