Persuasive and politeness strategies in cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context
Persuasive and politeness strategies in cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context
复制标题
DOI：
10.1075/japc.16.1.06cha
复制
发表时间：
2006-01-01
影响因子：
0.7
通讯作者：
Chakorn, Ora-Ong
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chakorn, Ora-Ong
这篇文章揭示了修辞的跨文化请求信在泰国的商业环境。重点是对比分析80封真实的英语请求信，分别由泰国人和以英语为母语的人撰写。该语料库由38个泰语（TH）字母和42个非泰语（NT）字母组成。本文从语篇对比语言学和语用学的角度对跨文化差异进行了定量和定性的研究。定量分析探讨了TH和NT字母的长度与请求的分布和位置的关系。本研究采用对比语篇语言学的方法，探讨了请求信中的修辞结构（如结构表征）及其语言实现（如语言特征）。从语用学的角度，分析的重点是说服性策略（即修辞诉求--理性、民族精神、悲情）和礼貌策略，其中一些策略是受文化制约的。海因兹（Hinds，1990）所谓的准归纳写作风格或目的的延迟介绍是一种独特的对冲策略，只在TH字母中发现。NT的要求往往更直接，往往涉及一个'赤裸裸的记录'的战略。而在类似的正式语境中，TH请求信则更多地使用了消极礼貌，因为它们包含了更多的间接、恭敬和谦逊策略。根据亚里士多德的说服性修辞概念，TH字母通常使用标志，精神和悲情的组合，而NT字母倾向于主要使用强有力的标志。这三种修辞诉求都可以被看作是说服策略，研究结果揭示了TH和NT请求信中使用的说服策略的一些文化差异。
This article sheds light on the rhetoric of cross-cultural letters of request in the Thai business context. The focus is on the contrastive analysis of 80 authentic letters of request written in English by Thai speakers and native English speakers. The corpus consists of 38 Thai (TH) letters, and 42 NonThai (NT) letters. The cross-cultural variation is investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively from the perspectives of contrastive text linguistics and pragmatic. The quantitative analysis explores the lengths of the TH and NT letters in relation to the distribution and position of requests. Contrastive text linguistics was used in this study to examine the rhetorical structures (e.g. structural representation) in letters of request and their linguistic realisations (e.g. linguistic features). From a pragmatic perspective, the analytical focus was on persuasive strategies (i.e. rhetorical appeals-logos, ethos, pathos), and politeness strategies, some of which are culture-bound.The overall investigation manifests the diversity in language use which distinguishes Thai-style business requests from western-style ones. What Hinds (1990) calls a quasi-inductive style of writing or delayed introduction of purpose is a unique hedging strategy found exclusively in the TH letters. The NT requests tend to be more direct, often involving a 'baldly on record' strategy. In contrast in a similarly formal context, the TH request letters typically use more negative politeness in that they include more indirect, deferential and self-effacing strategies. According to the Aristotelian concept of persuasive rhetoric, the TH letters generally use a combination of logos, ethos and pathos whereas the NT letters tend to predominantly use a strong logos. These three rhetorical appeals can be regarded as persuasive strategies; the findings reveal some culture-specific differences in the persuasive strategies used in TH and NT letters of request.