摘 要

随着经济全球化的快速发展,国际商务活动日益增多,而商务活动的交际媒介——商务英语,也在各行业中得到广泛运用,其作用也日益增强。商务英语是特殊用途英语的一个重要分支。它具有明确的目的性、很强的客观性、简明性及严谨性。商务英语的研究始于上世纪60年代。对商务英语语言特征的研究主要集中于商务英语翻译、商务英语教学以及商务英语函电等。本文综合运用语言学相关原理，例如语境理论、言语行为理论、合作原则和礼貌原则等来对商务英语语用特征进行分析。商务英语的语用特征有：⑴商务英语主要依托商务环境发挥交际媒介的作用；⑵交际双方运用各种商务言语行为，旨在达到某种商业目的；⑶为了有效地进行商务交际，交际双方需要合理运用质、量、关系、方式等准则，并将礼貌用语应用于整个交际过程中，以期达到促进商务合作，完成交易等目的。本文旨在为从事商务活动的人士提供一些基础的语用规则，帮助其正确使用商务英语，以便更好地发挥商务英语在国际商务活动的作用，保证商务交流的顺利进行。

关键词：商务英语；语用特征；语用分析

Abstract

With the rapid development of economic globalization, international business activities have become increasingly frequent. As a medium of business activities, business English is extensively used and plays an increasingly significant part in various international industries. Business English is a branch of ESP (English for Specific Purpose). Its features include clear sense of purpose, strong object, conciseness and strictness. The researches on business English began at 1960s. Former studies mainly concentrate on business English translation, teaching method and correspondence. This paper applies some related pragmatic principles such as the theory of context, speech act theory, cooperative principle and politeness principle, etc., to analyzing business English. The pragmatic features of business English are shown as follows: first, business English is the communicative medium in business activities; second, parties in communication use various business speech acts for some kinds of business purposes; third, in order to have an effective communication in business affairs, parties involved need to use the four maxims of quality, quantity, relation, manner and converse politely in the course of communication in order to build business cooperation and facilitate business transaction. This paper aims at offering some fundamental pragmatic rules for businessmen and helping them to use it properly, so that it can play its role better in international business activities and business exchange can go with a swing.

Key Words：business English；pragmatic features；pragmatic analysis

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Significance 1

2 Literature Review 3

2.1 Definition of Business English 3

2.2 Development of Business English 3

2.3 Pragmatic Theories 4

3 Pragmatic Features of Business English 6

3.1 Lexical Features of Business English 6

3.1.1 Use of Professional and Technical Terms and Words 6

3.1.2 Use of Short and Formal Words 6

3.1.3 Use of Abbreviations 7

3.1.4 Use of Juxtaposing Synonyms 7

3.1.5 Use of Archaic Words 8

3.2 Syntactic Features of Business English 9

3.2.1 Use of Compound and Complex Sentences 9

3.2.2 Use of Declarative Sentence 9

3.2.3 Use of Formulaic Sentence Structure 10

3.3 Textual Features of Business English 10

3.3.1 Plain Style 10

3.3.2 Appropriate Words 11

4 Discussion 13

4.1 Significance of Pragmatic Principle of Business English 13

4.2 Differences between General English and Business English 13

5 Conclusion 16

5.1 Summary 16

5.2 Suggestion for Further Research 16

References 18

Acknowledgements 19

The Analysis of Pragmatic Features of Business English

1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background

With the rapid development of international economy, international business activities have become increasingly frequent. English has become the most commonly used language. Business English is widely used and plays an important role in international business exchange such as finance, transportation, insurance and so on. International business activities and information exchange have increased since China became a member of WTO in the year 2001. Because international business activities and communications happen more often, business English becomes increasingly significant in modern society. The importance of effective use of business English has attracted much more people’s attention.

Business English belongs to English language system. It is a branch of the special English that serves for international commerce. The characteristics showed in business activities are the special features of business English.

Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics which refers to the practical use of language and communication. Business English is the English that used in business activities, and it also includes the use of language and communication functions. Although pragmatic theories have been applied in the area of literary works for a long time, it can still be a helpful and useful tool in business English researches.

1.2 Research Significance

Both at home and abroad, the focus points of the business English researches are English teaching method, business writing skills, and business communication. But for the practical use of business English, there are not many researches about it. Therefore, it is necessary to study the business English pragmatics so that we can figure out the principles and use them properly in business communication.

Although the business English researches in China show an ascending trend as a whole, they still fall one step behind the international academy. And what is more important is that the quality of research cannot be compensated only by the quantitative increase for the research level is low. While international business English researches are highly theorized and systematized, Chinese business English researches tend to be practical rather than theoretical.

This paper is an endeavor to adopt a series of pragmatic approaches to studying business English, with an aim to help people have a better understanding of business English. Thus businessmen can know how to use it appropriately. Moreover, under the current international business situation, a thorough understanding of business English means the advantages in business trade.