On the Embodiment of Communicative Rhetoric in Business English論交際修辭在商務英語中的具體體現(xiàn)

1、 學士學位論文 論文題目:論交際修辭在商務英語中的具體體現(xiàn)院(部)名 稱: 外國語學院 學 生 姓 名: xxx 專 業(yè): 英語語言文學 學 號: 200xxxxx 指導教師姓名: xxxx 論文提交時間: 論文答辯時間: 學位授予時間: 北方民族大學教務處制on the embodiment of communicative rhetoric in business english byxxxxxxxxsubmitted to the school of foreign languages and cultures xxxx university of xxxxxxx in partial

2、fulfillment of the requirements for the bachelor degree of arts in englishunder the supervision of instructor xxxxxapril 2012acknowledgments to begin with, i want to express my heartful thanks to all the teachers who had taught me over the four years and my dear friends who has been supporting me al

3、l the time. du juan, my supervisor, spared no time and energy, out of her heavy load of teaching and research commitments, to provide substantial guidance on my thesis. during the preparation of this paper, the detailed advice and directive help from her have been both academically authoritative and

4、 generous. by this opportunity i want to thank her for giving me directions on analyzing the specific application of communicative rhetoric in business english context.i am also very obliged to all the authors who have made great contribution to the research and study of both communicative rhetoric

5、and business english. without their achievements and works, this paper would be like water without a source and would lose its convincement and credibility. at last, i would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to my good friends, roommates and classmates who offered their generous help and supp

6、ort to me whenever i met some troubles both in study and in life. taking this opportunity i want to express my love to them; and sincerely i wish we can maintain our friendship lifelong. certainly, there would be something unsatisfactory and neglected by the author in my paper. therefore, any commen

7、ts and criticisms are appreciated.abstractcommunicative rhetoric, as a branch of english rhetoric, has developed rapidly in recent years with the development of modern english rhetoric. it was ordinarily analyzed at lexical accuracy, syntactical meticulousness and contextual appropriateness by acade

8、mics. later on, it has extended its scope of study, combining itself with various branches of learning such as pragmatics, semantics and psychology. considering that business english emphasizes on the brevity, accuracy, propriety and effectiveness of expressions, it can be found that communicative r

9、hetoric and business english seek almost the same expressive effect. however, to combine the former and the latter has failed to gain much attention from english learners. therefore, this paper would mainly discuss the embodiment and specific application of communicative rhetoric in business english

10、 context from the aspects of lexicology, syntactic and context.the ultimate purpose of studying rhetoric devices in business english context is for better application of the latter and thus benefiting from it. considering this, the author is going to analyze the expressive effect from perspective of

11、 the expected effect of business english at the lexical, syntactical and contextual levels. as a conclusion of the whole thesis, it has two purposes: provide and analyze practical application of communicative rhetoric in business english and summarize the theoretical guidance of it, with qualitative

12、 analysis mainly being applied. key words: communicative rhetoric, business english, embodiment, application 中 文 摘 要 作為英語修辭的分支，交際修辭隨著現(xiàn)代英語修辭學的發(fā)展近年來也得到了迅速的發(fā)展。人們通常從詞法的精確性、句法結構的嚴謹性和語境適體性這三個層面對它進行分析。稍后，人們又把它同語用學、語義學、心理學等其他學科結合起來進行探究，擴大了交際修辭的研究范圍?？紤]到商務英語注重表達的見解、精確、得體及有效，可以發(fā)現(xiàn)它與交際修辭追求著共同的表達效果。然而，將兩者結合起來進行分析

13、研究卻未引起廣大英語學者的注意。 對此，文中將主要從詞法、句法和語境這三個方面來討論交際修辭在商務英語語境中的具體體現(xiàn)和應用。當然，研究商務英語中修辭手段的最終目的是為了更好地服務于商務英語的實際應用并從中受益。所以，本人將從商務英語應用預期效果出發(fā)，分別在詞匯，句法和語篇的層面上來分析二者結合所產(chǎn)生的表達效果。總結而言，本文欲達到以下兩個目的：提供并分析交際修辭在商務英語中應用實例；總結其理論指導意義。本文主要采用了定性分析法。關鍵詞：交際修辭， 商務英語， 體現(xiàn)， 應用contentsacknowledgements.i abstractii中文摘要.i.introduction.1ii.

14、 literature review.2.characteristics of business english3. specific study and analysis of communicative rhetoric in business english.6 4.1 at the lexical level.6 4.1.1 jargons .6 4.1.2 acronyms.74.1.3 archaisms8 4.2 at the syntactical level.9 4.2.1 simple sentence and complex sentence.9 4.2.2 active

15、 voice and passive voice.10 4.2.3 loose sentence, periodic sentence, and balanced sentence11 4.3 at the contextual level12 4.3.1 problem-solving pattern.12 4.3.2 whole-parts pattern.134.3.3 compare-contrast pattern.14. conclusion.16 references.18i. introductionwith the development of economic global

16、ization, business english is playing an indispensable role in business activities in todays world. however, people are likely to have a misconception, i.e., the text of legislation, science, technology and business are irrespective of literature and art, hence no concerning of rhetorical devices and

17、 beauty. to this misconception, liu miqing, a famous translation theoretician of the day, points out that language accompanies beauty all the time. a writer needs techniques to express in a brief, accurate and proper way, even though it is only a notice that is being written. (liu, 2009)in the categ

18、ory of humane tradition, english rhetoric may be subdivided into communicative rhetoric and aesthetic rhetoric. the former is what mr. chen wangdao, the master of modern rhetoric of china, referred to as passive rhetoric, and the latter active rhetoric（ma, 2006:3）. communicative rhetoric lays partic

19、ular stress on lexical accuracy, syntactical meticulousness and contextual appropriateness so as to bring its linguistic communicative role into full play, while aesthetic rhetoric is the application of specific rhetorical devices. for effectiveness, both communicative rhetoric and aesthetic rhetori

20、c can be employed by means of logical thinking. it is evident that aesthetic rhetoric is used in certain business english context. nevertheless, this paper discusses mainly about the embodiment and specific application of communicative rhetoric in business english. the paper consists of five parts.

21、the first part is a brief introduction to the background of this study. the second part is a literature review, which introduces the development and status quo of communicative rhetoric study. the third part introduces the characteristics of business english. the forth part is the specific study and

22、 analysis of communicative rhetoric in business english. abundant examples are given at different levels in this part. the last part is a conclusion.ii. literature reviewit is universally acknowledged that rhetoric originated in greece. about 24 centuries ago, during the time of aristotle (383-322 b

23、.c.) in greece, rhetoric was considered to be one of the few important branches of learning. it was aristotle who was the first one to define rhetoric as the art of persuasion. so he was regarded as the father of rhetoric by later generation. however, for ancient greeks and romans rhetoric was only

24、the art of persuasion through effective techniques of argumentation. in medieval and renaissance times the emphasis of rhetoric fell upon the more decorative aspect of discourse, so that rhetoric came to mean elegant discourse.the modern world still shows certain effects of that sense of the term, b

25、ut the study of rhetoric today is, at least in school, the study of composition-the principles of speaking and writing. in the meantime rhetoric has extended its scope of study, combining itself with various branches of learning such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, semantics, linguistics, ae

26、sthetics, etc. the prevailing view about the purpose of rhetoric is to express oneself well and to communicate effectively in order to secure a desired result by employing rhetorical means efficiently (tan, li, 2006:4). by appearance, rhetoric is mysterious and unfathomable, but in fact, it is so co

27、mmon that one uses it consciously or unconsciously. when abraham lincoln said in his speech “you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”, he certainly used rhetoric.traditionally, people consider a figure of spee

28、ch (simile, metaphor, metonymy, parody, paradox, etc) to be rhetoric; some hold that an effective and artistic device in expression is rhetoric: the choice of words, the choice of sentences, and the switch of different linguistic codes all these are in the scope of rhetoric in modern english. here f

29、ollows the definitions of rhetoric: longman modern english dictionary defines it as “the art or science of communication in words; this art or science practiced or taught as a formal discipline, esp. the doctrine formulated by aristotle and taught through the middle ages; over ornate or ostentatious

30、 languages.”cambridge international dictionary of english defines rhetoric as “speech or writing which is intended to be effective and persuasive or (specialized) the study of the ways of using language effectively”.brooks and warren in modern rhetoric pointed out “rhetoric is the art of using langu

31、age effectively.” today, rhetoric is regarded as a science of heightening linguistic effective expressions, and the art of effective communication (tan, li, 2006:4). it is classified, by some linguists, as communicative rhetoric and aesthetic rhetoric. to communicative rhetoric, this paper employs m

32、ost definitions and viewpoints from an introduction to english rhetoric edited by tan xianmei and li yang, in which rhetoric of words, sentences, paragraphs and discourse are explicitly introduced and analyzed. to explore the embodiment of communicative rhetoric in business english, this paper mainl

33、y takes business english rhetorical art or techniques contemplated in the light of various theories as reference. the author of this book, prof. li taizhi, has been concentrating in studying the rhetorical art in business english for many years. in this book, he discusses and analyses the business e

34、nglish rhetorical art in lights of phonetics, lexics, syntactics, text linguistics, etc. in the view of the author of this paper, the viewpoints and contents in the book of prof. li are both meaningful and instructive to people who are and are willing to be engaged in foreign business activities. ho

35、wever, it may be a bit too broad to beginners. therefore, the author of this paper will discuss communicative rhetoric in business english context from three aspects: lexical accuracy, syntactical meticulousness and contextual appropriateness in specific. iii. characteristics of business englishbusi

36、ness english, according to jones & alexander, is “english for business”, or “english used in business contexts”. (alexander, 1994) it belongs to the area of functional language. to be more specific, it includes business correspondence, synopsis of minutes, legal documents, memoranda (notes), specifi

37、cation, commercial advertisement, notice, business report or speech, business newspaper and journal article, agreement or contract and all kinds of bills and forms. therefore, business english, on one hand, shares the linguistic features of common english, and also enjoys its own characteristics in

38、lexics, syntactics and discourse style. just as mark ellis and christine johnson (2002:9) in their work teaching business english asserted: “therefore there is a preference for clear, logical thought emphasized by the kinds of words that indicate the logical process (for example, as a result, for th

39、is reason, in order to). there is often a need to be concise-particularly when communicating by a fax or telephone-and certain familiar concepts may be expressed in word clusters to avoid circumlocution (for example, cash with order, just in time delivery). certain terms have evolved to save time in

40、 referring to concepts which people in business are familiar with (for example, primary industry, parent company). many of these are acronyms (for example, cif and fob).” in china, professor li taizhi (li, 2006: 58) put forward comparatively systematic viewpoints about the features of business engli

41、sh at three levels as shown below: 1) at lexical level: specialized vocabulary, terminology and semi-specialized vocabulary are frequently used. 2) at syntactic level: simple sentence and complex sentence are commonly seen. loose sentence, periodic sentence and balanced sentence take place by turn.

42、polite formula and passive voice are quite often to see. 3) at context level: in general, business english context in a whole has a tendency to use persuasion and illustration due to its essence of practical writing. while in specific, business english contexts prefer certain developing modes. they

43、are problem-solving pattern, whole-parts pattern, compare-contrast pattern, grade pattern, time/space pattern, etc.iv. specific study and analysis of communicative rhetoric in business english 4.1 at the lexical levellanguage communication is impossible without words. to express ones idea or feeling

44、 properly, he/she must pay attention to lexical rhetoric, which jonathan swift, a english master of prose, had summarized incisively as “proper words in proper places”. it has been mentioned that specialized vocabulary, terminology and semi-specialized vocabulary are frequently used in business engl

45、ish. specialized words and terms can avoid tedious explanation the principle of economy， and archaisms can make people look more professional and well-educated when the relation between the two parties is not yet close enough. therefore, this section will mainly discuss jargons, acronyms and archais

46、ms in the following.4.1.1 jargonsjargon means speech or writing used by a group of people who belong to a particular trade, profession, or any other group bound together by mutual interest. it has its own set of words and expressions, which may be incomprehensive to an outsider. (ma, 2006:45) there

47、are many jargons in business english which looks like common words and phrases in appearance, while in fact quite different in meaning. look at the examples: the buyer is trying to find fault with the seller and make market claim. the company made good the damage it had done. to market a product for

48、 a producer on a worldwide or regional basis is what myrrh does best.the above three italicized word and phrases are business jargons. the first make market claim means making a claim maliciously, which could be inferred from “trying to find fault”. the second made good here refers to “refund or com

49、pensate for”, a big difference to its original meaning. the third market is used as a verb to promote sales, not the noun commonly seen. there are also many conventionalized speeches which are adopted by business people for long time, thus becoming fixed expression. for example:we only accept paymen

50、t by confirmed, irrevocable letter of credit available by draft at sight for the full amount of the invoice value and that it should be established in our favor and reach us one month ahead of shipment, remaining valid for negotiation for another 21 days after the prescribed time of shipment and all

51、owing partial shipments and transshipment. this paragraph is commonly seen in business english when the payment term is discussed. such highly conventionalized expressions or say, jargons, occupy a large proportion in all kinds of business activities. therefore, it is essential to master them to ser

52、ve ones purpose in the most proper and right way. otherwise, misunderstanding may be caused and loss in consequent. 4.1.2 acronymsacronyms are words formed from the initial letters of the several words that make up the name of something. along with the booming international business activities, busi

53、ness people now prefer fax, telex, cable and e-mail because of their fastness and convenience. all these electric devices require the conciseness and briefness of the content delivered, hence the popularity of acronyms. acronyms exist in different business english contexts. take the followings as ex

54、amples: 1). specification: f.a.q. (fair average quality) g.m.q. (good merchantable quality) 2). price: fob (free on board) cif (cost insurance and freight) cfr (cost and freight) 3). shipping documents: b/l (bill of lading) a.w.b. (air way bill) c.t.d. (combined transport documents) 4). insurance: fpa (free from particular average) wpa (with particular average) ar (all risks) tpnd (theft, pilferage and non-delivery) 5). payment: l/c (letter of credit) cad (cash against documents) d/p (documents against payment) t/t (telegr