基于语料库的国际商务会议中的元话语研究

CHAPTER ONE  INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Orientation

This  paper aim s  to explore how speak ers  communicate with e ach  other in multicultural business meetings with metadiscourse. To be more specific, it attempts to (1) examine the usage of different types of metadiscoursal devices (hereafter MDs) by native speakers (hereafter NSs) and non-native speakers (hereafter NNSs) in business meetings. (2) provide a rhetorical account  for the observed pattern s, and explore the possible factors causing differences between two patterns, if any. 

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1.2 Rationale

Metadiscourse,  as  the non-propo sitional  part of langu age,  is fundam ental  yet intriguing in communication. Although it has been ove rshadowed by propositional content in linguistic studies fo r years, the importance of it is much in evidence now, with its multifunction in persuading others, conveying information and managing the interactions  (see  ref  to section 2.1.2) in the comm unication  between  readers  and writers etc. Besides, its im portance has also been reflected in that it has been widely approached by different researchers from different research angles. As a result, th e definitions and classifications of metadiscourse are extremely diverse and, to som e extent, confusing. The terms that are overlapping with metadiscourse in some degree include  metatalk  (Schiffrin,  1980), m eta-text  (Mauranen, 1993), and discourse reflectivity (Mauranen, 2010). In th is thesis, we adopt the term metadiscoruse since it’s more than popular and also, an umbrella term. Metadiscourse manifests itself via a great variety of means, including transitions (but and so), modal verbs (should, must) and adjectives implying attitude (fortunate). Hyland (2004, 2005) has already found that the observed patterns of MDs have close links with genres and cultures, which makes it a perfect analytical tool in intercultural business communication. Considering that previous study has mainly focused on its importance in academic communication, but it is believed that it would also be rewa rding to apply it in other ESP genres, like communication in international business meetings.  

So  far,  a large  bulk of studies have  focused  on how people comm unicate  in business meetings, an indispensable routine activity of doing business, including genre analyses of their structure and procedural characteristics (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris, 1997; Koester,  2006),  conversational accomplishment of tasks (Boden, 1994; Firth , 1995;  Poncini, 2004; Sarangi & Roberts,  1999),  the realization of  power and politeness in meetings (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003) and speaker styles (Rogerson-Revell, 1999). Although persuasion is fairly essential in almost every piece of information in business meetings, few studies have intensiv ely explored business meetings from the perspective of rhetoric. The basic feature shared by discourse in business meetings and institutional communication is goal-driven communication. (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003; Koester,  2006). This feature gets full disp lay  in the agenda of business m eetings, which  lists  the stuf f  that  needs  to  be di scussed  or planned in the m eetings,  thus providing  an  explicit o utline  of  the  goals  of meetings.  Oftentimes,  the goa ls  of different  speakers can be conf lictive  if  participants  not  only collab orate  but also collude and even compete with each other in order to get things done. In this situation, businessmen use language to achieve their ow n goals with the intention to persuade others. 

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CHAPTER TWO   LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition and Classification of Metadiscourse

The term, metadiscourse, was first coined by Zellig Harris in 1959, who defined it as way of understanding language in use, representing a writer ’s or speaker’s attempt to guide a receiver ’s perception of a text (H arris, 1970). Since then, the definition of metadiscourse has undergone a variety of interpretations. 

The researchers following Harris believed that the term, metadiscourse, has close links with Halliday’s functional view of language. Thus,  metadiscourse was a major tool in realizing the two metafunctions: interpersonal and textual ones. According to Williams (1981), writers communicated with the readers on two levels, namely, on the level of primary discourse and on the level of metadiscourse. Based on this, Williams (1981:  47) defined  metadiscourse  as “discourse about discoursing”. V ande  Kopple (1985: 83) had a similar definition of metadiscourse as follows: 

Adel (2006) noted the deviation in the definition and attributed it to two different research areas: one adopting a narrow definition (reflexive model in ?del’s (2010) term) and the other ad opting a broad definition (interactive model in ?del’s (2010) term).  According to ?del (2010 ),  the na rrow  definition  is concerned with that metadiscourse,  as discourse about discour se,  was the explication of the writer ’s awareness of the text itself . On the other hand, the broad definition referred to the language that indicated the interaction between the writer and the reader.

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2.2 Metadiscourse in Business Discourse

Hyland (2005) pointed out that business discour se works to create that point of view . The use of metadiscourse in writing was an effective way in engaging the stakeholders, including  customers,  shareholders, regulato rs  etc and to help to c reate  a pos itive corporate,  personal or product im age,  and  with  this kind of engagem ent,  better persuasion  can be achieved. This statem ent  proved to be true in the study of metadiscourse across different business genres. Bhatia (1993) found  that in the genre of mail sales promotion letters, frame markers, imperatives and hedges were the key elements that engage reader s and lead them to buy or s upport the product. Another case of metadiscourse used in advertis ement is the study of Fuertes-Olivera  et al in 2001, which proved that those MDs were extens ively used in advertising slogans and headlines to convey a persuasive m essage under an informative mask. In the genre of magazine advertising, metadiscourse assisted copywriters in crea ting solidarity with readers to achieve rhetorical, and ultimately commercial, objectives. Its feasibility has also  been proved in othe r  genres, like com pany annual  reports. Hyland (1998) compared the usage pattern of MDs in CEO’s letters and com pany’s annual reports and analyzed the function of these item s from the perspective of logos, pathos and ethos.  It turned out that MDs occurred qu ite  frequently in business text and the rhetorical power of metadiscourse was that it helped companies to create a reliable and amiable image and thus it is m ore likely that the customers were persuaded. Xie’ s (2012) finding suggests that in business negotiation context, communicative intention of the speakers could largely determine the function of MDs.

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CHAPTER THREE  THEO RETIC FOUNDATION .................. 14

3.1 Communication in Business English as Lingua Franca...... 14

3.2 Aristotle’s Rhetoric Model: Three Means of Persuasion .............16

CHAPTER FOUR   METHOD ................. 21

4.1 Research Questions ............................ 21

4.2 Corpus Data ............... 21

CHAPTER FIVE  RESULTS AND ANALYSIS .................. 26

5.1 MDs in VOICE and BEC ......... 26

5.1.1 Overall Preferences for MDs ............... 26

CHAPTER FIVE  RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

5.1 MDs in VOICE and BEC

5.1.1 Overall Preferences for MDs

The frequencies of identified MDs across both corpora are shown in Table 5.1.

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CHAPTER SIX  CONCLUSION

6.1 Summary of Major Findings

As we have mentioned in Chapter 1, this th esis intends to answer the questions that how persuasive goals are achieved in inte rnational  business  meetings  with MDs. Hyland’s (2004) model and Stenstr?m’s (1994) model provide the list for MDs in the thesis and the persuasive effect is discussed within the framework of Aristotle’s three means of persuasion. T he material we chose  for this study is partly f rom business meetings in Nelson’s (2000) self-built corpus: BEC and the international m eetings in VOICE. The results can theref ore not be generalized. In term s of research method, a corpus-based discourse analysis is adopte d, where corpus-based quantitative analysis was used to reveal the feature of metadiscourse in both corpora, which would then be explored qualitatively. 

(1)The quantitative analysis not only uncovers the ubiquitousness of MDs in both corpora, but also finds out that due to th e possible restricted language recourses, EL F speakers  use less MDs than NSs on a whole. The proportion of each sub-categorization  suggests  that th e  usage  pattern  of  MDs  in VOICE is m ore routinized. That is, ELF rely m ore on some certain items, such as and, but and so in transitions,  frame  markers,  self-mentions  and some  other ones, including  OK,  you know etc. 

(2)Persuasion is achieved through three means of appeals. Interactive MDs play a crucial role in organizing a rational and sense-making discourse. Also, self-mentions, hedges and boosters have close links with  the ethos building in business m eetings. Engagement  markers,  attitude  markers  and  self-mentions  all con tribute  to th e involvement with listeners in the progress  of conversation. As we might also say, it relates to credibility appeals where it concerns the writer's authority and competence and to affective appeals when it signals respect for the readers’ viewpoints or that the message has direct relevance to the audience. Furthermore, the strategic use of MDs is also observed because of the several strategies employed by ELF users, includ ing the explicitness, backchannel and other possible strategies. 

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