Premium
Politeness Strategies in Chinese Business Correspondence and Their Teaching Applications 1
Author(s) -
Hong Wei
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1998.tb00579.x
Subject(s) - politeness , etiquette , business correspondence , linguistics , variety (cybernetics) , curriculum , psychology , empirical research , business english , computer science , mathematics education , pedagogy , artificial intelligence , epistemology , philosophy
The present article reports on an empirical study of the politeness strategies in Chinese business correspondence and considers its applications in teaching Business Chinese. The study investigated twenty examples of business correspondence by native speakers of Chinese. By analyzing the linguistic/stylistic features of the letters in two predesigned situations, the study found a range of various politeness strategies employed for the writing of the correspondence. The study concludes that such a variety of politeness strategies relates strongly to Chinese politeness values and business etiquette. It is therefore suggested, from the empirical data collected from the letters, that such strategies be implemented in an advanced Business Chinese curriculum. Possible instructional methods are recommended for such implementation.