Written communication across cultures : a sociocognitive perspective on business discourse / Yunxia Zhu.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Zhu, Yunxia.

Series:

Pragmatics & beyond ; new ser., v. 141.

Pragmatics & beyond, 0922-842X ; new ser., v. 141

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intercultural communication.

Business communication.

Written communication.

English language--Discourse analysis.

English language.

Chinese language--Discourse analysis.

Chinese language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (236 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub., 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Winner of ABC's award for Distinguished Publication for 2006This book explores effective written communication across cultures both theoretically and practically. Specifically it conceptualizes cross-cultural genre study and compares English and Chinese business writing collected from Australia, New Zealand and China. It is also one of those inspired by contrastive rhetoric but has contributed innovatively and uniquely by incorporating research findings from genre analysis, in particular, the sociocognitive genre perspective into this cross-cultural study. On the one hand, the endeavor represents an in-depth theoretical exploration by considering not only discourse community and cognitive structuring, but also the deep semantics of genre and intertextuality, while broadening genre study by integrating insights from cross-cultural communication as well as the Chinese perspectives. On the other hand, the book also addresses pragmatic issues. As a particular feature, it solicits professional members' intercultural viewpoints; thus confirming the shared social "stock of knowledge" employed in the culturally defined writing conventions.Last but not least, this book explores the implications for genre education and training, and develops an appropriate model for cross-cultural genre learning, which encourages learning through legitimate peripheral participation and intercultural learning in business organizations.

Contents:

Written Communication across Cultures

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Table of contents

List of figures

List of tables

Notation conventions

Preface

References

Introduction and outline

The theoretical imperatives

The rationale, aim, and research questions

The outline of the book

Note

Communication across cultures

Contrastive rhetoric

Classical Greek and Chinese rhetorical traditions

Intercultural communication

Guanxi [intext]i07 and intercultural business communication

Cross-cultural pragmatics

Face and politeness behaviour

Australian, New Zealand and the Chinese cultures

Summary of the cross-cultural dimensions

Conceptual framework

Introducing the sociocognitive study of genre

Genre as relevant "social stock of knowledge''

Genre and the sociocultural contexts

Genre practice and the discourse community

Genre as communicative events

Genre and communicative purposes

Genre and rhetorical structure

Genre and intertextuality

The Chinese genre approach

Historical review of Chinese genre study

Liu Xie's view on Chinese written discourse

Liu Xie's approach to genre study

Modern Chinese genre study

Yingyongwen [intext]i26 and gongwen [intext]i27 genre study

Proposing the model for cross-cultural genre study

Research design

The research method

Data

Questionnaire and interviews

The participants

The questionnaire

The interviews

Data analysis

Comparing English and Chinese sales letters

Sociocultural contexts for sales-letter writing

The contexts and world schemata for English sales letters

The contexts and world schemata for Chinese sales letters

Communicative purposes and persuasive orientations of sales letters

Comparing texts of sales letters.

Intertextuality and rhetorical structure in sales letters

Different moves employed by English and Chinese sales letters

Similar moves employed by English and Chinese sales letters

Summary of the textual analysis

The most effective English and Chinese sales letters

The English letter

The Chinese sales letter

Conclusion

Comparing English and Chinese sales invitations

Contexts for writing sales invitations

Other cultural factors: Politeness behaviour in invitations

Communicative purposes and persuasive orientations of sales invitations

Analysing the English and Chinese sales invitations

Intertextuality reflected in sales invitations

Intertextuality and rhetorical structure of sales invitations

Analysing the most effective sales invitations

Introducing the Expo and inviting the reader

Advertising the Expo

Offering incentives

Inviting again

Providing registration details

Encouraging further contact

Polite closing

Summary of findings on sales invitations

Comparing NZ and Chinese managers' views on sales invitations

Managers' views on the English invitation

Managers' views on the Chinese invitation

Comparing English and Chinese business faxes

Data of the English and Chinese faxes

Technological and sociocultural contexts for fax writing

Introducing fax as a genre

Persuasive orientations and communicative purposes of business faxes

An overview of types of intertextuality identified in faxes

Rhetorical structures identified in business faxes

Greetings used in faxes

Reference to previous communication/contact

Establishing credentials

Giving information

Detailing the order

Confirmation move

Giving product details

Complaint

Threat to change terms

Stressing cooperation

Good wishes.

The most effective English and Chinese faxes

Notes

Cross-cultural genre teaching

Issues relating to cross-cultural genre teaching

Genre metaphors

Genre teaching approaches

Generic competence

Applying the sociocognitive approach to teaching and learning

Illustrating the five teaching and learning processes

The experiment

Learning and comparing the sociocultural contexts

Learning persuasive orientations and communicative purposes

Learning to write texts and incorporating peripheral participation

Using authentic data and incorporating managers' views

Learning the implications for cross-cultural generic competence

Summaries and conclusions

Defining genre from a cross-cultural perspective

Summary of significant findings

The framework

Genre and sociocultural contexts

Genre, persuasive orientations and communicative purposes

Genre and its "deep semantics''

Genre as collectively programmed by the discourse community

Generic competence across cultures

Implications for genre research and intercultural competence

Further research

Closing remarks

Appendix 1. The most effectives Chinese letters

1. The most effective Chinese sales letter

2. The most effective Chinese sales invitation

3. The most effective Chinese fax

Appendix 2. Questionnaire form

A. The English version

Questionnaire on effectiveness of business writing

B. The Chinese version

Name index

Subject index

The Pragmatics &amp

Beyond New Series.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612156397

9781282156395

128215639X

9789027294104

9027294100

OCLC:

191935798