【正文】 letters are used to provide services or sell products, request material or information, answer customer enquiries, maintain public relations, and serve other various business functions.Generally speaking, business letters work as an effective way to convey and get information. Despite the facts that facetoface oral munication can give message and some cases can be handled over phone. However, few business people want to visit every client one by one, particularly in the society in which the concept that time is money is prevailing for any timeconsuming and expensive idea would be abandoned. What are worse, people are not sure to obtain pletely what they hear. As a result, letter remains the best form to secure that the message is accurately sent or received。 and expressions with requesting or mitigating tone, such as “please”(kindly)…, “we would(might)say…”, “It seems to us that…”. To acplish this goal, several courtesy blunders should be avoided, they are: (a) suspicion (b) accusation (c) talking down. ConsiderationGenerally speaking, a letter functions well if it can deeply impress and favorably influence its recipient. Consideration means considering the whole matter from the stand point of the opposite party. To achieve this, the writer should put himself in his readers39。 products and, in some respect, out performs them.In the reply letter, the writer does not provide information about price or sanding samples to the reader, but refers to a new product. In this case, the reader can not acquaint any situation about the mercial he wants, or any satisfactory reply to his requirement. Out of question, the trade will not go ahead. Manner Maxim and the clear and concise principle The maxim of Manner means being perspicuous. Manner Maxim requires the writer to avoid obscurity of expression, to avoid ambiguity and to be brief. (Grice, 1975: 47)A business correspondence is effective only when it conveys the necessary ideas to its reader with clearness which requires the writer to choose concise and accessible expressions, avoid using obscure utterances and equivocal words and structures, pay attention to the position of the modifier and the logicality of the full text. Any unclearness in English business correspondence may result in misunderstanding on the part of the reader and lose in trade. The following letter is an example.(a) As you will remember from our telephone call, we have recently been experiencing a number of difficulties with several large customers. This has resulted in unfavorable delays in paying outstanding accounts.(b) I would very much appreciate it if you could bear with us patiently, as 1 am sure that liquidation on our part would not be in your interest either. (c) We are doing everything possible to rectify the situation. Indeed we hope to be able to settle our debts within the very near future.(d) We are extremely sorry that your pany has been affected by these developments. (方春祥, 2005: 109)It is a reply to a plain letter. In letter (a), facing with plain, the writer gives an explanation to the reader, and then expresses his regret for conducting an impact. So the letter (a) should be followed by letter (d). It is not enough just to convey regret, because the writer has to offer ways to solve the above problem. According to the order, letter (d) should be followed by letter (c) and letter (b) is the last paragraph. Every word in an English business correspondence should contribute its part to the meaning, or to the intended tone of a message. Unnecessary words not only increase typing time and bore the reader, but also make the message more difficult to follow, since the reader must hold all the extra words in mind while trying to figure out what the writer intends to express. So the writer has to make effort to connect brevity with conciseness when he is posing a letter. The followings are two examples.(a) With reference to your request for an extension on your note under of March 20, we have considered the matter carefully and are pleased to tell you that we will be will to allow you an additional ninety days to make payment on your note.(b) We are pleased to allow you an additional ninety days to pay your note dated March 20. (胡亦武, 2003: 27)After revision, the fist sentence has been shortened from 46 words to 17 words, with the clarity of the message unaffected. Leech’s Politeness Principle Definition of politeness In fact, Cooperative Principle is not meant to tell speakers how they ought to behave but to describe what actually happens in conversation. When people speak, they generally have something like the CP and its maxims in their mind to guide them, though it may be done subconsciously or even unconsciously.Grice39。s Cooperative PrincipleGrice began by considering “a certain subclass of nonconventional implicature, namely Conversational Implicature. These are essentially connected with certain general features of discourse, which arise from the fact that if people’s talk exchanges are to be rational, they must consist of utterances which are in some way connected with each other.” (Grice, 1975: 45) What guarantees this connection is called Cooperative Principle (CP for short). Grice broke the CP into four maxims: quantity, quality, relation and manner. Then is this applicable to the writing of English business correspondence?Cooperative Principle is always upheld in business transactions since it39。t literary works, but it is required to express your own views accurately in a plain language that is very clear and readily understood, and to catch the readers39。畢業(yè)論文(設(shè)計)Pragmatic Principles in English Business Correspondence1. Introduction 12. Introduction to English business correspondence 3 Definition of business correspondence 3 Functions of English business correspondence 3 Characteristics of English business correspondence 4 Completeness 5 Concreteness 5 Clearness 6 Conciseness 6 Cou