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Abstract:Politeness can be seen as one of basic guidelines for all human behavior.It is generally acceptedthat politeness is a pervasive feature in human communication.Writing of business correspondence,as a kindof form of communication,should also observe this guideline.This paper makes a brief introduction of thestudies of politeness maxims both of Chinese and English and,in the light of politeness,suggests that a goodtone should be adopted in writing business correspondence.Accordingly,some skills are recommended.

礼貌是人类文明的标志。语言活动与礼貌关系尤为密切。近年来,国内语言学者引进了西方学者的一些研究成果,如陈融的《面子-留面子-丢面子》介绍了Brown和Levison的礼貌模式,刘润清的《关于Leech的礼貌原则》介绍和评价了利奇的理论,钱厚生的《礼貌语言研究:理论与方法》介绍了西方礼貌语言研究的概况。顾曰国深入研究了礼貌在中华文化中的渊源与含义,认为与中国文化相一致的礼貌准则应为“:自卑而尊人”与贬己尊人准则;“上下有义,贵贱有分,长幼有序”与称呼原则;“彬彬有礼”与文雅原则;“有德者必有言”与德、言、行准则。[1]同时他还对英汉礼貌原则进行了比较。本文借鉴这些理论,重点探讨外贸英语函电中的礼貌表达问题。

一、词语选用与外贸英语函电礼貌外贸英语函电是公司联系顾客的工具,是一种以国际商务为目的的书面语言交际工具。好的外贸英语函电除了词汇、语法上准确无误外,在语气的选择与使用上也是十分讲究的,既给了对方面子,又保全自己的面子。用词表达礼貌方面,有:

(一)谢不绝口,感激不尽清楚、简要、礼貌是外贸英语函电的三个基本要求。函电往来也要有礼貌,有礼貌可博得对方的好感,诸如“please”、“thank you”、“We havepleasure”之类的礼貌标记词语,能增加礼貌程度, 表达对听话人的尊重,使对方产生好感。外贸英语函电在长期的应用过程中产生了一些常用的表示谢意的词语与句型,较常见的有:thank,appreciate,be grateful,be obliged和be indebted等词语、词组及相关的句型。[2]

1.在函电的往返过程中几乎每一封信开头都是Thank you for your letter of...或者是相似的表达变体。如:(1)Thank you for your letter dated July5,inquiring for our wood screws and fitting.(2)Many thanks(thanks a lot)for your inquiryof December 16 for our nut.(3)We acknowledge with thanks receipt ofyour letter of March 11,enquiring the possibility ofselling your shirts in our market.

2.除了每封信开头用thank一词表示感谢外,外贸函电文本中包含礼貌词语表示感谢和感激一类的句子比比皆是,不胜枚举,如:(1)We wish to express our most sincere thanksfor all your cooperation.(2)We should be thankful if you would arrangefor immediate shipment.(3)We shall be appreciate it if you will quote usthe lowest prices CIFC5%Port Shanghai.(4)We are appreciative of your cable responsesdated June 3 and June 12 to our request for an 8%reduction in price.(5)We shall be grateful for further informationyou may be able to give us about Chinese fruits.(6)We are much obliged to you for the promptexecution of this order.(7)We shall be indebted to you,if you willmake us a special offer on peanut.“谢不绝口,感激不尽”给足了交际对象面子,可谓礼貌有加。

(二)为对方着想的"You Attitude"写信人在写信时不能一味只顾从自己的立场着想,而应设身处地为对方考虑,这就是"YouAttitude"。具体说,在函电中尽可能少用第一人称的I、We、My、Our如何如何,而应多用You、Yourbusiness、Your needs等等,令对方感觉到我们以收信人为核心,把对方的利益放在首位。尤其是函电的每一段开头宜多用You而少用We。如:(1)You will be pleased to know that...(而不用:We are pleased to announce that...)(2)We will benefit from this policy because...(而不用:We follow the policy because...)"You Attitude"体现了对对方的关切,多为客户的利益着想,这便是Leech的“策略次则”(TactMaxim)的体现。然而,少用We或I开头的句子并不是勉强地以You开头而刻意不用We或I。当收信人有过失时或是与写信人有意见分歧时,就要将第二人称指示语变为第一人称指示语,用第一人称来表达,同样可以体现You Attitude的内涵。使用You开头的句子只是手段,目的在于让收信人觉得受到尊重、受重视。如果一封谴责、责问、抱怨的信也通篇You如何如何,不但不礼貌,而且有咄咄逼人之势,反而招致反感。[3]如:Your error caused the damage of the goods andyou will be responsible for what have happened...此句的语气盛气凌人,斥责对方,宜改为:We are regretted to find that the goods has beendamaged and we would like to have ourrepresentative to look into it.改写后的句子避免提及动作(damage)的施行者,给对方留了面子,使话语更加得体。

二、句型选择与外贸英语函电礼貌

(一)谦恭有礼、语气委婉生意往来难免有纠纷、摩擦,而礼貌则是润滑油,外贸函电中无论是索赔、抱怨,还是拒绝接受等,措本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。