Nghiên cứu các chiến lược lịch sự khi đưa ra lời yêu cầu trong thư tín kinh doanh được viết bởi người mỹ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ******************* NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG ANH A STUDY ON POLITENESS STR

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG ANH

A STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES

TO MAKE REQUESTS USED IN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCES

WRITTEN BY AMERICANS NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ KHI ĐƯA RA YÊU CẦU TRONG THƯ TÍN KINH DOANH ĐƯỢC VIẾT

BỞI NGƯỜI MỸ

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*******************

NGUYỄN THỊ PHƯƠNG ANH

A STUDY ON POLITENESS STRATEGIES

TO MAKE REQUESTS USED IN ENGLISH BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE WRITTEN BY AMERICANS

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC LỊCH SỰ KHI ĐƯA RA YÊU CẦU TRONG THƯ TÍN KINH DOANH ĐƯỢC VIẾT BỞI NGƯỜI MỸ

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervior: Assos Prof Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng

HANOI - 2017

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that this thesis is entirely my own work I have provided fully documented references to the others‟ work The material in this thesis has not been submitted for assessment in any other formal course I also accept all the requirements of ULIS relating to the retention and use of M.A Graduation Thesis deposited in the library

Hanoi, 2017

Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This thesis would not be fulfilled without the help of some people, and in some ways, I would like to thank everyone who has taught me, inspired me, challenged me, and supported me throughout the realization of this thesis

I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisor, Assoc.Prof.Dr Ngo Huu Hoang, , for his whole-hearted assistance, encouragement

as well as his profound guidance he gave me while I was doing my research

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to all lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their interesting lectures which have inspired me to conduct this thesis

I would also like to express my thanks to my colleagues -teachers of English, who encourage me, and help me during the project.

Last but not least, I am most thankful to my relatives who have always inspired and encouraged me to complete this study

Hanoi, May 2017

Nguyễn Thị Phương Anh

ABSTRACT

This thesis is to raise the competence of pragmatics in business writing for language learners when the needs of communications among people in the world are increasing much more and more However, it is obviously indicated that English learners seems not to have understandings about pragmatics and essential issues in linguistics that makes them difficult in learning foreign language effectively The researcher would like to show the importance of politeness strategies in requestings

in native English speakers, in order to help learners avoid the FTAs when writing

In the thesis, the material is used : seventeen letters from Americans, which support the researchers carry out the research They are letters of customers to suppliers and vice versa, to ask information of price, products, shipment By the deductive method, the research is carried out based on the theory of politeness strategies of Brown and Levison, then the data is descriptive, emumerated and analysed which the most frequent politeness strategies to make requests in writing mode and the trend of use these strategies in American business letters It aims at giving full awareness of politeness strategies, the roles of pragmatics in commmunicating

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 1

1.3 The research questions 2

1.4 The scope of research 2

1.5 Significance of the study 2

1.6 Design of study 2

PART B DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

1.1 The pragmatic scope of the study 4

1.1.1 The speech act theory 4

1.1.2 Requesting as a speech act 5

1.2 Theoretical background of politeness 7

1.2.1 Brown and Levison‟s theory of politeness 8

1.2.1.1 Face 8

1.2.1.2 Face-threatening acts ( FTAs) 9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 14

2.1 Research on politeness to make requests in written language 14

2.2 Business letters and making requests 15

2.2.1 Business letters 15

2.2.2 Making requests in English business letters 16

2.2.3 Some research on business letters 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research method 18

3.2 Data collections 18

3.3 Data analysis 19

3.4 Research procedures 20

3.5 Summary 20

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 22

4.1 Frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies to make request in business letters composed by Americans 22

4.1.1 Requests from customers to suppliers 22

4.1.1.1 Positive politeness strategies 22

4.1.1.2 Negative politeness strategies 25

4.1.Requests from supplier to customers 29

4.1.2.1 Positive politeness strategies 29

4.1.2.2 Negative politeness strategies 30

4.1.3 Results 33

4.2 Comparison of using politeness strategies to make request between customers and suppliers 35

4.2.1 Positive politeness strategies to make requests from customers and supplier 35

4.2.2 Negative politeness strategies to make requests from customers and supplier 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 38

1 Summary 38

2 Recapitulation 38

3 Limitations 39

4 Implications 39

5 Suggestion for further research 40

REFERENCES 41 APPENDIXES I

ABBREVIATION

FTA: Face-threatening act

FSA: Face- saving act

S: Speaker

H: Hearer

EFL: Engish as Foreign Langague

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES, AND CHARTS

FIGURE

Figure 1 Face-threatening acts(Meier, 1995) 9

Figure 2 Social factors affects the speaker‟s strategies in communication 11 Figure 3 Possible strategies for doing face-threatening acts(Brown & Levinson, 1987) 11

supplier 37

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

Studying pragmatics is one interesting aspect in linguistics because of its practical features on communicating activities of people around the world Politeness strategy is one considerable topic in pragmatics Using and having competence of politeness strategies brings many advantages for communicating effectively, because it has effects

on result of communication between people and people According to Brown and Levinson (1987)Politeness is the expression of the speakers' intention to mitigate face threats carried by certain face threatening acts toward the listener Another definition is

"a battery of social skills whose goal is to ensure everyone feels affirmed in a social interaction"(Mills, 2003) Therefore, being polite can be an attempt for the speaker to

save their own face or the face of who he or she is talking to

These days, means of communication do not limit on direct communication because of development of technology Therefore, doing business is much easier than before, businesspeople can use letters sent via Internet to discuss, transactions what they need Within communicating activities, requesting that can threaten the addressee‟ face most Normally, it is studied in spoken language more than written language such as business letters Meanwhile, the exchange of information between businesspeople is mostly continuous every day, especially via e-mails, including asking for information and ordering Therefore, the present study would like to analyze requesting in business letters written by American It can bring a clear finding about the politeness strategies to make requests in written mode It can help learners who learn English as a second language/ foreign language be competent the pragmatics, politeness strategies in making requests

1.2 Aims of the study

The main purposes of the study are to examine which kind of politeness strategies to make requests in business letters from Americans And, the second purpose is to find out the factors that affect choosing their politeness strategies in different business situations

With the above aims, the objectives of this study are as follows:

- To explore what politeness strategies are often used to make request in business letters composed by Americans

- To find out what roles of the factors around to the effectiveness of requests

1.3 The research questions

In order to achieve the aims stated, the study is meant to find out the answer

to 2 following research questions

1 What are the most frequent politeness strategies to make requests in business letters from Americans?

2 Are there differences on choosing the strategies in American business letters?

1.4 The scope of research

This study focuses on the politeness strategies in making request used in

English business letters from Americans Requesting in business letters is various, however, because of the limitation of time and data, the research just focuses on some specific requests between clients and suppliers

The researcher chooses 17 letters, which composed by Americans which are collected from reliable sources Ethical issues have also been considered in this study Some of these letters are downloaded from the Internet and some others were collected from real American letters

1.5 Significance of the study

The study has been conducted with the expectations that English learners in Vietnam will have more competences of pragmatics, especially politeness strategies

to make requests used in English letters, which brings them benefits to gain the most effective communication with their international business partners Meanwhile, the research hopes to help students be more aware of American written styles in business letters, how they use language to show their attitude to others

1.6 Design of study

The study consists of three parts

Part A, Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aims, the research

questions, the significances, the scope, the methodology and the design of study

Part B, Development includes

Chapter I, Theoretical background: In this chapter, theoretical knowledge

of politeness strategies and business letters is presented

Chapter II, Literature review: it deals with the literature review of some

previous studies on the similar issue

Chapter III, Methodology of research: Methodology, in which the

researcher will restate the research questions and show how the researcher applied data collection instruments and process of conducting the study Data analysis, in which the research used both qualitative and quantitative method to study and analyze the figure and information collected

Chapter IV, Finding and discussion: in this chapter, the research represents

the result from analyzing data, then discusses the result toward the theory to give the findings after doing the research

Part C, Conclusion, which summarizes all findings explored and bring out

useful suggestions for the teachers to apply in teaching writing and for learners to improve in learning how to write English business letter effectively An overall picture of what has been done in this study and suggestions for the further studies are also employed in this part

PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 The pragmatic scope of the study

Pragmatics is not too strange in linguistics studies in the last decades; it seems

to be a hot trend which many linguists have concerns about

There are many arguments on defining what the pragmatics is, however, the researcher highly appreciates the view of Leiwo et al (1992:17), he emphasizes the language use in context and interaction, the user-oriented opinion is interested in how these elements are used in a specific context It means that not all extra-linguistic factors can be excluded from a pragmatic evaluation Pragmatics asks the reason why people use language as they do and what they achieve by it This emphasis lies in the use and function of language Besides, the Halliday‟s functional view of language contributes significantly into identify the function of language in

pragmatics The first is the interpersonal function, which means the conveying of

attitude and emotion, and the creation and maintenance of interpersonal

relationships The second function includes the non-linguistics factors in language

use(Halliday, 1970) Pragmatics can study any feature of language, its structure, words, even tones of voice(Verschueren, 1995) It can explain features of language use that other disciplines cannot account for It would be impossible to explain politeness without having some competence of the pioneering works concerning language use The works of Austin and Grice are still considered fundamental to the theory and research in pragmatics Their theories will be discussed briefly in the following

1.1.1 The speech act theory

Based on Austin‟s speech act theory, the idea of speech acts as follows: all clauses are linguistic actions which are used to present information (stating), to acquire information (asking) or to make someone do something (ordering) etc The meaning of an utterance has three aspects:

+ The locution is the basic act of an utterance or produces a meaningful linguistic expression

+ The illocution is force of the utterance, its function People do not create a meaningful sentence without any purpose

+ The perlocutionary is the effect the utterance has on the hearer An utterance

such as “It’s hot in here” can mean a request to open the window or a complaint

about forgetting the air conditioning

Besides, Searle (1975, pp 59-61) develops Austin‟s theory further and makes

a distinction between direct and indirect speech acts Speech acts are direct when the syntactic form of sentence matches with its function

Thus declaratives are used to make assertions, interrogatives to ask questions, and imperatives to make orders or requests However, the form and the function do not often match, and the concept of indirect speech act is needed The illocution of

an utterance is different from its syntactic form The speech act theory indicates that language use is often indirect but it did not show clearly how people manage to interpret indirectness

1.1.2 Requesting as a speech act

Request is defined by Hornby and Wehmeier (1995, p 996) that an act of politely asking for something”, belongs to the category of Directives By means of

an utterance, the speaker expects the hearer to do something as he or she wants According to Assoc.Prof, Dr Nguyen Van Do( 2000,2004), there are some contents

of requests used by English and Vietnamese:

 Request to get the information

 Request to get the help

 Request to get the protection of God

 Request someone ( the addressee) to do something

Although it has an assembly of the four contents in English and Vietnamese, it still has some different points because of the influence of different culture

According to Searle (1969), there are five categories of speech acts, and requesting is defined as “an act of politely asking for something” belonged to the category of Directives By means of an utterance, the speaker expects the hearer to

do something as he or she wants For example:

“Won’t you kiss me goodbye”- ask for a kiss goodbye

“Will you leave me alone, will you” –ask the hearer to leave him/her alone

(Hornby & Wehmeier, 1995)

Like many other speech acts, requesting can be made direct or indirect According to Brown and Levinson (1987), requesting is a face-threatening speech act Therefore, the speaker prefers an indirect way to make a request in order to keep a good public self image for the hearer One of the common indirect requests

is in the form of a question, typically that of the hearer‟s ability (“can you?”,

“could you?”) or future possibility (“will you?”, “would you?”) These are very

commonly accepted not only in English but also in other languages The advantage

of indirect requesting is that it makes the speaker more polite in the eyes of the hearer and it gives the hearer a freedom to choose his behavior

As usual, a request includes two main parts, a head act and additional elements which consist of Alerter, Perspective and the Modification The Head Act is the minimal unit which is the core of the request sequence Alerter is an element whose

function is to draw H‟s attention to what is uttering Eg: Mrs, Ms, …Perspective is

inferred as a choice made by the speaker whose want or wish is emphasized or dominant in the requesting and it is coded as follow:

(1) Hearer perspective: Can you show me your driving license, please

(2) Speaker perspective: Could I see your driving license, please?

(3) Inclusive: Could we swap cars?

(4) Impersonal: Can one ask for a little quiet?

(Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989)

In conclusion, requesting is one kind of speech acts used variously and widely

in human interactions Depending on the particular purpose, different requesting is

made and it is represented in different styles However, in each requesting, the speaker often tries to increase his/her politeness in various ways

1.2 Theoretical background of politeness

As mentioned in the previous chapter, indirectness has received a lot of attention in research on pragmatics Although indirectness may cause misunderstandings, linguists would like to find out why language is so often used indirectly Moreover, the social nature of language use is often seen as the main reason for paying more attention to interpersonal aspects of communication than clarity of the message Thomas (1983, pp 143-145) found politeness to be one of the major reasons for indirectness, but it should be noted that politeness does not consist exclusively of indirect language use

Politeness in language is a very complicated and controversial phenomenon

We need to separate the term politeness as a pragmatic phenomenon with the common view of politeness, polite behavior such as thanking or greeting

Politeness has developed into a sub-discipline of pragmatics for the past decades Piirainen-Marsh (1995, p 22) mention two central concepts that are

helpful when explaining politeness The first is the communicative goal which

refers to the effects that a speaker wants to achieve by a certain utterance The

second concept is strategies which are the means for achieving the communicative

goals Some studies on politeness in pragmatics focus on the social nature of the phenomenon, goal- oriented communication There assumptions of politeness contribute to the definition of politeness which is accepted by most linguists and which is used in the present study In the most important theories linguistic, politeness is seen as strategic conflict avoidance (see Kasper 1990, Thomas 1995, Fraser,1990)

According to Piirainen-Marsh (1995), he concludes that the central ideas of politeness that are generally upon: politeness is one of the dimensions of language use which is oriented to the establishment and maintenance of interpersonal relations Politeness is as a tool to avoid offence and to achieve or keep cooperation

or successful communication When people communicate with others, they try to choose the most suitable way to say what they want or mean, it depends on particular situation Therefore, politeness is regard as one of the underlying forces which influence human interaction and interpersonal communication

1.2.1 Brown and Levison‟s theory of politeness

As mentioned in the previous part, the Grice‟s framework is accept as essentially correct and the Cooperative Principle as unmarked framework for communication Politeness is considered as the reason for not following strictly the conversational maxims in everyday speech They share the same idea as Leech about that politeness is the main motivation for violating the maxims They also state that linguistic politeness has to be communicated; it means the speaker has to show his/her intention to be polite The failure to convey the intention may be interpreted as absence of polite behavior Comparing two utterances below:

“ Be quiet, please” – a request with the intention to be polite

“Quiet!”- a request without polite intention

However, this conclusion does not occur in variety of contexts and cultures,

because indirectness is not the only way of conveying polite intentions

1.2.1.1 Face

Face is the essential property of a member of a society, and it is considered to

be the main concept of Brown and Levison‟s theory They expand the original idea

of Goffman (1967) about Face It is something that can be lost, damaged, maintained, or enhanced and must be constantly attended to during interaction Face

is further divided into negative and positive faces

Positive face: Positive face employs a person‟s wish to be approved

Negative face: it means a person‟s wish to have freedom of action and

freedom from imposition

These aspects of face are normal expectations which a member of a society has and knows other members to have, thus there is a mutual interest to save each other‟s face People can be expected to defend their faces if threatened, and while defending their own faces they are likely to threaten other people‟s faces in return Therefore, it assumes that everyone‟s best interest maintain each other‟s face and

also show their intention to be polite The speaker maintains the addressee‟s face unless s/he can get the addressee to maintain the speaker‟s face without recompense(Brown & Levinson, 1987, pp 60-62)

According to Brown and Levison( 1987:13), they state that face is a universal property They also show the effect of cultural variation on face There are differences between cultures as to what kinds of acts are considered face-threatening and who have special rights to face-protection

To be clear about their theory of politeness, the researcher will give more details of the main ideas in Brown and Levison about politeness in the following

Namely, Face-threatening acts and politeness strategies with Brown and Levison‟

views are presented in detail Then, some criticism about their views of politeness and earlier previous studies on the issue would be employed

1.2.1.2 Face-threatening acts ( FTAs)

FTAs which occur regularly in everyday interaction are softened by means of

politeness Politeness can be expressed through “positive politeness” ( e.g “ please”,

to try to make the other like you) or “negative politeness” ( e.g “I know this is a terrible imposition”, try to give the other person some space and not impose) Face

is constantly threatened by certain linguistic acts, face-threatening acts( FTA)(Brown & Levinson, 1987, p 65) They also give a classification of FTAs, which is summarized in figure 1

Figure 1 Face-threatening acts(Meier, 1995)

Meier (1995)indicates that both of speaker‟s face and addressee‟s face are maybe threatened Also, positive and negative face can be exposed to threat The negative face of hearer can be threatened by requesting, ordering or offering Meanwhile, the addressee‟s positive face can be caused by the negative face of speaker, including acts of disapproving, criticizing, and disagreeing The negative face of speaker can be threatened by thanking or accepting an offer, and his/her positive face by such acts as apologizing, or accepting compliment It is clear that these categories cover, because certain FTAs, such as complaints and interruption, threaten both positive and negative face This view suggests that in fact all linguistic acts can be face-threatening Even these acts are considered as “polite acts”, such as offers or expressions of thanks, can be seen to limit the addressee‟s freedom of action (Piirainen-Marsh, 1995)

In order to avoid FTAs or minimize the threat participants use strategies which

is considered as “politeness strategies” when communicating The strategies have

two functions:

+ They are used to mitigate the threat when communicating to others

+ The strategies are used to communicate the speaker‟s polite intention Brown and Levinson (1987, p 85) state that for the most part strategies are not conscious However, they seem to be consciously used when participants try

to control others There are three social factors that affect the speaker‟s strategies

in communication To choose an appropriate strategy the speaker understands clearly the degree of face risk involved in doing a particular act Because some acts are more risky than others and require different amount of redress The first

factor is social distance, which presents the degree of familiarity and solidarity between participants The second is ranking of impositions considering the seriousness of a particular act in a particular culture The last is relative power, which accounts for the power of the speaker with respect to the hearer It is an

asymmetrical social relation

Figure 2 Social factors affects the speaker‟s strategies in communication

The degree of distance and power is received and evaluated subjectively by the participants These dimensions are culture-specific and are sensitive to complex situational and cultural variation (Brown & Levinson, 1987) The strategies and the choices the speaker has to make are performed in Figure 3

Figure 3 Possible strategies for doing face-threatening acts(Brown &

Levinson, 1987) Positive politeness, which includes the use of redressive action directed to

the addressee‟s positive face According Nguyen Quang (2006), positive politeness is any communicative act( verbal and/or non-verbal) that is intentionally and appropriately meant to show the speaker‟s concern to the addressee, thus enhancing the sense of solidarity between them For example of using a positive politeness strategy in Vietnamese and English showing the notice or attend to the addressee:

Situation: you are talking to a colleague of yours in your office

Vietnamese: “ Chắc là cậu khát lắm nhỉ Làm tí nước cam nhé?

English : “You must be thirsty How about some orange juice ?”

(Nguyen Quang, 2006)

Negative politeness: This uses the redressive action directed to the

addressee‟s negative face Whereas positive politeness is free-ranging, negative politeness is specific and focused; it minimizes a particular FTAs It is used to convey the speaker‟s intention not to impose on the addressee but to leave him/her freedom of action In western countries, negative politeness is the most elaborate and provides the most conventionalized set of linguistic strategies for minimizing a face threat A example of negative politeness strategy in English and Vietnamese –

be conventionally indirect strategy

Situation: you are talking to a colleague of yours in your office

English: “Why for God’s sake are you painting your house purple?”

Vietnamese: “ Đang yên đang lành sao lại đi sơn nhà màu tím thế này?”

(Nguyen Quang, 2006)

To perform an act off-record means that it is done very indirectly An

utterance can be interpreted in many ways and it is left to the addressee to decide what the speaker means In this way, the speaker can even refuse making a certain act Also the addressee can choose not to recognize the speaker‟s real intention There are 15 off-record strategies in Brown and Levison‟s theory

Although Brown and Levison‟s theory of politeness is considered as a fundamental literature of other researches, it also has received criticisms from linguists in the world Some linguists indicate the limitation of the theory, such as Asian researchers who argue that the theory has not been able to avoid ethnocentricity (Ide, 1989; Matsumoto, 1988) And other researches show that Brown and Levison just focus on the particular western view of interaction and that their theory is too culture-bound to be applicable to non-western politeness(Janney

& Arndt, 1993) Most of the linguists recognize the differences between eastern and

western cultures, and the limitations of theory of Brown and Levison such as in western cultures the emphasis is on the individual‟s independence and territory, whereas in the Japanese culture the relative position of a member to others in a group is the basic concept in interaction(Matsumoto, 1988) Ide (1989) also indicates a neglected aspect in Brown and Levison‟s theory in which they are the distinction between politeness as the strategic conflict avoidance and social indexing

In spite of the criticism the research is still carried out based on Brown and Levison‟s theory of politeness as the fundamental issue Most of the criticism has been made long after the theory was published, so it is obvious that extensive research has provided a broader understanding of politeness, and indicated aspects where the theory needs refinement However, it is sure that so far the Brown and Levison‟s theory still has a significant effect on researches on politeness because of the basic values in theory

The present study investigates the face-threatening acts: requesting, which threatens the addressee‟s negative face Politeness is considered as an aspect of pragmatics which is relevant for the present study While other studies on interlanguage have focused on describing the differences between the way in which learners and native speakers perform specific speech acts(Ellis, 1994a).Cross-cultural research has identified both similarities and systematic variation in speech acts across language and culture

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Research on politeness to make requests in written language

Many studies on spoken language mostly use Brown and Levison‟s theory as a component of analysis It is showed that requesting strategies are classified into three broad categories according to their level of directness

+ First, using the imperatives or performatives It is the most direct requesting

strategies Eg: I am asking you to close the door

+ Second, conventional indirect strategies, an utterance asking the addressee‟s

ability or willingness to do X Eg: Could you type the document?

+ Third, non-conventional indirect expression, such as hints Eg: This room is

too dark to read It means that the speaker wants the addressee to open the window

These categories have equivalents in Brown and Levison‟s theory; the direct requesting strategies are comparable to bald on record, conventional indirectness to negative politeness strategies, and non-conventional strategies to off-record strategies

In the Cross-cultural Speech Act Realization Project, the researchers observe that conventionally indirect strategies in requests were the most frequently used in the language studied(Blum-Kulka & Olshtain, 1984) Learners are able to distinguish different degrees of politeness of different linguistic forms, but their perceptions do not always agree with those of native speakers (Kasper & Blum-Kulka, 1993) According to Ellis (1994b), the learners at the advanced level do not experience many problems in recognizing a distinction between polite and less polite forms However, learners at all levels experience problems in producing situationally appropriate speech acts

It is not paid attention as in spoken language, politeness strategies in written language seem to be concerned in recent time when researchers expand the aspect to different written genres Most of these studies on politeness strategies in written mode are followed the Brown and Levison‟s theory

Myers (1989) studies the scientific documents, pronoun we is a positive

politeness strategy used to stress solidarity Even, to soften claims the passive

voice and impersonal constructions are used as negative politeness strategies in

2.2 Business letters and making requests

2.2.1 Business letters

Business letters are formal paper communications between, to or from businesses and usually sent through the Post Office or sometimes by courier Letters

are written from a person/group, known as the sender to a person/group, known in

business as the recipient Here are some examples of senders and recipients:

 business «» business

 business «» consumer

 job applicant «» company

 citizen «» government official

 employer «» employee

 staff member «» staff member

(Lougheed, 2003)

Various purposes to write the letters: to persuade, to inform, to invite, to apologize, to request, to remind, to introduce a product or a person , therefore, in order to be appropriate, the learner needs to identify what kind of letter , what purpose of the letter they will write to the recipient (Lougheed, 2003)

In this study, making requests in English business letters is analyzed in the scope of pragmatics: politeness strategies In the next section, making requests in English business letters is represented in detail

2.2.2 Making requests in English business letters

Requests in English business letters is various, it can come from the customer

to the supplier or vice versa, from the business to business, employer to employee,

so it is alternative to suit the purpose of the letters and the subject of the letters This

is one of primary contends in business transactions, however, it does not seem as the other social relations such as relatives, friends, etc, because it serves the benefit for two partners involved in Therefore, making requests to their business contacts should be careful

2.2.3 Some research on business letters

After studying on some previous analysis about business letter, it is clear that the researchers seem to focus on lexical discourse and grammatical structures than pragmatics like politeness strategies Nhung (2007) analyzes the cohesive device in English business letters of enquiry, and she finds that repetition is the most cohesive device used frequently in enquiry letters Cohesive device in business letters of enquiry is a crucial aspect to bring the value of communicating indirectly According to Huyen(2011), she finds that grammatical metaphor is used to construct the writer‟s messages

Conclusion, studies on politeness strategies in business letters in general, and politeness strategies in making request in business letters in particular are not much

writing Therefore, the researcher decides to investigate the aspect in English business letters written by Americans to bring comprehended competence of requesting as an aspect of pragmatics, and then help the students who often have difficulties in writing English business letters to use politeness strategies in English letters suitably

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

The purpose of this study is to find out the most frequent politeness strategies

to make requests in American business letters The purposes of this chapter are to (1) reintroduce the research questions (2) describe the research methods of this study, including the procedure used in collecting the data, and an explanation of the statistical procedures used to analyze the data

With the purpose of making a descriptive and contrastive analysis of the using politeness strategies to make requests in business letters from Americans, this study was intended to follow both quantitative and qualitative approach in analyzing the data in different subsections dealing with pragmatics aspects of politeness strategies

to make requests in American business correspondences

3.2 Data collections

Seventeen letters from Americans in which have twelve letters from customers

to suppliers to request for getting information of products, services and ordering products which they are concerning or interested in, one out of these letters asks for stopping supplying a service in the future Other five letters from suppliers to customers ask for feedback to their products which customers have used and one out of them requires the customer to add the missing information in their order All these letters are written by Americans, some of them are downloaded from the

public their name, and company to secure their customers in any case

In this study, the data are investigated on the basic of Brown and Levison‟s politeness theory The collected data will be qualitatively and quantitatively processed to investigate some specific syntactic features to make requests in business letters by Americans Therefore, after being collected, the selective material is sorted out to serve as illustration examples for the politeness strategies in Brown and Levison‟s theory Basing on this, the author has tried to find out the most frequent politeness strategies the Americans uses in their business letters, and the differences in choosing politeness strategies to make requests to particular receivers

The data collected from the reliable source are put under a process of statistical analysis using quantitative method They are first computed and analyzed

by statistical procedures to find the answers to the questions of the research questions

Each politeness strategy is illustrated by the extract of sentences from the letters in the study

3.3 Data analysis

In this research, the aim is to study the politeness strategies in making requests that used to redress the face-threatening acts directly Therefore, to address the research questions, the research focuses on the politeness strategies in making request in English business letters written by Americans Twelve letters are from customers to suppliers to enquire the information of product, price list, urgent information they are concerned about, a letter from customer require the supplier to stop providing service, and five other letters from suppliers to customers to ask for feedback of their service or products

The data will be analyzed by using Brown and Levison‟s revised 1987 model

of politeness The FTA can also be redressed with other strategies than just with the one that is used to do the head act Those strategies that are found either in preceding sentence, in the sentence after the FTA or in the same sentence outside the head act are categorized as supportive strategies

Due to the main aims and objectives of the study, the followings procedures are for data analysis:

Stage 1: during the process of investigating, the politeness strategies to make requests used in business letters are described and analyzed Then, techniques such

as comparison, contrastive analysis applied to find out a general picture about the politeness strategies used most

Stage 2: basing on the results from stage 1, the author has taken a careful contrastive analysis to find out the differences in using these strategies in each group, customers or suppliers

3.4 Research procedures

The study is a descriptive and analytical research in which the qualitative and

quantitative approaches are combined to implement this thesis In reference with qualitative approaches, the thesis collects data for the study including letters from customers and from suppliers, then classifies the data into category files

The qualitative approach is employed to describe and analyze the data of the study The steps of the study are conducted in the order as follows:

- Finding out the American business letters in which has requests to the receivers, then categorize them

- Describing the politeness strategies used to make requests by analyzing the structures and phrases or expressions in each category in Brown and Levison‟s theory of politeness strategies

- Comparing and looking for the similarities and differences in using politeness strategies to make requests from suppliers and customers

3.5 Summary

To sum up, this chapter gives an overview of how to carry out the research In research design, two main approaches namely the qualitative and the quantitative are dealt During the process of researching, major methods such as descriptive, comparative method are mainly used for the findings of the study Books, the

Internet tools, and so on are useful instruments for data collection and analysis Also, it mentioned how the data for this study are collected and analyzed to find out the most frequent politeness strategies used to make request by Americans in business letters, and for each addressee, how different in choosing the strategies to make requests The letters are selected carefully from reliable source to make the study reliable and valid

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Frequency of occurrence of politeness strategies to make request in business letters composed by Americans

The study indicates when making requests, Americans use some politeness strategies to soften their requests to the addressee In the data of business letters, not only negative or positive strategies used to mitigate the FTA, the combinations of the strategies are done to bring the most effective communicating purpose from the agents However, the occurrence of these strategies is indicated in each group

4.1.1 Requests from customers to suppliers

In the section, the researchers would like to address the politeness strategies used to make requests in letters from customers to suppliers There are twelve letters from customers to suppliers; these letters are to request information of products, price list, and other issues related to the products that customers are

concerning Positive politeness strategies and negative strategies are analyzed

based on the Brown and Levison‟s theory as mentioned in the previous sections

4.1.1.1 Positive politeness strategies

Some positive politeness makes up a remarkable high percentage, including the notice, attend the addressee, giving (ask for) reason, but exaggerate with addressee appears with a small number in the group (8%)

In the data, by showing their interests with the product, and know what product is, also use some expressions indicate their concern to suppliers‟ goods This strategy makes up 28% in total

According to Brown and Levinson (1987), positive politeness is redress directed to the addressee‟s politeness face Redress consists in partially satisfying that desire by communicating that one‟s own wants are in some respects similar to the addressee‟s wants In order to set up the necessary common ground between the

hearer and the speaker, using some phrases as let’s, why don’t we,… Or address forms with I to soften the FTAs

Requesting as a high FTA, in which if S wants to so positive politeness, s/he may use strategies to preserve H’s positive face wants Positive politeness strategies are usable not only for FTA redress but in general as a kind of social accelerator, where S, in using them, indicates that s/he wants to “ come closer” to H(Brown &

Levinson, 1987) To maintain positive face, (Brown & Levinson, 1987) suggest strategies which are summarized in the Appendix A

As the theory of politeness strategies of Brown and Levinson, there are 15 strategies of positive politeness used to maintain positive face In the author‟s research and observation, some positive politeness strategies are found to establish positive face Following are some main strategies of positive politeness found frequently used in requesting

# Strategy 1: Notice, attend to the addressee (his goods, interest, wants, needs)

One of these positive strategies is found in the data: notice; attend to the

addressee’s goods, interest, wants, and needs According to Brown and Levison,

speaker should take notice of aspects of H‟s condition ( noticeable changes, remarkable possessions, anything which looks as though Addressee would want Speaker to notice and approve of it)

Example “You must be hungry, it is a long time since breakfast How about

some lunch?”(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

In the data, this is indirect communication, the strategy shows the customers‟ concerning about the products It indicates the reliability for the suppliers who will answer all questions from customers

There are seven out of twelve customers show their interest in the products which they want to buy Some structures and phrases are showed their concerning about it:

Considering, quite interested in, very interested in….And some cases, these

customers also learn these products before via Internet, magazines, email from supplier There are the examples for this strategy found:

(1) I am quite interested in your email about WhiteSmoke software (

Appendix 1)

(2)I searched on the Internet but I got information in bits and pieces.(

Appendix 5)

(3) and I particularly enjoy your section on world resource and

environmental issues (Appendix 6)

(4)Thank you for sending me a copy of your latest ceramics catatlog …I’m

interested in purchasing approximate 25 of the extra scorpion cups ( Appendix 10)

(5)I read an advertisement about the dress collection, Autumn 2006 in Fashion magazine-Elle some days ago, and I really like to buy a dress ( Appendix 13)

(6)My team is considering using your new release of Omega Database Plus

1.0 as a key part of the system, (Appendix 14)

(7)We have read your promotional material and are very interested in using

your product (Appendix 14)

# Strategy 2: Exaggerate with Addressee

This is often done with exaggerated intonation, stress and other aspects of prosodic, as well as with intensifying modifiers

For example “ How wonderful!”(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

The exaggerations are generally done with emphatic words and expressions

such as for sure, really, exactly, extremely, absolutely, impressed, so, etc

In the data, some cases of exaggerate with addressee (the receivers) are used Although the strategy just accounts for a little, there are only two letters using the strategy, it also indicates the customers‟ interests in the products

(8) , and I have always been impressed by quality of your articles and pictures

(Appendix 6)

(9) Your vases and bowls are quite exquisite They look so realistic ( Appendix 10)

# Strategy 3: Giving(or ask for) reasons:

S gives reasons as to why he wants what he wants The face leads to test H and see if he is cooperative; if he is likely to be The context may be enough to push the off-cord reason into an on-cord request S gives reason before requesting For example:

“My little son is naughty He is taken my bike for a whole day, so I have to

In the data, six writers out of twelve use the strategy to get information from suppliers

(10)We are considering using your new product named WhiteSmoke software

for editing and enhancing English writing (Appendix 1)

(11) Office Works is seeking a place to host our first awards banquet (Appendix 2)

(12) Yesterday’s newspaper had the advertisement of the scheme but did not give all the details,….I got information in bits and pieces (Appendix 5)

(13)I feel it would be a waste of resource to receive something that I will not use (Appendix 6)

(14) I did not get much information about the collection such as the price, colors, and materials of each dress (Appendix 13)

(15)To complete my operational budget I will need the following information:

…/ To submit my proposal to the finance…/ In keeping with long-standing policy we would like to place….( Appendix 16)

4.1.1.2 Negative politeness strategies

They are found in the data of letters from customers to suppliers The main negative politeness strategy is used in the research:

# Strategy 1: Be pessimistic

“This strategy gives redress to H‟s negative face by explicitly doubt that the condition for the appropriateness of S‟s speech act obtain”

So I suppose some help is out of the question, then?

(Brown & Levinson, 1987)

There are three letters out of twelve letters found in the research which use the

strategy in their letters to make requests to their suppliers

According to Brown and Levison (1987), using subjective form of modal

auxiliaries could, would and might to the latter strategy, and using them is more polite indirect request than one beginning with can or will

(16)Would the Garden Hotel be able to provide suitable accommodations for this event?( Appendix 2)