4.1 The Definition of lexicology
In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, the definition of lexicology is the study of the form, meaning and behavior of words. Technically, lexicology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of the vocabulary of a given language. It deals with words, their origin, development, history, structure, meaning and application. The term lexicology contains two Greek morphemes: lexikon and logie. The former means “word”, the latter means “learning” or “the study of” (Nation, 2001).
4.2 Review of studies on lexical features
4.2.1Review of studies on lexical features in English for Specific Purposes
English has been more and more frequently used in various circles. We have summarized this situation as workplace English including tourism English, law English, medical English and etc. And in this thesis, we mainly focused on its use in business field that is “business English”. We are now living in a globalized world, and after China entering the WTO, our country’s commercial activities are increasing rapidly, which makes business English become an indispensable language tool for communication in the world’s economical activities. Business English correspondence is one of the most effective ways in international communication .A good knowledge of English is the important foundation for writers to write a good and effective business English correspondence. In the meanwhile, there are many other factors should be paid attention to, such as avoiding Chinglish, having knowledge of the background knowledge of western culture, keeping eye on the trading style of the other party and etc. In one word, with the continuous changes of the forms of commercial activities, the business English correspondences must change accordingly.
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4.2.2 Former studies on lexical features of English business correspondence
Lexicon plays an important part in writing. And in business English writing, the lexicon is of more significance. Many scholars have made many researches of the language and lexicon in business English correspondences from various perspectives. They studied many aspects such as the lexicon meaning, function, correctness, and etc. Therefore, it is of much research value to do research in this aspect. This thesis tried to explore more meaningful things expecting to provide some useful information to the readers and business English learners (何勇斌, 2005; 196).
4.3 The Lexical Features Represented in Courtesy and Consideration
It has mentioned that there are 7Cs principles in business writing, here, I’ll divide them into 3 classifications to illustrate the lexical features in each classification. The first classification is lexical features represented in courtesy in courtesy and consideration. In business correspondences, we often use some polite words to express our kindness to other. And we often use some special words to present consideration to the other party. So from some aspect we can say that the consideration for the other party is also show our courtesy. The second classification is lexical features represented in conciseness and completeness. As I mentioned above, business correspondence should be concise, but that doesn’t mean that the less the better. At the same time, we should notice that we give the complete information that needed. The last classification is lexical features represented in clearness, concreteness and correctness. These three principles have one common target that is to make the business correspondence be accurate and not to be misunderstanding.
4.3.1 Use polite words
English business correspondences is an important way of commercial communication and play many roles such as delivering information, building cooperative relationship, promoting company’s operations and strengthening communication in commercial activities (汤军, 1998; 148). To achieve commercial goals successfully, it is
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essential to use polite and appropriate language. According to Leech (Leech, 1983; 236), there is a set of Politeness Principle (PP) that socially governs communicative behavior. The Politeness Principle (PP) is formulated as follows: Minimize (other things being equal) the expression of impolite belief, and maximize (other things being equal) the expression of polite beliefs.
4.3.2 Use positive words
The meaning of word is combined with conceptual meaning and associative meaning. He former one is the core of a word and the associative meaning is a combination of a word’s emotional and stylistic meaning. Words of positive emotional meaning will deliver an unhappy feeling on readers. In English business correspondences, words of positive meaning can send people an emotion of delight, happiness and positiveness and make them feel respected, thus making words more acceptable. Therefore, in English business correspondences, words that can express gratitude and praise are often used. For instance, We would be very grateful if you could let us take delivery before the selling season. It gives us much pleasure to receive the catalogue and samples you sent us. In a word, it is more acceptable to choose words of positive meaning in English business correspondences.
4.3.3 Hedges
Hedge words are those have certain core meaning in language while not all the sense of them are definite（伍铁平, 1999;143）. They are different from semantic ambiguity. They have their unique characteristics and rich pragmatic function. Using hedge words appropriately will make correspondence language more polite instead of affecting its preciseness of language.
Hedges can be divided into two kinds. On one hand, we can use some words or expressions that can change the original meaning of discourse. For example, we can use “a little, roughly, greatly, approximately “ and etc. On the other hand, we use words that do not change the true condition of discourse but can soften the language mood (陈楚君,
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2004; 71). In commercial activities, there are some inevitably disputes that can not be avoided in the cooperation of both trading parties because of some interests conflicts and contradictions. In those situations, writers could use hedges to deliver their information more quickly in order to give both parties more space to save their trade and face, thus easily changing their way of trading. For example, the sentence “We can not agree with the price you offer.” may be changed into “I am afraid that we can not agree with the price you have set’. And in this way, your words can be more acceptable by the other party.
4.3.4 Use more modal verbs
Modal words have modal meaning and modal meaning is the courage of a verb that can express the speaker’s attitude towards and emotion to the subject he talks about. Whether the language is polite depends on whether the modal words are strong. Modal words like “could, might, would, should” and etc. more of negotiable mood that can make language mood more euphemistic and are often used in English business letters.
4.4 The lexical features represented in conciseness and completeness
4.4.1 Choice of concise wording
Writers of business English correspondences, when write a business English correspondence, redundancy of words should be avoided. Try to make the words and sentences more clear. Too many detail descriptions should also be avoided as much as possible. For example, in the sentence “We have begun to export our machine to countries abroad”, the word “export” and “countries abroad” are of the same meaning. And in this case, we suggest that “countries abroad” should be omitted. Emphatic and descriptive words are a good way to make business English correspondence more effective. Writers can choose abbreviated words in foreign trade fields that are familiar to people. Besides, the sentence structure should be concise and simple. Writers should use
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