论文总字数：33736字

摘 要

商务谈判本质上是一种运用语言进行经济的活动。它的成功与否依赖于语言的运用,尤其是使用礼貌语言。本文根据礼貌理论, 对英语商务谈判的礼貌策略进行了研究，并强调礼貌语言策略在商务谈判中的重要性。本文主要着眼于Brownamp;Levinson的消极礼貌策略以及积极礼貌策略，并从词汇短语和句子两大方面，对消极礼貌策略和积极礼貌策略中的具体的语言策略进行了讨论。并得出结论，在商务谈判中，谈判者可以借助某些语用规则和语言模式来使自己更礼貌，但必须灵活使用这些策略来适应不同情形。

关键词：商务谈判；礼貌理论；积极礼貌；消极礼貌

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………1

2.1 Research on business negotiation strategies………………………………...1

2.2 A review of the application of politeness theory ….....................….......…....2

1. Theoretical Framework …................................………………………...3

3.1 Lakoff’s theory of politeness………….…………………………………….3

3.2 Leech’s politeness theory ...........................……………………………........3

3.3 Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory……….........……………………...3

1. Politeness Strategies for FTAs in Business Negotiation…….......……….5

4.1 Negative politeness strategies.............………………………………………5

4.2 Positive politeness strategies....………………..........……………………...10

5. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..14

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...15

1. Introduction

As globalization develops, global trade becomes more and more frequent. After investigation and research, effective business negotiation and communication can bring high profits and benefits; while lack of negotiation skills may cause the failure of trade. It requires the two parties to express their opinions in a specific context skillfully so as to effectively achieve their goals. Business negotiation is largely achieved by means of language, so effective negotiation strategies play a vital role.

In fact, language is used daily, so negotiators may ignore the basic role that language plays in business negotiation. Yet language skills can help promote the success of negotiation. Appropriate words are polite, which can preserve positive or negative faces of the hearer’s as well as speaker’s. However, inappropriate language are nothing less than hurting the hearer’s self-esteem or imposing restrictions on the hearer, or even destroy the business negotiation. So language for negotiators is by no means a small thing.

This article attempts to help business negotiators collaborate with each other by adopting appropriate linguistic strategies in the framework of politeness theory, and ultimately promote the efficiency of business negotiations. It will focus on negative politeness strategies and positive politeness strategies.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Research on business negotiation strategies

There are lots of researches on business negotiation strategies. From these researches, we know more about business negotiation, such as definition, features, principles and the skills which guide the business negotiation.

Negotiation is a process of combining divergent positions into a joint agreement under a decision rule of unanimity. It aims to resolve differences, to benefit individuals or groups, or to produce results to meet various interests. Business negotiation is an activity carried out by the buyer and the seller for the purpose of trading, or a means to resolve the disputes between the buyer and the seller and to obtain their respective economic interests. Business negotiation is developed under the condition of commodity economy, which has become an indispensable part of modern social and economic life. It can be said that economic activities cannot be carried out without business negotiation. Business negotiation is indispensable for bargaining in life, cooperation between corporate legal persons and even economic and technological exchanges between countries.

Many people think of negotiations as a competition where one side wins and the other loses. But in reality, negotiations involve a more complex mixture of winning and losing. The outcome of almost all two-party negotiations can be divided into win-lose, lose-lose, or win-win. A win-lose negotiation refers to a distributive negotiation whereby one party’s gain is another party’s loss. Both parties are competing to get the most value from the negotiation. Also called the “fixed-pie” scenario in that there is only a limited amount to be distributed. A lose-lose negotiation means that both parties are worse off after the negotiation. The last one means both parties come out ahead. In an ideal win-win situation, both sides will achieve an acceptable result.

In order to achieve win-win result, scholars have put great emphasis on the skills and techniques used in business negotiation. Authors also study business negotiation strategies from different perspectives. Chen Xirong studies the application of pragmatics in business negotiation from three specific ways. (Chen 56) Wang Yifan holds that public relation activities are very important in a successful negotiation. He elaborates the four processes of business negotiation, that is, welcome, greeting, feast and negotiation. (Wang 48) All in all, they all offer lots of valuable materials. And this article will study the strategies of business negotiation according to politeness theories of Lakoff (1972), Leech (1983), as well as Brown amp; Levinson (1987).

2.2 A review of the application of politeness theory

Politeness is one of the major topics in pragmatics, and there are many articles studying the application of politeness theory in business correspondence. Qin Xiaojie demonstrates the complementary relationship between “cooperation” and “politeness”. He makes an analysis of the application of cooperation principle and politeness strategy in business letters in a series of cases. (Qin 11) Meanwhile, a large number of articles study the application of politeness theories in daily communication.

All in all, this article attempts to help business negotiators to create a cooperative relationship with each other through using proper linguistic strategies of politeness theory so as to improve the efficiency of business negotiation.

3. Theoretical Framework

Politeness is everywhere in daily life and in business communication. In order to achieve the best results in communication, politeness plays a vital role in restricting and coordinating people’s communication. Linguistic studies of politeness is tightly related to the following theories. They are applied to a lot of communication activities.

3.1 Lakoff’s theory of politeness

She raised three maxims of politeness that are often followed in communication. They are: don’t impose, give the receiver options, and make the receiver feel good. She stated that these are paramount in good interactions.

3.2 Leech’s politeness theory

British scholar Geoffrey N Leech (1983) proposed politeness principle. Leech’ politeness principle contains six maxims. The first one is tact principle, which means to minimize the damage to others and give them the best benefit. The second one is generosity principle, which means to minimize your own profit and maximize your damage as much as possible. The third one is approbation principle, which means to praise others. The fourth one is modesty principle, which means to belittle yourself as much as possible. The fifth one is agreement principle, which means to minimize their own inconsistent with others as much as possible and try to increase their own consistent with others as much as possible. The sixth one is sympathy principle, which means to minimize the discord between themselves and others as much as possible and try to increase their sympathy with others as much as possible.

3.3 Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory

In 1987, Brown and Levinson proposed that politeness was a universal concept, which has had some disagreement within academia. Their theory chiefly contain three fundamental concepts: face, face-threatening acts(FTAs for short) and politeness strategies.

Brown amp; Levinson’s face theory argues that face has two aspects: positive face and negative face. The former one is to get appreciation and love from someone else. And the latter one do not want others to force themselves and want to act freely. They also develop two kinds of politeness based on these two faces. One is negative politeness, which is used as a way to communicate with the hearer in a non-imposing way. Doing things like offering an apology, being indirect, using hedges or question, etc. are ways to create distance between the two sides. The other is positive politeness, which is used as a way to make the hearer feel a sense of closeness and belonging. These strategies include things like noticing changes in another, choosing appropriate subjects, seeking agreement and avoiding disputes, making jokes, etc..

According to Brown and Levinson (1987), a face threatening act is an act that inherently damages the face of the hearer or the speaker by acting in opposition to the wants and desires of the other. FTAs can be classified as below:

(1)Acts threatening the hearer’s positive face by indicating the speaker’s lack of concern for the hearers self-image, such as disagreeing, criticism, accusation, insult, contempt, ridicule, complaint, reprimand, etc..

(2)Acts threatening the hearer’s negative face by imposing on the hearer, such as order, request, suggestion, advice, threat, warning, dare, offer, etc.

In Brown and Levinson’s view, face threatening acts (FTAs) are bound to occur in interpersonal communication, which always pose a threat to people’s communication. Therefore, people must handle it through some effective strategies.

Brown and Levinson (1987) outline five main types of politeness strategies: bald on-record, negative politeness, positive politeness, and off-record (indirect) as well as simply not using the face-threatening act.

The above politeness theories are closely interconnected. They have common parts and the last one is based on the former ones. They develop in chronological order. This article will use these theories in the following part.

This article especially focuses on politeness strategies. We know that in business negotiation, face-threatening acts (FTAs) are inevitable. So in order to redress FTAs, Brownamp;Levinson’s Politeness Theory, as the main theory, is applied to part 4.

4. Politeness Strategies for FTAs in Business Negotiation

This part will focus on how to make proper words to save both the speaker and the hearer’s negative face and positive face, especially the hearer’s by using Brown and Levinson’s face theory.

Business negotiation is a process filled with arguments and conflicts. The two sides are competitive, but meanwhile they should maintain cooperative relation. Therefore, in order to make the negotiation successful and achieve their final interest respectively, the speaker must use appropriate strategies, such as linguistic strategies. In this part, through lots of cases, some pragmatic rules and linguistic patterns will be found. First we will explore the negative politeness strategies in business negotiation.

4.1 Negative politeness strategies

Negative politeness strategies are oriented to the hearer’s negative face and emphasize avoiding imposition on the hearer. According to Brownamp;Levinson, seven specific strategies have been proposed in negative politeness strategies: be indirect, use hedges or questions, be pessimistic, minimize the imposition, use obviating structures like nominalizations, passives, or statements of general rules, apologetic, use plural pronouns. Some of them can be used in business negotiation. Therefore, here are some strategies concluded from those seven strategies that will help save faces of the hearers:

4.1.1 Words and expressions

4.1.1.1 Hedging words and phrases

Hedges are words whose job is to make things fuzzy. (Zhou 13)If there is an unpleasant thing such as delay in payment of one party, the other party can use hedges that indicate degree, such as some, sort of, kind of, which can soften the tone and avoid being too rude.

In addition, there are hedges that express attitudes, such as I believe, I suppose, I’m afraid, etc. For example: I’m afraid I can’t agree with the price you set. (Tang 18)

Compared with “I can’t agree with the price you set.”, which is rude and put imposition on the hearer, the above example is more soft and polite.

Hedges are not used only in one way. Hedging words such as quite, very, pretty, greatly can also be used as the strategy for positive face to increase the degree of compliment and appreciation. It also embodies approbation principle.

4.1.1.2 Personal Pronoun

Person deixis refers to the form of address of the two sides of the conversation when communicating information with words. (He Ziran 19) And Pronouns in English are typical person deixis in pragmatics. In business English, appropriate personal pronouns can make your language more polite and euphemistic.

You-attitude can be adopted in English negotiation, which means using more second person pronouns such as you and your instead of first person pronouns such as I, we, my, our. For instance:

a.I think that you did a good job in selling our products.

b.You did a good job in selling our products. (He Yongbin 76)

In the above examples, b sounds more polite than a. In sentence a, “I think” give the listener a feeling that it is only a subjective praise. Sentence b uses second person pronoun “you”, which removes subjective attitude and shows that it is customer-centric. It makes the hearer feel his importance. At the same time, it embodies tact principle.

Here is another set of example:

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