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The Cognitive Semantic and Stylistic Features of English Business Discourse
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2.2 The Cognitive Semantic and Stylistic Features of English Business DiscourseIn recent years, the orientation towards a more frequent use of the stylistic device of a metaphor has begun to dominate in the English business discourse. This fact gives the opportunity to a speaker/writer to verbalize the ideas and thoughts in the bright, convincing and expressional form which easily draws and keeps the attention of communicants. According to the experts in the field of rhetoric, metaphor serves one of the most powerful rhetorical tools producing a long-term influence. [83, p.52]. However its use in business communication, as a rule, involves violation of a number of postulates of G. P. Grice (a maxim of relevance and completeness of information) that can lead to the semantic-stylistic deviations of the discourse type. S. A. Pankratova defines metaphorization as the cognitive operation which is carried out on the basis of the common lexical stock and background knowledge structures and establishes the connection between two semantic areas in such a way that the familiar properties of the auxiliary subject are projected by the analogy on less studied properties of the main subject [84:3]. Nowadays, the study of metaphor is the central problem in different areas of linguistics - stylistics, semantics, pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, etc. [85] – [109]. The ability to use metaphor which has gradually developed from means of decoration of speech into an effective non-standard device of business rhetoric, may be considered as the most necessary technique for any modern businessman. At the beginning of the article Stormy Weather (covering Economic forum in Davos in 2009) in the popular American weekly news magazine Time, the author makes use of metaphors to describe a deplorable condition of world economy in the middle of financial crisis: It was, for a few years in the middle of this decade, trope that you heard all the time. The global economy, it was said, was a "Goldilocks" one. Just like the bowl of porridgethat the child in the fairy tale sampled, it was neither too hot, nor too cold. It was - wonderfully, warmly - just right. It’s worth thinking how that analogy might be extended into our times. The global economy, you might say, now resembles the sort of congealed, cold, gray, glutinous bowl of oatmeal, curling up at the edges, that was once found in the lesser sort of Scottish boarding houses, with a couple of flies dancing a lazy highland reel on its surface. It is, in short, not an appetizing site. (Elliott M. Stormy Weather//Time. - February, 2 2009. P. 37) Preceding the main text of the article which is devoted to the consequences of a long crisis and the world leaders’ attempts to recover from it, the author describes the condition of world economy several years before the financial crisis. This kind of description allows him to show the completeness of negative consequences from the changes in economy by means of metaphorical comparison of a financial state with the bowl of porridge. The elements The Goldilocks, bowl of porridge, child and fairy tale that are included into the semantic system of the fragment of a business discourse cooperate with the lexeme trope used in the first statement and cause some stylistic contrast (fluctuations) in the gravity of both the periodical and the topic of article. As a respond to these fluctuations we can observe the interaction of discursive system with the external environment - consciousness of the readers familiar with a tale about the Goldilocks. As a result the additional positive pragma-semantic components are involved in the text and the communicants form the thoughts that a few years ago there was nothing signifying the economic problems which were to be solved at The World Economic Forum in Davos. Moving to the description of a current economic situation, the author continues to develop successfully this metaphor combining it with other stylistic devices that deregulate the business discourse norms and strengthen the negative pragmatics and expressivity of a fragment: alliteration (congealed, cold, curling; gray, glutinous; lesser, sort, Scottish, houses; couple, flies, lazy, highland, reel), the words relating to the semantic field of tasteless food (congealed, cold, gray, glutinous bowl of oatmeal, curling up at the edges; not an appetizing site), the ironic description of the flies dancing to Scottish music in a plate (with a couple of flies dancing a lazy highland reel on its surface). Consecutive forming of all the elements of rhetoric allows the author to generate successfully the pragmatic effect, and thanks to a synergy of various leveled linear and nonlinear language means, to create the new attractor perceived by all recipients at the minimum expense of efforts - the idea which is visually illustrated by means of a metaphor about the bad economic situation which needs an urgent recovery. The use of metaphor considerably increases the pragmatic potential of the statement, producing the impact on the recipients by strengthening the exchange processes between the system of meanings and its external environment, and also by catalyzing synergic processes of pragma-semantic self-organization and "movement" of functional links of a discourse towards the communicative purpose. In the article "Shifting the Burden" the author applies the metaphor to manipulate the minds of target audience and to create the effective semantic space of a discourse: When Hercules wanted to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides he offered a trade with Atlas, titan who was holding up the heavens. Hercules would assume the burden for a bit if Atlas would fetch the apples, which were guarded by a many-headed monster. When Atlas returned, Hercules had to trick him into taking back his load. The story can be seen as an analogy for the debt crisis. In a bid to prevent economic collapse the public sector has taken on some of the debt burden of the private sector. But in the medium term governments need to persuade the private sector to become the engine of the economic growth once more. (Shifting the Burden//The Economist. - April 10, 2010. - P. 74) Preceding the main text, the author points out the interrogative statement as a subtitle "Governments have taken the debt strain, but can they get rid of it?", which adjusts readers to perceive the serious analysis of a problem of the debt obligations assumed by the governments of the countries to minimize the damage from a destructive economic crisis in the middle of the 2000th. However, the elements such as Hercules, golden apples of the Hesperides, Atlas, many-headed monster belong to the semantic field of Ancient Greek mythology which is not typical of business communication and does not correspond to the vector of evolutionary development of semantic system, contrasting with the lexical units governments and debt strain. The functional and stylistic fluctuations tend to amplify as a result of violation of an exchange between a discourse and its external environment. The link interfering crash of the whole system is the phrase shifting the burden which is foregrounded in a strong position and thus causing the ambiguity in the narration. Activation of internal synergy processes of self-organization and strengthening of interaction with the minds of readers bring the system to a qualitatively new level of semantic development. Spontaneously arising functional properties are connected with drawing the addressees attention to the ambiguous character of headline and the opportunity to interpret the contents of the first paragraph as an attempt made to comprehend the realities of the modern economic world through metaphorical comparison with the legend of Heracles who resorted to cunning for the sake of performing an act of heroic virtue. The direction of the movement of functional links of a discourse is fixed by including the element analogy into the system against the background of the repeating nomination burden and a number of lexical units of business English (debt crisis, economic collapse, public sector, private sector, economic growth). Due to using metaphor, in the minds of readers there are fixed strong logical associative and synonymic links between separate components of a metaphor and its explanation in the second part of a fragment: Hercules: public sector/governments; Atlas: private sector and to persuade:: to trick into. The last analogy can serve as a hint on the possibility of unfair play by the financial leaders of the countries in relation to the private sector. Thus, the attractor of business discourse fragment does is not verbalized, but, on condition of due judgment and the existence of a certain stock of background knowledge, is perceived by all the addressees: having solved the major problems, the government will try to rest the responsibility for the way out a crisis on shoulders of private business that is capable to cause new undesirable consequences. The metaphor represents one of the most effective tools for producing a pragmatic impact on communicants based on complex nonlinear interaction of linearly built discursive elements which belong to the semantic fields having no relations to business sphere. Cooperating with each other, such elements discord with the current stage of system development and block an exchange with the external environment - a communicative situation. Functional fluctuations influence the intellectual sphere of participants of communication by activating various layers of background knowledge without which "decoding" metaphor is impossible. The result of a simple linear summing of discursive elements is exposed to dissipation, departing on the periphery of the minds of addressees, from which the system attracts the additional semantic components defining successful advance of a business discourse towards a functional attractor. In the book “Funky Business. Talent Makes Capital Dance", while describing the current situation in world economy the authors add the components of complex metaphor - the lexical units relating to a semantic field of theater – to the semantic system of one of fragments: The world is a stage. We all play roles - organizations as well as individuals. But instead of conventional costume drama, we now have constant, unscripted, improvised theater. The director has left, original play has been cancelled and the script is missing. The spectators are pouring on to the stage, joining the actors, demanding leading roles. Boundaries are blurring. Every role is vacant. Old rules no longer exist - the goodies and the baddies are the same person. Everything is up for grabs. We are all contributors to the new society developing in front of our eyes. It is horrifying. It is fantastic. It is frightening. It is fun. It is depressing. It is weird. It is the funky village. (K. Nordstrom, J. Ridderstrale. Funky Business. Talent Makes Capital Dance - P. 55). The elements stage, play roles, costume drama, theater, director, actors and spectators correlate with each other, but contradict the current stage of the development of semantic system and communicative situation and cause functional fluctuations under the impact of internal processes and environment of a discourse. During the self-organization of the semantic system which starts as a countermeasure, counteracting randomization process, the interaction with such subsystem of environment as consciousness of readers tends to develop. To establishing the balance the author makes use of pragma-semantic components of figurativeness (imagery) expressing the implied comparison of the financial situation with poorly staged play. The elements with negative pragmatics unscripted, improvised, has left, has been cancelled, is missing, are pouring, are blurring promote the formation of negatively charged functional space. The persuasive effect of this space is amplified by the synergy of other deviant factors of business discourse: the opposition of informal antonyms goodies and baddies, and the combination of anaphora and alliteration in the lexemes with contextually opposed meanings (front, horrifying, fantastic, frightening, fun, funky). As a result, the consistently and elaborately built functional prospect of a discourse promotes the readers critical attitude toward the current economic situation and the desire to begin the search for its stabilization. The examples of functional and pragmatic deviation in the English business discourse by using metaphors are met in various genres and communicative situations. For example, the materials of the International Monetary Fund which differ with a very formal academic analysis of serious economic problems, quite often serve as an illustration of functional and stylistic deviations determined by deformation of a strict official form and the use of a bright and figurative expressions for representing the factual information. Recent research indicates that the benefits of more flexible exchange rate regimes increase as economies develop economically and institutionally and become more integrated in global financial markets. However, notwithstanding the risk of currency crises under pegged regimes and the macroeconomic benefits in terms of growth and inflation performance that flexible regimes have conferred in industrial countries, "fear of floating" appears to remain in EM countries. (D.S. Hakura. Are Emerging Market Countries Learning to Float? // The IMF Working Paper. - 2005. - No. 98). In the above given passage the decrease in the officiality and the orientation towards an emotional and intellectual influence are realized through the use of metaphor comparing the unwillingness of the countries with the backward markets to change the currency policy with a groundless fear of the person who is not able to swim (fear of floating). According to the author's idea, it is enough to overcome oneself and to make a few efforts to learn to float successfully. The expressiveness of simile is amplified due to the alliteration functioning as the additional operator of pragmatic modification (benefits, inflation, performance, flexible, conferred, fear, floating). Thanks to the processes of self-organization of a business discourse arising in response to functional fluctuations, absolutely new properties are shown. As a result the author manages to create the pragmatic effect of disapproval of the economic situation in developing countries and considerable advantage industrially developed states. The frequent use of metaphor as rhetorical device in the English business discourse varies depending on a concrete genre, degree of officiality of communication and a form of communication. The analysis of illustrative material testifies that metaphors are more actively used in written types of discourse because the addressee has more time and opportunities to think over dynamics of functional communications between statements, to carry out selection of necessary linear and nonlinear language means, to build them in a certain sequence. However, quite often metaphor is used in an oral form of business communication. The active use of metaphors in oral business language is explained by their considerable potential for effective explaining various phenomena and processes taking place in economic sphere. This fact helps to diversify and recover the boring narration of factual information. For example, Peter Fischer, the vice-president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, organized his speech at the international forum "Financial markets: Coping with Turbulence", by using several metaphors: The overall topic I want to address is the problem that we have not spent quite enough time on diagnosis and we may have moved to prescription a little too quickly. Now let me get into that first by discussing the problem of metaphor. The problem that we've identified is contagion and the remedy that we've come up with is architecture. Now most of us learned somewhere in our teenage years that buildings do not stop germs. But I think, therefore, we have to come back and think a little harder. If our basic diagnosis was right, first thrust that the problem is contagion, I think we better not rush and call in the engineers and the architects too quickly, but work a little more on the biological metaphor. Now let me be clear. I like the biological metaphor. I find it very helpful that when we look at markets, we are looking at the interaction of independent organisms with one another in a highly complex ecosystem like environment. The biological metaphor also helps us understand that in the natural order, natural order can produce continuous adjustment process with a range of equilibriums and indeed that some of them we do not like very much, but we really, in the biological world we do not make moral judgments about these. The natural order, though, produces some outcomes we would admit to be bad. It produces diseases and things we do not like. But in grappling with our understanding of the subject, we TR to avoid moral judgments of that kind. Now I also like the biological or medical metaphor because it reminds us to begin where doctors do, do no harm. Now, of course, it's important to keep in mind how much doctors failed in that regard for several millennia. A friend of my family spent his life studying the history of the wound, three millennia of science directed at trying to treat open flesh. And his conclusion was that until 1945, you were better off not seeing a doctor. So for two millennia doctors were taking an oath to do no harm and every time there was an open wound they did harm. Now, let me be clear. I do not mean to cast stones at my hosts. You've mentioned that I'm the manager of the System Open Market Account. I'm sure that a hundred years from now or so people will look back at my role in organizing foreign exchange intervention as one of the great voodoo doctors of the 20th century in a long line who thought by adjusting the foreign exchange asset composition of my balance sheet I would somehow stabilize markets. So I think we all have to suffer with the problem of jumping too quickly to prescription and come back to trying to do no harm and working on, as I like to think of it, biological metaphor, metaphor about ecosystems. (IMF Economic Forum Financial markets: Coping With Turbulence//http) Fischer begins his speech with the statement of a problem. However the words diagnosis and prescription used by him are able "to disorient" listeners because they belong to the semantic field of medicine, and are therefore more characteristic of absolutely different type of discourse. To minimize functional fluctuations and to clarify the meaning of the words, the speaker includes the element metaphor which strengthens the exchange processes with external environment - consciousness of communicants, also serves as an evident marker of existence of the second semantic plan actualized not by simple summing of primary semantics of externally destructive units, but by nonlinear interaction of semantic components. Thus, we can observe the comparison of the anti-crisis measures undertaken by financiers with premature treatment of the patient by the doctor who did not take care of the most exact diagnosis. As a result, the words contagion, remedy, germs coordinate with the current stage of semantic development of system, describing dangerous character of the developed economic situation when the problems in one financial branch can lead to the emergence of undesirable consequences for other branches. However the other specific element architecture confuses the pragma-semantic system and promotes emergence of considerable fluctuations strengthened by its contrast with functionally opposite element remedy (the remedy that we've come up with is architecture). The internal synergic mechanisms of self-organization intensify an exchange with consciousness of listeners who possess the sufficient background knowledge, have to remember "an architectural metaphor", which is popular in the business environment and used while describing the international financial system. To strengthen the expressiveness of his speech and produce a pragmatic impact on listeners, Fischer operates with functionally contradictory components of two metaphors, clashing them in several statements (buildings do not stop germs; basic diagnosis, contagion:: call in the engineers and the architects). The ironical effect that is produced by the use of these words forms the disbelief pragmatics for the efficiency of the measures taken by financiers to recover from crisis. Spontaneously arising functional properties bring pragma-semantic system to the new level of semantic orderliness. Stating his own viewpoint, the speaker highlights the components of the third, "biological" metaphor which is aimed to facilitate the understanding of a position of Fischer by to the communicants. The elements organisms, highly complex ecosystem, environment, natural order, equilibriums closely cooperate with each other and create an image of economy as the complex balanced ecosystem living under laws of the nature assuming natural emergence of various negative, "non-staff" situations. The frequent use the word doctor against the background of repetition of the elements harm and wound emphasizes parallels between the work of businessmen and the work of doctors who are guided by the main principle not to do harm to the patient. This fact increases the force of influence of discursive system on the medium, highlights negative pragmatics and fixes a vector of the evolutionary movement of a discourse towards the functional attractor. The communicative purpose is verbalized in the last offer, but is coded by means of the language means which are fixed in the structure of two metaphors - "biological" and "medical". Before undertaking any measures, it is necessary to apply the balanced approach to a problem taking into account all possible consequences. Using the interconnected system of metaphors, Peter Fischer reaches a unique semantic and emotional unity of his speech. The key elements of three metaphors which are widespread in a business discourse connect the statements within the complex functional whole and form the pragmatic space which effectively influences the minds of participants of a forum. Figurativeness and expressiveness facilitate the reception of the main ideas of the speaker who skillfully masters the language. The similar example can be met in the article "What You Don’t Wish after Selling Your Business" in the Canadian business magazine The Canadian BusinessJournal. The author builds a discourse around the metaphor comparing the professional and personal growth of the businessman to long and laborious process of looking after a tree: жүктеу/скачать 379 Kb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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