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

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER language used in business response letters in terms of speech acts and politeness strategies SUPERVISOR : ASSOC.PROF NGUYEN XUAN THOM STUDENT : NGUYEN THI MINH TRANG YEAR OF ENROLMENT : QH 2010 HANOI 2014 ĐạI HọC QUốC GIA Hà NộI TRƯờNG ĐạI HọC NGOạI NGữ KHOA TIếNG ANH SƯ PHạM KHểA LUN TT NGHIP NGÔN NGữ Sử DụNG TRONG THƯ PHảN HồI KINH DOANH TRÊN PHƯƠNG DIệN HàNH VI LờI NóI Và CáC CHIếN LƯợC LịCH Sự GIáO VIÊN HƯớNG DẫN : PGS.TS NGUYễN XUÂN THƠM SINH VIÊN : NGUYễN THị MINH TRANG KHãA : QH 2010 Hµ NéI – 2014 ACCEPTANCE PAGE I hereby state that I: Nguyen Thi Minh Trang – QH2010.F.1.E.1 , being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Date ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The researcher wish to show the gratefulness to all people who have encouraged and assisted me during the time this study was conducted First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr Nguyen Xuan Thom, my supervisor, for his great support His valuable suggestions, insightful discussions and encouragements help me overcome difficulties and confusion in the development and completion of this study Second, I am thankful to my beloved family for being by my sides and encourage me Owing to their support and sympathy, I became more confident of myself and had the motivation to complete this research successfully Last but not least, I wish to show my special thanks to my friends who have helped me to collect data and to access literature documents Especially, I also would like to thank my close friend, Nguyen Tien Duc for his priceless support in the process of gathering the data Without all their cooperation, this research can never be completed ii ABSTRACT The principle objectives of this research are to figure out the types of speech acts and politeness strategies used as well as their frequency in business response letters From that, the effects of the speech acts and politeness strategies in conveying the Writers‟ messages are analyzed The research method involved observation of document 50 business response letters were collected base on three criteria which are form, language and length The data analysis showed that there are four types of speech acts used in those letters which were representatives, directives, expressives and commissives Among these types, representative speech act is used the most frequently In additions, positive and negative politeness strategies are applied in all collected data Between two types of strategies, the frequency of negative ones overwhemed Although the research was conducted seriously and carefully, limitations were inevitable Since the limitation of data sources, the researcher could not enlarge the scale Due to the small number of samples, generalization was far from being achieved Besides, the number of native and non-native English writers was not big enough to make any comparision between speech acts or politeness strategies used by two groups Therefore, the researcher would like to call for further research on a larger scale and to consider the differences in two groups of writer iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACCEPTANCE PAGE i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of research problem and rationale for the study Aims and objectives of the study Significance of the study Scope of the study PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Speech act 1.1 The concept of speech act 1.2 Classification of speech act Table 2.1: Types of speech acts base on structure (Yule, 1996, p.54) .7 Politeness 2.1 The concept of politeness 2.2 Politeness strategies 12 2.3 Tone 14 Business response letter 14 Related studies 15 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16 Selection of subject 16 Data collection instruments 17 Data collection procedure 17 Data analysis method 17 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18 1.An analysis of business response letters in terms of speech acts 18 1.1 Realization of Speech acts used in business response letters 18 1.1.1 Representatives in business response letters 19 iv 1.1.2 Directives in business response letters 21 1.1.3 Expressives in business response letters 23 1.1.4 Commissives in business response letters 24 1.2 Overview of speech acts used in business response letters 26 2.An analysis of business response letters in terms of Politeness Strategies 27 2.1 Realization of Politeness strategies used in business response letters 28 2.2 Tone in business response letters 40 PART 3: CONCLUSION 43 1.Summary of the findings 43 2.Implication of the study 44 3.Limitations of the study 45 4.Recommendations for further studies 45 REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES 47 Appendix 1: Letter 47 Appendix 2: Letter 48 Appendix 3: Letter 49 Appendix 4: Letter 10 50 Appendix 5: Letter 12 51 Appendix 6: Letter 14 52 Appendix 7: Letter 18 54 Appendix 8: Letter 21 56 Appendix 9: Letter 25 57 Appendix 10: Letter 28 58 v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Table 2.1: Types of speech acts base on structure … Table 2.2: Leech‟s Politeness scales .10 Table 3.1: Speech acts used in business response letters……………….……… 26 Table 3.2: Positive strategies in business response letters………….…….……….30 Table 3.3: Negative strategies in business response letters………… ….………31 Table 3.4: Comparison of the occurrence of positive and negative politeness strategies in business response letters ………………………… …………… …33 Figure 2.1:The cooperative Principle……………………………………………10 Figure 2.2: Leech‟s Politeness Situations………………….……………………11 Figure 2.3: Face Threatening Acts………………………………………………12 Figure 2.4: Circumstances determining choice of strategies …13 Figure 2.5: Data collecting procedure ………… ………………………………17 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS FTAs : Face Threatening Acts vii PART 1: INTRODUCTION Statement of research problem and rationale for the study It is clear that letters have been a crucial communication channel for human being to exchange information since writing letter was invented Nowadays, with the rapid development of technology, fax and email have gradually replaced handwritten letters However, in whatever forms, language is the key to make a successful letter It reflects the language competence and the attitude of both the writer and his company (Ashley, 2003) Besides, business correspondence is considered the medium to connect sellers and buyers, business partners, creditors and debtors in case it is unable or inconvenient for them to have direct meetings In these kinds of correspondence, whether they are letters, faxes or emails, appropriate language used helps to express the aims of the writers in the most professional way This means, besides the information of introducing, promoting or concluding transactions, language in business letters conveys the good will of the writer as well as his respect to the readers It decides the success or failure of transaction in business community Furthermore, English is widely used as an international language Thus, a large number of business correspondences have been written in English Among those letters, response letters account for a big proportion This type of letters plays an important role in connecting the providers and the consumers If enquiries letters serve the purpose of exploring the information related to goods or services, letters for responding not only reply to the enquiries but also provide a wide range of information about goods and services, prices, transport, etc in order to sell the products In many cases, the providers may suggest alternatives or refer the customers to another place if they no longer produce the products In all cases, the writers are expected to be wise writers so that their words convey “crystal clear” (Forbes, 1981) and impressive messages to persuade the readers and also to create the formality In other words, producing speech acts maintaining politeness and protecting the face of both readers and writers are the crucial criteria of a response letter In order to achieve these goals, the writers can use various politeness PART 3: CONCLUSION In this part, the researcher will summarize the findings for the two research questions and, evaluate the outcomes of the whole research, present the implication and also list out the limitation and some suggestion for further studies Summary of the findings In this study the researcher has investigated the realizations of speech acts and politeness strategies used in 50 business response letters From the process of analyzing the data, there are some key findings as listed below First, the answer for research question regarding types of speech acts used in business response letters is figured out There are four types of speech acts found in the data which are representatives, directives, expressives and commissives Among those, representative is the dominant speech act which is applied most frequently in the data (as listed from Example to example 13) This fact shows the mutual relationship between the main purpose of business response letters which is to represent the information and the representative speech acts usage to serve that purpose Besides, the other speech acts play their specific role in conveying the determination of the Writers Among those, directive speech acts analyzed from example 14 to example 25 serves the purpose of calling an act from the Reader Expressives as revealed in 13 examples (from example 26 to 28) are used to express the Writers‟ attitude toward the inquiries Then, commissive sentences are used to represent a promise or a commitment about the products‟ quality Second, the answer for research question in terms of politeness strategies realization in business response letters is found In order to reveal the pragmatic discourse features of business response letters, the use of positive and negative politeness strategies in letters was investigated The findings show that negatives strategies are used more often than the positive ones Whenever the threat to the FTA is high, the negative strategies are the better choice for conducting the message In addition, in different parts of a letter, there exist different preferences in choosing the suitable strategies All the findings have been 43 proved by examples from number 47 to number 64 Additionally, tones in the collected letters are also analyzed The data has proved that sincere, sympathetic and confident tones are the three remarkable tones used in business response letters These tones are the effective tools for the Writers to expressive their gratitude to the enquiries and their willing to help in all cases Furthermore, appropriate tones also establish positive impression to the Readers Implication of the study Writing a letter, particularly a response letter is an essential skill for all people doing business In order to achieve the success for a business response letter, the Writer‟s task is not merely replying the enquiry but also promoting the products and persuading the Customer to order more in the future Hence, presenting a good will and a sincere attitude is crucial requirement when conducting this type of letter From the analysis of this study, it is suggested that to gain the best effect, the Writer should consider the following point when writing a business response letter: First, in terms of speech acts, representatives should be used frequently when there is a need of providing further information related to the products Then, directive speech act is a beneficial choice in writing the enclosing and pre-closing parts Some suggested structures are “Please find the enclosed” or “We look forward to your order” Second, in terms of politeness strategies, negative strategies such as indirectness or minimizing imposition by using hedges and mitigation devices should be used in order to avoid FTAs The Writer may consider some useful structures such as “We are pleased to”, “we would like to”, and “If you need any further information, please not hesitate to” Those structures can help a lot in creating positive impression from the Readers Third, in terms of tones, it is necessary to set appropriate tones for the letter Being cautious and confident are the two keys to gain success in business response letters Showing interest in the enquiries and offering solutions for all cases will help to maintain a long term relationship Besides, in many cases, sympathetic tone 44 can be applied to give alternatives for the Customers Limitations of the study It is regrettable that despite the researcher efforts, there still exist some limitations First, due to the time and the minor framework of the study, it is not possible to collect more letters which may bring more detailed information in the larger population Second, as the numbers of letters written by native and non-native English Writers is not big enough to compare between the two groups, the researcher can only analyze all letters as a whole Recommendations for further studies Under the existence of limitations, some suggestions for further research are proposed as follows: - Being aware of the limitation of population, further study should expand the scale to study to confirm the reliability - Native and non-native English writers should be considered as two different groups of population From these groups, the differences in speech acts and politeness strategies as well as tone using in letters can be revealed REFERENCES Ashley, A (2003) Oxford handbook of commercial correspondence ( New edition) 45 Oxford: Oxford University Press Austin, J (1962) How to things with words (J Urmson, Ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press Brown, P., & Levinson, S C (1978) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Brown, P., & Levinson, S.C (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Eelen, G (2001) A Critique of Politeness Manchester: St Jerome Fang, K (2012) Analysis of Politeness Strategy in Competitive Business English Letters 2012 International Conference on Education Technology and Management Engineering 16-17 Hunan Xuchang: Xuchang University Forbes, M S ( 1981) How to write a business letter Washington, D.C: International Paper Company Fraser, B (1990) Perspectives on Politeness Journal of Pragmatics , 14 (2), 21936 Goffman, E (1967) Interaction Ritual: Essays on face-to-face behavior New York: Doubleday & Compan, Inc Jansen, F (2010) Effects of positive politeness strategies in business letters Journal of pragmatics , 42, 2531 - 2548 Joseph, G P (2006) Brief Note on the Origins, Evolution, and Meaning of the Qualitative Research Concept “Thick Description” The Qualitative Report , 11 (3), 546 Lakoff, L T (1973) The Logic of Politeness: Minding Your P's and Q's Chicago: Chicago linguistic society Lakoff, R T (1977) What can you with Words: Politeness, Pragmatics and Performatives Arlington: Center for Applied Linguistic Leech, G N (1983) Principles of Pragmatics Longman Mills, S (2003) Gender and Politeness Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Ngo T A (1997) Analysis language often used in Banking Business letters in terms of structure and speech acts Hanoi: Vietnam National University Nguyen, T D (2008) The Language of Business Correspondence in English (6th 46 ed.) Hanoi: Labour and Social Publishing House Nguyen, T T N (2007) How to convey bad news in English Business correspondence Hanoi: Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies Nickerson, C (2000) The use of politeness strategies in business letter written by native speakers of English Muchen: Lincom Ober, S (2009) Comtemporary Business Communication (7th ed.) Muncie: Ball State University Richard, J W (2003) Politeness Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Rosidi, F (2011, January 17) Retrieved January 24, 2014, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/46991253/Politness-Theory Searle, J R (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Searle, J R (1979) Expression and Meaning: Studies in the Theory of Speech Act Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Searle, J R (1975) A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Searle, J R (1983) Intentionality: An essay in the Philosophy of Mind Cambridge : Cambridge University Press Searle, J R., & Vanderveken, D (1985) Foundations of Illocutionary Logic Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Searle, J R (2001) How performatives work: Essays in Speech Act Theory (D V Kubo, Ed.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins Wickford, H (2011, October 21) The Houston Chronicle Retrieved December 2, 2013, from Chron: http://work.chron.com/follow-up-business-letters9788.html Yule, G (1996) Pragmatics Oxford: Oxford University Press APPENDICES Appendix 1: Letter To : 47 The Manager, The Maalyvalley Business House, 326 / H - Raman Nair Street, Maalyvalley – 682 016 Dear Sir, Your enquiry of the 1st instant is welcome and we thank you for your interest in our products A copy of our latest catalogue along with a range of samples of skins used in the manufacture of shoes is being sent herewith We are sure the colours will be just what you expect for the fashionable trade and the beauty and elegance of our designs coupled with fine workmanship should appeal to the discrimination buyer Our representative Mr Subhash Goel will be visiting Mumbai in the first week of February and he will be pleased to call on you with a full range of samples o f our hand-made items He has been authorised to discuss the terms and conditions for placing orders and negotiating a contact with you A waiting to serve you Yours Truly, Vasu Manager Appendix 2: Letter NOVELTY SAFETY EQUIPMENT LTD 48 14th Floor Shun Koo Building Aberdeen Hong Kong Attn: Mr Tim Lee Manager Sun Lee Consultancy Ltd 198 Fa Yuen Street Mongkok Kowloon Dear Mr Lee Enquiry regarding fire extinguishers Thank you for your enquiry regarding our newly released range of fire extinguishers You will see from the enclosed catalogue that the range has been extended to include some highly efficient portable extinguishers for use on construction sites We are offering to our existing customers a 15% discount on orders of extinguishers from this new range We look forward to your increased order at this discount rate Yours sincerely Silvia Choi Silvia Choi Merchandising Manager Appendix 3: Letter To: Mr Victor Wong 49 From: Ms Elizabeth Sullivan Date: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 Re: Reservation Dear Mr Wong, Thank you for your enquiry about the availability of a single room for six nights from Monday, 30 December 2013 to Monday, January 2014 Unfortunately, we are fully booked during this period However, I have contacted our sister hotel on Hong Kong Island and they have single rooms available The room rate is $1,200 per night If you would like me to reserve a room during the period you requested, please not hesitate to contact me Regards E Sullivan E Sullivan (Ms) Accommodation Booking Officer Appendix 4: Letter 10 Dear Sirs, 50 Thank you for your enquiry of Is` Dec for Ladie ' woolens We have much pleasure in sending you herewith a fairly full collection of our latest and best selling designs and hope some of them will interest you We would like to draw your special attention to our exclusive quality "Gold Ring" which has been an outstanding success We believe that it represents the best value for money in this type of goods and we are sure that you will find it s ells very well indeed If the range of patterns we have selected does not contain anything you want, please not hesitate to let us know your exact requirements We look forward to your order which will have our best attention Yours faithfully, Appendix 5: Letter 12 51 Dear Sirs, We have received your letter of 30th Nov for Vietnamese softwood, for which we thank you very much We regret to inform you that we are not in a position to meet your requirements for the time being since our country is, as you know, in need of all kinds of wood, hard and soft, for national construction We hope, however, that it will be possible for us to make an offer in the very near future Yours faithfully, Appendix 6: Letter 14 52 Dear Sirs, Paraffin Wax We thank you for your inquiry of 1' June concerning our paraffin wax We are pleased to inform you that we have sent you, by parcel post, the following samples of our paraffin wax Grade A - melting point 52° - 54°C Grade B - "do" 51 °C - 52°C We can offer you 500 tons of paraffin wax grade A at the price of £45 per m/t and 1,00 tons of Grade B at £ 43m/t Both prices include delivery CIF Haiphong Shipment can be made from Kobe within weeks of receipt of your order Payment is to be made by an Irrevocable Letter of Credit Please let us hear from you as soon as possible Yours faithfully, 53 Appendix 7: Letter 18 Vietnam Handicraft Company 1/194 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam Telephone and fax No.; 84-4-66820188 28 April 2012 Grace Co… Ltd 175 Broadway Chippendale Sydney Australia Dear sir Thank you for your enquiry No 01/VH-GC/09 of 20 April and enclose our firm offer until 15 July 2012 for 6400 units of Bamboo vases model VH1886 on the usual terms and conditions The goods will be shipped in two lots: The first shipment of 3200 units on 15 July 2012 and the second of 3200 units in two weeks‟ time on 28 of the month The price will be in USD 2.3 per unit FOB Hai Phong including packing Payment will be made in USD by irrevocable L/C to be opened through Northern Euro Commercial bank 15 days prior to the shipment valid for 45 days to the account of the bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, Hanoi branch in our favor for 100% value of the goods to be shipped We would like to point out that our products are now selling very well We are prepared to allow 3% discount for orders of over USD 100,000 We look forward to your further big orders Yours faithfully Vu Duc Hoan Director 54 Appendix 8: Letter 21 Dear sirs, Thank you for your enquiry of December for our rattan ware We would like to inform you that the items you requested namely shopping baskets and fruit plates are out of stock However, we are able to offer you similar products made of carefully selected bamboos As you will see from the enclosed photo of the samples, the items marked VH3320 and VH3312 are much more attractive in design than usual existing ones Our products are available in various standard sizes with different designs and we are in position to deliver the goods in different sizes, designs and colors with three months from receipt of the order on request Our bamboo products are more and more beautiful and attractive thanks to the technical process which make them durable and artistic We therefore, believe that the offered goods will be favorably received by British customers and sell well there We assure you that any of your orders will have our great attention Yours faithfully Vu Duc Hoan http://vietcraft.vn 56 Appendix 9: Letter 25 57 Appendix 10: Letter 28 58 ... of speech acts used in business response letters 26 2.An analysis of business response letters in terms of Politeness Strategies 27 2.1 Realization of Politeness strategies used in business. .. 17 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 18 1.An analysis of business response letters in terms of speech acts 18 1.1 Realization of Speech acts used in business response letters 18... in Banking Business letters in terms of structure and speech acts ” written by Master Ngo (1997) In this paper, he looked at language used in banking business letters in general and focused on