Business terminology in negotiation thuật ngữ kinh tế trong đàm phán thương mại quốc tế

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER BUSINESS TERMINOLOGY IN NEGOTIATION Supervisor: Nguyen Xuan Thom (Assoc Prof Dr.) Student: Do Mai Anh QH2011.F.1.E8 Ha Noi – 2015 IH QU GI H N I guy n u n h m inh vi n Mai Anh QH2011.F.1.E8 Ha Noi – 2015 ) ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: DO MAI ANH, QH2011.F.1.E8, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‘s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature May 1st 2015 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, on the completion of the study, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Nguyen Xuan Thom for his immeasurable help, constant guidance and support during all stages of the study and beyond, from whom I have received valuable suggestions and careful critical comments Second, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to my teacher and also my special friend Ms Nguyen Dieu Linh, who has enthusiastically helped me in the data collection process – a decisive factor for the success of this study I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my sister and my friends, who have constantly encouraged me and supported me wholeheartedly during the time of conducting the research Last but not least, I would like to thank the readers who share their interest and feedback on the study ii ABSTRACT Nowadays, with the development of globalization and economic integration, economics and the related issues have become one of the most-mentioned topics worldwide Therefore, the need for a good command of English is more and more increasing It is vital for people, especially students majoring in Economics and businessmen, to have deep understandings of English for economics in general as well as business terminology in particular By employing 30 English business negotiation conversations, the study demonstrates the understandings of the dominant part in business that is negotiation, as well as how language is used in terms of terminology The result confirms the exploitation of terminology in negotiation conversations Nevertheless, the syntactic and sematic features of business terms are also revealed Finally, some classifications are given with the hope to enhance the knowledge of terminology so that people could communicate with one another better iii CONTENTS CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II – LITERATURE REVIEW Negotiation 1.1 Definition 1.2 The characteristics of negotiation 1.3 Negotiation strategies and styles 1.4 Negotiator Terminology 2.1 Definition 2.2 Main characteristics of terminology 2.2.1 Accuracy 2.2.2 Systematicality 10 2.2.3 Internationality 11 2.2.4 Nationality 11 2.2.5 Popularity 11 2.3 The distinction between terms and words 12 2.4 Structure of term 12 2.4.1 One-word terms and neologisms 12 2.4.1.1 One-word terms in the form of verb 13 2.4.1.2 One-word terms in the form of noun 13 2.4.1.3 Eponyms derived from the names of economists 13 2.4.1.4 Economic acronyms 13 2.4.2 Above-word- level terms 14 2.4.2.1 Nominal group 14 2.4.2.2 Economic above-word- level terms in the form of nominal group 15 Related studies 15 CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY 17 Participants 17 Research instruments 18 Data analysis methods and procedure 18 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19 iv Realization of the linguistic features of negotiation language 19 1.2 EXPLORING INITIAL POSITIONS, STATING NEEDS AND ASKING QUESTIONS: 19 1.3 BARGAINING: 20 1.4 CLOSING THE DEAL 21 Realization of the linguistic features of business terminology 21 2.1 Syntactic idiomaticity of English Business terms 22 2.2 Semantic idiomaticity of English business terms 24 2.2.1 Overview of the semantic idiomaticity of English business terms 24 2.2.2 Classification of English idiomatic economic terminology according to their semantic features 25 2.2.2.1 Success and failure in business 25 2.2.2.2 Money 26 2.2.2.3 People in business 28 2.2.2.4 Shares and assets 29 2.2.2.5 Work and job 30 Discussion of the findings 32 CHAPTER V - CONCLUSION 34 Conclusion 34 Pedagogical implications 34 Limitations of the study: 34 Recommendation for further studies: 35 REFERENCES 36 APPENDIX 1: ENGLISH BUSINESS NEGOTIATION CONVERSATIONS 38 v LIST OF TABLES Table Page Table - Examples of Relationship building phase 24 Table - Examples of Exploring initial positions, stating needs and asking questions 24 Table – Examples of Bargaining 25 Table – Examples of Closing the deal 26 Table – Types of English idiomatic business terms in terms of syntax 27 Table – Number of English idiomatic business compound types 28 Table - Success and failure in business 31 Table – Money 32 Table - People in business 34 Table 10 - Shares and assets 36 Table 11 - Work and job 37 vi CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION This initial chapter is supposed to clarify the research questions and provide the rationale for the study The aims of the study, the scope of the study and the significance of the paper are also introduced Last but not least, this chapter provides a sketch of the organization of the paper to orientate the reader through the paper Rationale As English becomes the international language, it is used around the world as an effective communication tool in almost every field In economy, the cooperation among different countries is increasing, that leads to great changes and progresses, as well as dramatic development in various nations, especially in Vietnam However, due to the fact that not every English speaker is a native speaker, which means the understanding of the language‘s lexicon and grammatical structures of communicators does not meet in common, it is unavoidable that misunderstanding in communication and difficulties in translation might occur That leads to a constant need of more thorough and deeper investigation into the word formation in order to minimize misunderstanding when people from different countries interact with each other Likewise, business terminology is an evitable part of our daily life, especially in business negotiation However, many studies regarding the terminology of finance and banking, diplomacy, medicine and so on have been carried out in Vietnam and in other inter-language of English learners of different language backgrounds, but little attention is paid to the business terminology in negotiation, and the number of researches concerning this aspect is even less In other words, business terminology in negotiation is an area that not much research has been dedicated Besides, as the new terminology keep created in pace with the economic development, translating and understanding economic documents in general and terminology in particular is quite challenging There are linguistic differences between two language systems and the most noticeable difficulty is the problem of how to deal with non-equivalence business terms Since the researcher finds this problem worth investigating, she decides to conduct this paper to dig deeper in the linguistic features of negotiation language in general and economic terminology in particular For all considered, the researcher comes up with her paper‘s title: “Business terminology in negotiation” Aims of the study Firstly, the research paper is expected to provide some theoretical background on terminology in general and in business negotiation in particular, and word formation to form economic terminology in English and Vietnamese Secondly, by analyzing main features of English economic terminology in terms of characteristics and compositions, the researcher would like to give those who are ESP students as well as potential negotiators in English – Vietnamese negotiation some suggestions to improve their competence of doing business communication Research questions Based on the aims of the study, here are two questions that need addressing: i What are the linguistic features of expressions in negotiation language? ii What are the semantic and syntactic features of business terminology? Scope of the study Due to the time constraints and limited ability of the researcher, this study only focuses on investigating the classification, grammatical structures and other main features such as characteristics and compositions of English business terminology in negotiation This study is conducted using the business terminology collected from various specialized books and dictionaries, namely Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English (Parkinson, 2008), Phát ngôn đơn vị giao tiếp đàm phán thương mại quốc tế (Nguyen Xuan Thơm, 2001), Idiomaticity and Terminology: Daniel: Well, I see WebWare as kind of like a stepping stone Marcia Boardman: Sorry? Daniel: Yeah, start here gain the necessary experience, then move onto something bigger Philip Hart: OK well, I admire your ambition! Daniel: Thanks – I‘ve got lots of it! Marcia Boardman: Let‘s move on to managing people an you give an example of a time when you had to deal with a particularly difficult managee? Daniel: Sure – well I think that‘s one of my strong points actually couple of years ago, I was working with a guy, he wasn‘t pulling his weight, basically being lazy – so I told him to get out Marcia Boardman: Oh, you didn‘t give him a performance review, or a warning, or perhaps try to help develop his motivation? Daniel: No, no, no None of that rubbish If someone‘s not working hard enough, then they‘re out! That‘s the way I work I‘m a hard man Marcia Boardman: I see Philip Hart: How would you handle a rapidly changing market? Daniel: Basically not change anything at all! Just continue on as normal regardless! Marcia Boardman: According to your CV you are fluent in Mandarin Daniel: Well, I wouldn‘t say ‗fluent‘ exactly but, I like hinese food a lot – so I can read the menu! Philip Hart: So you can‘t actually speak the language? Daniel: Erm, no Marcia Boardman: Can you tell us about a time you had to close a particularly challenging deal 73 Daniel: I haven‘t had one They‘re all easy for me I close deals all the time! Marcia Boardman: OK – well you have any questions for us? Daniel: No Philip Hart: Oh OK Erm Thanks Marcia Boardman: Let‘s move on to the presentation 74 22 MB: Hi, I'm Marcia Boardman, I'm calling from WebWare DW: Oh hi, Marcia Great to hear from you MB: You'll already have been told you've been shortlisted for interview ST: Oh yes great hello? Can you hear me? MB: Yes Is it OK if I call you now? Would you like me to call you back later? ST: Erm, no, no, no, that's OK MB: Good - well we're very excited about meeting you OK, I just want to talk you through the procedure for the day Someone will meet you when you arrive, reimburse you for any travel expenses you may have, and then bring you up to meet myself and Philip Hart, the CEO DW: OK, sounds good So will you be the only members of the interview panel there then? MB: Yes, it'll be just me and Philip who will talk to you The interview will be in three parts - first of all we'll ask you some general questions about yourself and your educational and professional background, then we'll move on to specifics ST: Oh, er, specifics? Well er, what kind of questions will you be asking? MB: Well, it'll be very similar to the personal statement you submitted with your CV - we'll be expecting you to to give actual examples of problems you've faced and solved, and of what you feel are the major successes in your career so far DW: OK, well yeah, that sounds great - can't wait! MB: Then there'll be a chance for you to ask us any questions - about the job itself, or WebWare in general ST: Oh, erm, OK I'll think of something! MB: After that, we'd like you to give a short presentation on how you see WebWare as a company progressing, and how you see yourself taking us there DW: OK so will I be expected to give like a formal style presentation? MB: It can be as formal or informal as you like There'll be a flipchart and a data projector there available If you need anything else, just let us 75 know ST: Oh, erm OK, a presentation! I'll think of something I haven't done one of those in a while MB: Is that all clear? Great, so, Daniel, I'll see you at 11am, a week tomorrow DW: OK, great, I look forward to meeting you! Thanks, bye MB: OK, so, Sarah, we'll be seeing you at 1pm, a week tomorrow Best of luck! ST: Oh, thanks I'll need it 76 23 Philip Hart: So, how many applications did we get, Marcia? Marcia Boardman: Well overall we‘ve got over two hundred PH: That many!? MB: Yes, but most of which we can discard right away people who don‘t have the right experience, qualifications that kind of thing PH: Of course MB: and then we get the people who submit ten-page-long CVs, or CVs in comicbook font, or green ink, or they attach a photo of themselves disco dancing you know the kind of thing! MB: So, I whittled down the serious candidates to a shortlist of twelve people PH: nd we‘ll interview all of them? MB: I think we should – but obviously I‘ll let you have a look first PH: Great so, who have we got then? MB: Well, I think we‘ve got some pretty strong candidates, two in particular PH: They have the right kind of profile? MB: I‘d certainly say so – a strong educational background, experience in multinational sales, language skills PH: Good, I look forward to meeting them MB: So I‘d say we the standard interview format PH: Sure MB: A few general questions, then onto specifics PH: Yes, exactly – I want to hear specific details of when they‘ve solved problems MB: Yes and then something about ―vision‖, as you put it PH: Yes what you think about a brief presentation? MB: I think that‘s a good idea – we could ask them to give a short presentation on where they see the company going – and how they see themselves taking us there PH: Great! You know something? I‘m really looking forward to this! 77 24 Negotiations on Service Mark: So Richard, I‘d like to hear more about how you charge for your service Richard: Sure Mr Mark We offer one-year unlimited data storage for $2000 Mark: Can you clarify the data rate? Exactly how much data storage can be used, when you say it is unlimited? Richard: We have a fair use policy of 10 TB Mark: an you bring down the rates? We won‘t need that much storage anyway Richard: We have TB storage for years at the same price I‘m sure this is the best package for you Mark: I don‘t know, Mark Let me sleep on it 78 25 Negotiating an Ad Contract Mark: Mr Smith, can you please give me your best offer? Smith : Sure Mr Mark I can give you 15 seconds of airtime for $2500 if you sign a contract for 100 such ads Mark : But your price is too high I am getting a quote for $2000 from a rival network Smith : There‘s a good reason Their viewership is also 30% smaller than ours It actually works out to be more expensive Mark : Hmmm Well, I never negotiated the deal with them Let‘s this: give me a rate of $2000, and I‘ll sign the contract Smith : I don‘t think we can afford it Mark : heck it up with your boss, Mr Mark I am sure he‘ll give you a go ahead 79 26 Salary Negotiations Richard: Mrs Ivy, you know that I applied for a salary increase last month Ivy: Yes Richard I‘ve forwarded your request to the human resources manager Richard: I hope you will consider the matter My last two annual performance reviews were good, but I haven‘t had a salary hike for years Ivy: I am aware of that, Richard, but the salary issues are handled entirely by HR Richard: I have to admit this is really disappointing Ivy: Richard, the manager responded that it‘s not our policy to increase salary by 30% Richard: So, can I expect 25%? Ivy: I will talk to the manager again about it Richard, but 10% is standard Richard: Thank you, Mrs Ivy I really want to keep working for the company, but I should be able to afford it 80 27 Negotiating a Delivery Date Ivy : Congratulations on winning the order! The deadline for the delivery is 30 days from now Smith : 30 days? Wow! That‘s cutting it rather thin I asked for a 45-day period Ivy : ome on You know we can‘t afford waiting for 45 days for the material Thirty days is the industry standard Smith : You‘re right Mrs Ivy, but you‘ve asked for a special design modification That‘s going to take time I don‘t want to disappoint you later Ivy : Hmm How soon you think you can deliver it? Smith : Well, I like working with you, so I am going to make an extra effort Let‘s fix it at 36 days Ivy : Okay, Mr Smith That sounds reasonable 81 28 Cynthia: What is your production situation now? Do you have the capacity to provide us with a substantial number of units? John: Provided that you give us sufficient notice, we have the production capacity to meet your needs What sort of quantities are you looking for? Cynthia: We are considering an initial quantity in excess of 200,000 units, with additional similar quantities ordered on a quarterly basis John: What did you have in mind regarding specifications? Cynthia: We would like units for both P4 and AMD CPUs About 20% would be for entry-level desktops, 40% would be for business use and the remaining 40% for multimedia use Supposing we placed an order for 200,000 units for the second quarter of 2004 and follow-up orders of 200,000 units for each of the following three quarters, what unit price could we expect? John: As long as we are clear on your specifications and have 30 days before beginning production, we could offer a unit price of NT$1,700 Cynthia: If we doubled the number of units in our order, what discount on the unit pricecould we receive? John: Before I answer that, could you tell me what you were thinking about in terms of delivery dates? Cynthia: We were thinking about delivery dates of 120 days following our order John: On the condition that we would have such a delivery period, we could offer a 5% discount on the larger order Cynthia: If you could offer an 8% discount, then we could agree to place the larger order 82 John: Supposing we offered a compromise discount of 6.5% on the larger order, would that satisfy you? Cynthia: I think we can live with that providing you supply good technical support and documentation in Spanish John: No problem We can that Cynthia: OK It's agreed then John: Thank you 83 29 John: I want you to have Help Desk ready to visit my designers at their workstation at every minute of the working day Mary: No way buddy! That's impossible I don't have the resources to that John: Our Service Level Agreement requires that you it Mary: That is not strictly correct The Agreement requires that we be reasonably available during working day to solve any problems your designers may have It does not state that we must be walking the floor of your unit during every minute John, my experience of you is that you are reasonable person, why you feel that we need to take the support services to such an extreme? John: You need to understand that my designers must have quick responses to their hardware problems, so that we not disrupt our development processes Mary: Yes, I see how that is an important operational requirement for you Tell me, you agree that your designers not have hardware problems every single minute of the working day? John: I suppose that is true Mary: OK then, I think I can something with that So you think that your designers' processes would be looked after if my Help Desk officers area round at those moments when your designers actually experience their hardware problems? John: Yes, I agree that my designers‘ processes will be safe, as long as your Help Desk people are actually on the spot within a few minutes when hardware problems arise Mary: What you consider to be an adequate response time then? How many minutes is acceptable from the time the problem arises? John: I think ten or fifteen minutes is a reasonable response time Mary: OK, well I have a suggestion that may meet both our needs I think that my Help Desk officers could a quick walk of your floor every half hour to check on 84 whether there are any problems That way your designers are never more than 15minutes away from a support officer being present on the floor Do you think that would meet your support requirements adequately? John: Yes, I think so Mary: Excellent Do you want to start running this practice from this afternoon? John: Yes, that would be fine Mary: OK, I'll tell my Help Desk officers about it now and I would also like to send an e-mail to all of your designers informing them of the new practice Is that all right with you? John: Yes, that's good 85 30 You: I asked for a meeting with you today to talk about my total compensation package s you know, I‘ve been a loyal and productive employee of ompany X for [blank] years now I know we‘ve come through the worst of the recession, a time during which I [and everyone on my team or and everyone else who saw the company through these difficult times] threw everything we had behind the company‘s success Your Negotiation Partner: Of course we appreciate everyone‘s work but, as you know, our hard times aren‘t yet over You: Yes, I know the company‘s position, though improved, still has a far way to go to I know we‘re working to achieve several goals, including [list the goals you‘re going to help the company achieve and those for which your negotiation partner is responsible] Your Negotiation Partner: It‘s still a tough economy and a lot of people are out of work You: I know And now is the time I feel like I can give the company my absolute best As you know, however, no one in my department has been given a meaningful raise since 2008 [or from the beginning of time] I‘d like to make the company a proposal that I believe will enable me to deliver the highest value possible to allow it to meet its goals and to compensate me fairly for my contribution Your Negotiation Partner: We‘re not giving anyone more than a 2% raise this year You: Interesting I‘d love to talk to you about the basis for that decision But first, I‘d like to lay out my proposal Your Negotiation Partner: [reluctantly] OK, but it won‘t you any good You: Here are the elements of my proposal [This can be communicated either orally or as a list you ask your negotiation partner to walk through with you.] significantly advance the goals we‘ve discussed 86 if you can‘t monetize the company‘s return on its investment in your plan, then name other benefits, such as reducing attrition or absenteeism or improving recruiting or teamwork] to If the company believes in its own future as much as I do, I‘m certain it will want to compensate me for my fair market value company $X if it had to go out on the market and find a replacement Your Negotiation Partner: re you threatening to leave if you don‘t get what you want? You: No, not at all! I simply wanted to recalibrate my market value given the recession‘s impact on everyone‘s compensation I love this company I don‘t have any present intention of even looking for a different job [note the word ―present‖] In any event, the current rate for someone with my education, training, and experience working in this industry in this city is $ _ [your highest reasonably wellsupported market value] Your Negotiation Partner: Like I said, we‘re only giving 2% raises this year across the board and there are no exceptions [This, of course, is not true There are always exceptions.] You: That must make compensation discussions difficult for you I assume you have the discretion to make an exception if it were justified If not, could we both talk to the person who does? I think we might be able to make a good case for both of us getting more than the ―across the board‖ 2% raise this year 87 ... students majoring in Economics and businessmen, to have deep understandings of English for economics in general as well as business terminology in particular By employing 30 English business negotiation. .. Xuân Thơm (2001), Kỹ thuật đàm phán thương mại quốc tế NXB ại học quốc gia Hà Nội Nguyễn Xuân Thơm (2001), Phát ngôn đơn vị giao tiếp đàm phán thương mại quốc tế NXB ại học quốc gia Hà Nội Nguyễn... attention is paid to the business terminology in negotiation, and the number of researches concerning this aspect is even less In other words, business terminology in negotiation is an area that