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CDA Analysis on the Discourses of Written Business English

Author: SiJie
Tutor: MaBoSen
School: Zhejiang University
Course: English Language and Literature
Keywords: critical discourse analysis business negotiation discourse power
CLC: H315
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2011
Downloads: 302
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Abstract

In our modern world, with the acceleration of international economic integration, international business plays a more and more important role in world economy. In China, more and more enterprises take part in the international business after China’s entrance of WTO. Business negotiation is an indispensable part in the international business and plays a significant role in it. Therefore, a lot of studies of business negotiations have been done by scholars at home and abroad, and these studies mainly focus on the negotiation itself or some microcosmic linguistic aspects, such as language characteristic, cultural differences and translation methods of business negotiations. However, this thesis is trying to apply the theory of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to make a macro study of business negotiation discourses, especially written discourses..CDA aims at demystifying naturalized discourse and reveals that grammatical and semantic forms have close relations with ideology and power. It is defined as an interdisciplinary approach to the study of texts, which views language as a form of social practice and focuses on the relations between discourse, society, ideology and power. In this thesis, under the theoretical framework of CDA and specifically with three analytical tools "Transitivity", "Nominalization" and "Modality", the author attempts to explain international business negotiations, esp. written discourses of international business negotiations, and points out how to detect the power relationships, commercial goals and social background of negotiators.As international business negotiations are always conducted in English, the data collected in this thesis is in English, which are collected from the books of international business and are authentic business negotiation cases. Through the detailed analysis, the author finds that there is real power and status disparity in business negotiations, however, negotiators try to conceal the disparity to maintain good relationship and harmonious atmosphere in order to obtain benefits in their transactions. Therefore, polite expressions are of crucial importance in business negotiations, and thus negotiators had better have critical language awareness in order to avoid the business pitfalls.Finally, in the conclusion the author lists the implications and limitations of the research as well as some suggestions for further researchers.

CDA Analysis on the Discourses of Written Business English

Abstract

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