Abstract

With the expansion of global economic cooperation, foreign trade between countries is becoming increasingly close. China, as a developing country, is more concerned about foreign trade business. While most business activities are achieved through business English correspondence, such as seeking new customers, placing orders, sending advice of shipment, collecting and so on. 

The good quality of business English correspondence can not only help businesses achieve the effective purpose of communication, promote long-term trade cooperation between the two sides, but also help to avoid risks and to avoid some undue losses, which will lead to the results satisfied with the the two sides. Therefore, it is very important to have a good mastery of business English correspondence.

To write business English correspondence well, we not only need to have good English skills, but also need to pay attention to the role which the cooperative principle plays in business English correspondence. The purpose of business English correspondence is to achieve the interests of both parties through cooperation. The cooperative principle can be used to better clarify the requirements of business English correspondence and guide the practice of business English correspondence.

In this paper, the author conducts a study on the application of the Cooperative Principle to business English correspondence. And being based on the Cooperative Principle, this paper analyzes some positive and negative examples of business English correspondence from the four maxims such as quantity, quality, relation and manner. Then some suggestions and strategies in business English correspondence will be proposed.

    Key words: business English correspondence; Cooperative Principle;four maxims

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction.1

2 Literature Review1

2.1 Business English Correspondence.2

2.1.1 The Definition of Business English Correspondence2

2.1.2 The Nature of Business English Correspondence2

2.1.3 The Functions of Business English Correspondence3             

2.2 The Cooperative Principle4

2.2.1 The Background of the Cooperative Principle4

2.2.2 The Contents of the Cooperative Principle5

2.2.3 The Significance of the Cooperative Principle6

3 The Application of the Maxims of the Cooperative Principle.7

3.1 Maxim of Quantity7

3.2 Maxim of Quality.9

3.3 Maxim of Relation10

3.4 Maxim of Manner.12

4 Conclusion.14

4.1 Major Findings14

4.2 Limitations.15

References16