Expressing gratitude in the email-based business communication
Keywords:
email, speech event, speech act, gratitude, intercultural communication
Abstract
The paper gives a brief analysis of different expressions of gratitude in email exchanges between native (British English) and nonnative speakers of English. It argues that conventional approaches to view this type of communication from the grounds of format letters fail to fully define communicative meanings conveyed by the speakers in order to maintain interpersonal rapport. Drawing on the wide discursive context and contextual use three types of thanking are identified. The paper proves that the speakers are able to fulfill specific rapport management goals by expressing one of these types of gratitude. It is argued that in order to determine discursive patterns of computer-based email communication and understand the exact meanings communicated by the speakers, the discourse approach should be adopted.
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References
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2. Li L. Email: a challenge to standard English? In English Today. 2000. No. 16 (4). Pp. 23–29.
3. Vorob’eva А. E. Strukturno-funktsional’nye kharakteristiki tekstov ehlektronnoj delovoj korrespondentsii (na materiale anglijskogo i nemetskogo yazykov) [Functional and structural characteristics of English and German business letters]: PhD Abstract. Belgorod, 2012. 19 p.
4. Koriche H. The emergence of a new discourse for business communication, ‘a case study of e-mails in shipping company’. In Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2006. No. 199. Pр. 539–547.
5. Garrote P. La cortesía verbal en la interacción asincrónica académica: análisis contrastivo en inglés, español e italiano. In Estudios de Lingüística Aplicada. 2014. No. 60. Pр. 117–139.
6. Aston G. Say ‘Thank You’: Some Pragmatic Constraints in Conversational Closings. In Applied Linguistics. 1995. Vol. 16, No. 1. Pр. 57–86.
7. Berdnikova А. G. Rechevoj zhanr blagodarnosti: kognitivnyj i semantiko-pragmaticheskij aspect [The speech genre of thanking from the cognitive, semantic and pragmatic perspectives]: Dissertation Abstract. Novosibirsk, 2005. 24 p.
8. Locher M., Watts R. Politeness theory and relational work. In Journal of Politeness Research. 2005. No. 1. Pp. 9–33.
9. Searle J. Klassifikatsiya illokutivnykh aktov [A Classification of Illocutionary Acts]. In Novoe v zarubezhnoj lingvistike. Moscow: Progress, 1988. Pр. 170–194.
10. Searle J. R. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969. 203 p.
11. Leech G. The pragmatics of politeness. Oxford University Press, 2014. 350 p.
12. Leech G. Principles of pragmatics. Longman Group Limited, 1983. 250 p.
13. Coulmas F. Poison to Your Soul. Thanks and Apologies Contrastively Viewed. In Conversational Routine. Ed. by F. Coulmas. 1981. Vol. 2. Pр. 69–93.
14. Lakoff R. The logic of politeness, or, minding your p’s and q’s. In Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 1973. Pр. 292–305.
15. Tsurikova L. V. Diskursivnoe sobytie vyrazhenie blagodarnosti v anglijskom i russkom jazykakh [The speech event of thanking in English and Russian]. In Kalbu Studios. 2008. No. 13. Pр. 60–70.
16. Kalaja P., Leppanen S. Transaction and interaction in writing: the case of electronic mail. In Communication and discourse across cultures and languages. 1991. No. 49. Pр. 266–273.
17. Brown P., Levinson S. C. Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press, 1987. 345 p.
18. Tsurikova L. V. Diskursivnye strategii kak ob”ekt kognitivno-pragmaticheskogo analiza kommunikativnoj deyatel’nosti [Discursive strategies as the object of cognitive-pragmatic analysis of communication]. In Voprosy kognitivnoj lingvistiki. 2007. No. 4 (013). Pр. 98–108.
19. Schauer G. A., Adolphs S. Expressions of gratitude in corpus and DCT data: Vocabulary, formulaic sequences, and pedagogy. In System. 2006. No. 34. Pр. 119–134.
20. Norrick N. R. Expressive illocutionary acts. In Journal of Pragmatics. 1978. No. 2(3). Pр. 277–291.
21. Kanouta C. The Functional Exponents of Expressing Thanks in English: A Mixed Methods Case Study of English Language Didactic Materials in the Greek State Education System: Master’s Dissertation. University of Kent, 2015. 85 p.
22. Tsurikova L. V. Problema estestvennosti diskursamezhkul’turnoj kommunikatsii [The problem of natural discourse in the context of intercultural communication]. Voronezh, 2002. 256 p.
Published
2020-06-15
How to Cite
Zavialova, L. A. (2020). Expressing gratitude in the email-based business communication. Proceedings of Voronezh State University. Series: Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, (3), 79-88. https://doi.org/10.17308/lic.2020.3/2936
Section
Germanic Philology
