Rhetorical and pragmalinguistic features of business correspondence

Abstract

This paper explores the rhetorical and pragmalinguistic features of sales letters written in English by Kazakhstani business professionals and their native Englishspeaking international business partners based in the USA and the UK. The analysis focuses on 115 authentic texts, consisting of 65 non-native English speakers’ and 50 native speakers’ letters collected from international, national, and foreign companies in Kazakhstan. The research findings indicate that the analyzed sales letters not only reflect language variations, but also contain a number of culturally specific features which make them valuable ‘indicators’ of the writers’ cultural and social backgrounds. The most remarkable aspect is the imbalance between the Kazakhstani business professionals’ intention to maintain long-term business partnerships by adding a special introductory move and their inability to choose communication strategies adequate to native English-speakers’ writing style.

Situating Evaluation and Authority: Direct Sponsorship in Letters of Recommendation

“…Move-step analysis has been applied to a variety of artifacts, mainly focusing on language acquisition or L2 communication. Vergaro (2005) used a move-step analysis to study discourse strategies in For-Your-Information letters written by Italian speakers, while Aimoldina and Zharkynbekova (2013) applied its use to sales letters in Kazakhstan; more recently, Lee (2016) used a move-step analysis to study philanthropic and promotional language in letters of appeal from Hong Kong. Our study employs the move-step method (Moreno & Swales, 2017) in an effort to illuminate rhetorical moves occurring in academic LORs written by academic community members.…”