商务英语对话中的会话含义研究.doc

【精品文档】如有侵权，请联系网站删除，仅供学习与交流商务英语对话中的会话含义研究.精品文档. 学科分类号：050201湖南人文科技学院本科生毕业论文题目（中文）：商务英语对话中的会话含义研究 （英文）：A Study of Conversational Implicature in Business English Conversations 学生姓名： 武 玉 洁 学号 10403820 系 部： 外 语 系 专业年级： 英语专业2010级 指导教师（姓名）： 朱 芙 蓉 （职称）： 副 教 授 湖南人文科技学院教务处制A Study of Conversational Implicature in Business English ConversationsBy Wu YujieMay 15, 2014内 容 摘 要商务英语作为专门用途英语的一个分支,用词简短易懂,句式严密规范,语篇实用性强,是在特殊语境下使用的一种语言。包括商务英语谈判、商务英语信函，商务英语礼仪及其他众多方面。会话是商务运作中建立关系或达成一致的最常见的方式。通过会话商务合作双方可以相互理解对方并取得有利信息。在言语交际中，人们通常会共同努力达成某种共同的目标或者努力让会话向期望的方向发展。会话双方都相信彼此说话时是相互配合的。然而人们并非总是合作的，有时候会故意违反会话指导原则,即合作原则。在语用学的合作原则的视角下对会话进行研究和分析不仅可以使人们意识到言语交际的内在规律，提高人们的口头交际能力，还能从日常会话中常见的、从未被注意的现象中发现人们理解和把握世界的方法，揭示语言的本质。关键词：商务英语对话；会话含义；合作原则AbstractBusiness English, as a branch of English for special purpose (ESP) is brief and concise in word use ,vigor and normative in sentence pattern, high functional in context. Business English contains Business English negotiation, English business correspondence, Business English etiquette and so on. Business English Conversation is a common way in business trade for setting up relationship or making a deal. According to the conversation, both parties involved have a better understanding of each other and get mutual benefit . In social communication, both sides usually attempt to work to achieve their shared goal and try hard to let the conversation go on as they expect. But sometimes, people wont cooperate with each other for some reasons, they will violate the guiding principle of conversation-cooperative principle. The study and analysis of conversation under the perspective cooperative principle of pragmatics not only helps us realize the speech communication rules and improve our oral communication ability, but also reveals the way we understand and master the world from the familiar yet unnoticed daily conversational phenomena, and uncovers the essence of language as well.Key Words：Business English conversation; conversational implicature；Cooperative Principle ContentsIntroduction11.Theoretical Framework21.1 A Brief Introduction to Conversational Implicature21.2 A Brief Introduction to Grices Cooperative Principle32.Features of Business English Conversations62.1 Adaptation72.2 Accuracy82.3 Timeliness82.4 Face-to-face conversations93.Conversational Implicature in Business English conversations93.1 Factors Affecting Conversational Implicature103.1 .1 Factor of the Context103.1.2 Factor of Politeness123.2 Conversational Implicature by Violating Cooperative Principles123.2.1 Violating the Quantity Maxim133.2.2 Violating the Quality Maxim163.2.3 Violating the Relation Maxim193.2.4 Violating the Manner Maxim20Conclusion22Notes25References26IntroductionPragmatics is a special branch of linguistics because its interpretation depends more on who the speaker of the sentence is, who the hearer is, when and where it is used . In short, pragmatics depends more on the context. The theory of conversational implicature is one of most famous theory of Pragmatics. Grice. H. P, one of the world most distinguished scholars in Pragmatics, brings forward the conversational implicature theory with cooperative principle and its four conversational maxims in “Logic and Conversation”, and tries hard to “explain how a hearer gets from what is said to what is meant, from the level of expressed meaning to the level of implied meaning” 1 and indicates that people frequently generate conversational implicature by violating cooperative principle. So, conversational implicature is indirectly associated with linguistics content of utterances. Its necessary for a English business trader to learn the implied meaning from what is delivered by speaker.Conversation is a most useful way for participants to deliver and obtain information. In communication, participants usually try hard to achieve the same goal or make the conversation develop to the direction as they expected. Business English conversation is a carrier of international business trade . A successful business English conversation is the result of effective team work. In order to make the communication fulfill, the participants should have one common goal, or at least one common direction accepted by all the participants. Usually these goals or directions are definitely set at the starting of the whole conversation2. For instance, two parties prepare to make an agreement of the meeting time, solve a specific problem, and then people make efforts in cooperation to realize the goals and directions.Pragmatics as a relatively new area in linguistics has already obtained great attention among linguists all over the world but there only few search in business area. By analyzing business conversations in a pragmatic approach, I hope, I can make certain contribution to correctly understand the conversational implicatures in business English conversations and help people in business English conversations and shed light on the application of pragmatics. 1. Theoretical FrameworkGrices conversational implicature theory and cooperative principle with its four maxims is employed as the theoretical framework to study the conversational implicature in business English conversations.1.1 A Brief Introduction to Conversational ImplicatureThe theory of conversational implicature was proposed by Oxford philosopher Herbert Paul Grice. Grice began to formulate his ideas of this theory in the 1950s, but it was known through the William James lectures which he delivered at Harvard in 1967. Part of the lectures was published in 1975 under the title of “Logic and Conversation”.A speaker conversationally implicates that Q by saying that P if and only if he or she is conforming to the CP in saying that P , and the explanation of his or her conformity to the CP is that he or she thinks that q, and he or she thinks that the hearer will recognize that it his or her thinking that q explains his or her conformity to the CP 3 .It has long been recognized that the one-to-one relationship between its linguistic form and what a speaker truly means does not exist so that a distinction between the literal meaning of what a person says and its implied meaning is often created in daily communication. The following is an example of the conversational implicature meant by Grice:Lily: Do you have any money on you?Here, the speakers implied meaning is to wish the listener understand that she wants to borrow some money from the listener.So from the above example we know that the conversational implicature is a message not found in the surface meaning of the sentence, but implied in a deep level. Conversational implicature is indirectly associated with the linguistic content of utterances. So it is essential for us to learn the implied meaning from what is conveyed in some context.1.2 A Brief Introduction to Grices Cooperative PrincipleIn conversational exchange people usually try to reach a common goal by mutual efforts or at least make the conversation to develop in the direction of their expectation. H. P. Grice has found some rules that apply and work in human conversation and established his theory of Conversational Implicature. Grice proposed that all speakers, regardless of their cultural background, adhere to a basic principle governing conversation which he termed the cooperative principle. That is, we assume that in a conversation the participants will cooperate with each other when making their contributions. Grice once defines the cooperative principal as following: “youre your contribution such as is required, at the stage which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the exchange in which you are engaged4.”People act in conversation in accordance with a general principle that they are mutually engaged in an activity that is of benefit to all, especially helpful for mutual understanding.Cooperative principle is the core of Grices conversational implicature. In further explaining the cooperative principle，Grice subdivides this general principle into four more detailed maxims. They are: quantity maxim, quality maxim, relation maxim and manner maxim. And the content of each maxim is as follows:The first basic maxim is the maxim of Quantity: concerned with the quantity of information to be provided and has two sub-maxims:Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange).Do not make your contribution more informative than is required.The second basic maxim is the maxim of Quality: try to make your contribution one that is true and more specific:Do not say what you believe to be false.Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.The third basic maxim is the maxim of Relation:”be relevant”. This maxim can be interpreted as making sure what you say is relevant to the conversation at hand. The point of this maxim is that it is not sufficient for a statement to be true for it to constitute an acceptable conversational contribution. The fourth basic maxim is the maxim of Manner : be perspicuous.Avoid using obscurity and hard-to-understand words to expression; Avoid using ambiguous to expression;The sentence use to express oneself must be brief and avoid unnecessary prolixity;That the sentence use to express oneself must be orderly.In short, these maxims specify what participants have to do in order to converse in a maximally efficient, rational, cooperative way: they should speak sincerely, relevantly and clearly, while providing sufficient information. It should be noted that the above maxims are not rules. They are much more flexible, more like guidelines. Infringing a rule of grammar leads to an ill-formed utterance; however, the maxims can be creatively infringed and are to be followed by and large, to the best of ones ability. Grice is at pains to emphasize that the maxims are not culture-bound conventions like table manners: they are rationally based, and would hence be expected to be observable in any human society. One way in which cultures can differ is in the relative importance allotted to the maxims. For instance, a strict adherence to the maxim of quality may lead to no information at all being given. In some cultures, this may come across as rudeness, and to avoid this result, it may be preferable to provide fictitious information in order to make up a seemly response.In Grices opinion, implicatures cannot be inferred in a semantic way. They are based on both the content of the utterance and some specific assumptions about the cooperative nature of ordinary talk exchanges. These inferences or conversational implicatures exist in at least two distinct ways: one is the speakers following the maxims adhering to the cooperative principle; another is the speakers violating the maxims deliberately. If the participants both have the expectation to achieve a successful conversation, they must cooperate with each other, and speak sincerely, sufficiently, relevantly and clearly. To put it another way, they must observe the cooperative principle and the maxims of Quality, Quantity, Relevance and Manner. If someone who participate the conversation flouts the cooperative principle and any of the maxims, he must have intended to do so. And the receiver can infer the speakers intended meaning in particular contexts. 2. Features of Business English ConversationsBusiness English conversations have some features. They are adaptation, accuracy, timeliness and communicative function. As the business communicators in a conversation, he or she uses tool conversation carefully and with consideration of their customers and their intended conversational goals. Effective business communicators will find that their efforts pay off in better relationships and business success.2.1 AdaptationBecause of the cultural differences, the communicator in business English conversations must have a good knowledge of the others working background and supply proper information.Business English conversations are different from normal conversation because of their adaptation and specification. “The more specific conversations are, the more they meet the needs of the audience” 5. Therefore, before coming to business English conversations, communicator should be clear about the background knowledge of the group people they would talk with, and the content they would convey to their audience.Even in small organizations, it is wrong to assume that everybody will have the same needs, interests and desires when it comes to business conversations. Business conversations are adapted to meet the needs of specific listeners or audiences. Employees working in an administrative setting, for instance, will have different needs and different access to information than employees working in a manufacturing environment. Thats why the communicator in business English conversations must have a good knowledge of the others working background and supply proper information.2.2 AccuracyDue to the special prosperities of business conversation, participants are reaching a common goal by mutual efforts. So, the delivered information needs to be clear and concise enough.When information is inaccurate, it will its credibility and cause many troubles. The people who send the information also lose its credibility. So the sender must be sure about the information sent is accurate in business English conversations. The accuracy includes the context conveyed and expressions that include grammar, spelling and punctuation.2.3 TimelinessAll the employees need to know what is going on in their organizations and in the external environment that impacts them which is good for their future plan especially in business English conversations. The content one conveyed in business English conversations should be in time with the new changes or development in or outside his company or organization, for building a timely and harmonious business relationship. “Todays technology-driven environment makes it more challenging than ever before for businesses to communicate with employees in a timely manner, but it is critical for effective business conversation” 5. In addition, it cannot be assumed that a message has gotten across if it is sent just one time. Business conversations occur frequently to ensure that they have been received by all employees. Employees leave, new employees join the company and employees transfer from one role to another, requiring new and updated information in time.2.4 Face-to-face conversations “Face-to-face conversations are still th