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The English Business Discourse in the Context
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2.3 The English Business Discourse in the ContextDecoding the information transferred by the intertextual devices in a business discourse demands additional intellectual efforts and the possession of some knowledge about allusions, realiaes, idioms and quotes, as well as the words and phrases containing data on social, economic, geographical and ideological factors. Non-compliance with these conditions causes the loss of mutual understanding between communicants, the loss of considerable layer of semantics loaded by the author in the oral speech or written text, failure in achieving the aim of business communication. The introduction of intertextual elements into the semantic system deviates from the norms of business discourse. They block an exchange with external environment subsystems - a communicative situation and the consciousness of participants of communication. According to the speaker’s intentions, participants of communication have to actualize deep meanings by activating the frame structures which are not connected with semantics of business and produce complex associations of emotional and aesthetic character. As a result the system attracts the new semantic components promoting the way out of discourse to a new level of semantic orderliness and the successful movement in the direction of a functional attractor. For example, the headline of the article "From Brussels, With Shove" published in the “The Economist” contains an implied reference to the popular movie "From Russia, With Love" (about adventures of the British secret agent James Bond). At the beginning of the text the author intentionally includes the elements indicating the additional semantic plan with “coded" information: Just as Hollywood blockbusters tend to spawn sequels, financial regulations do not usually stop at the first effort. For years insurers, actuaries and consultants have awaited the premiere of Solvency 2, UN updated regulatory regime that sets out tougher risk-management and capital requirements for European insurers. Originally planned for October of this year, its launch is now expected in January 2014. So there is still time for lobbying to pay off. (From Brussels, With Love//The Economist. - April 7th 2012. P. 85). The words Hollywood, blockbusters, sequels and premiere belong to the semantic field of cinema and are closely connected with the heading of the article. The phrase From Brussels, With Shove which is foregrounded in a strong position structurally and phonetically reminds the name of the spy thriller having nothing in common with a serious discussion of innovations in insurance industry. The violation of an adequate interaction with the external space and emergence of functional fluctuations make the system of discourse intensify the exchange processes with readers by activating their knowledge of cinema. As a result, destructive semantic components tend to be neutralized and the discursive system acquires new semantic components which correlate with the phrase time for lobbying used at the end of the passage. The integration of deviant elements in the business discourse forms cognitive pragmatic effect of the author’s arguments and provides the evolutionary movement of the semantic system towards the knowledge structures highlighting the idea that all persons involved in the project Solvency 2 could face different intrigues and unexpected changes in lobbying their business interests. In general, the headline with the intertextual element is not typical of business publications. But this fact allows the author to modify discourse pragmatics in the most favorable way and fix the main idea in the original linguistic form. Introduction of allusive elements in the semantic space of the English business discourse is regarded as one of the most effective language tools for creating irony which has a great pragmatic potential in business communication. The impact which is made on the addressees of a message demonstrates the effectiveness of the combined use of irony and allusion. This may be exemplified by the article "Uphill work" published in The Economist. The article is devoted to the forthcoming entry into force of the bank agreement. The author's ironical rhetoric based on the combination of allusion and simile, which compares the activity of Basel committee with heavy (the committee has been sweating) and unnecessary Sisyphean task, provides achieving the pragmatic effect of disbelief in the productivity of the document under discussion. Sisyphus was lucky. He could have wound up on the Basel committee. Since 1999 the committee has been sweating over the Basel 2 accord, regulatory framework that guides how much capital banks should set aside to cover the level of risk they face. An end is finally in sight... Like other regulators, Basel committee was already looking at liquidity risk before credit markets became strangled: working group on the topic is to report before the end of the year. Sisyphus would have sympathized. (Uphill work//The Economist. - September 8th - 14th 2007. - P. 70.) The use of mythological character Sisyphus at the beginning of the article strengthens the interaction of discourse with external environment. The allusive nomination activates background knowledge connected with the story about an endless and ineffective Sisyphean task. The semantic components coming into the semantic system contradict the functionally unacceptable adjective lucky which contrast with an image of the unfortunate martyr. The deviation is intensified by the comparison of a personal pronoun he representing Sisyphus to the phrase the Basel committee that has a direct relation to the topic of the article. The work of Basel committee which had begun in 1999 was delayed and there was a wide range of problems to be solved. The element has been sweating draws parallels between the efforts made by the working group for the preparation of this contract and the work of Sisyphus who was doomed toendlessly roll a huge boulder up a steep hill. The author also shows that the task of Sisyphus seems to be much more perspective (would have sympathized). The exaggeration of this kind increases the general expressiveness of the narration and indicates the ironical character of the whole text. As a result, the discourse acquires the emergent properties that orient the recipients towards a critical interpretation of the current situation. The functional semantic component is not explicitly verbalized but it is easily perceived by the participants: the sentence An end is finally in sight contains the hidden hint on the possibility of its endless continuation. By means of integration of the formal structure of the text and its implicit information the author of article in an allegorically ironic form expresses his negative attitude to the efforts of Basel Committee. In this case the author avoids the deviation from the norms of professional ethics, but somehow violates the rules of speech behavior in business communication. By combining the intertextual elements with an ironic manner of narration a speaker/writer has an opportunity to make the readers critically interpret the information through the use of negatively charged words and activation of the concepts and frames antonymous to business communication. In the article In praise of usury (The Economist) devoted to the analysis of system oflending to poor people, the author makes use of persuading rhetoric strategy by foregrounding the word usury which has a negative connotative meaning: In Dante's "Divine Comedy", usurers are consigned to a flaming desert of sand within the seventh circle of hell. Attitudes have since softened a bit. Micro creditors, who offer small loans to self-employed poor people, enjoy hallowed reputations. One has even ascended to the rank of a Nobel laureate. (In praise of usury // The Economist. - August 4th - 10th 2007. - P. 66.). By using the allusive reference to "The divine comedy" by Dante, the author ridicules the high public status of people who were called usurers several centuries ago. The mention of the Dante's "Divine Comedy" in the context of the serious economic analysis breaks an adequate interaction of a business discourse with a communicative situation. The functional and stylistic deviant forms intensify the exchange processes in the minds of recipients. The author makes them remember the contents of the comedy by activating concepts of religion, hell and mortal sin. The semantic components cooperate with the deviant discursive elements a flaming desert of sand and orient the readers towards the criticizing the people who are engaged in the kind of business. But in the next sentence the system deviates from the initial direction of semantic development under the influence of the phrase softened a bit. Its ironic effect is highlighted by the contrast opposition of usurers - micro creditors which conveys opposite evaluative information: the seventh circle of hell -hallowed reputation. This opposition indicates the evolution (ascended) of an image of the creditor from the sinner, whose place is already fixed in the seventh circle of a hell, to the saint respected by people. In recent years the authors of regularly published bulletins of the International Monetary Fund tend to add the epigraphs to the texts. This technique allows the addressees to receive the verbalized information at a deeper level taking into account the modal (evaluative) components introduced by the author’s personality. The material "Trade and Thy Neighbor's War" is preceded by citing the words of Benjamin Franklin "All wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous ones". The business lexicon is not involved in this statement, and there is no direct reference to any coincidence of communicative intension of the American president and scientist with a pragmatic aim of the analyzed document. However, despite that, the foregrounding of the word war in both headline and epigraph, semantic correlation of the elements Trade and expensive belonging to the semantic field of trade and prices, form the stable logical-associative links which introduce the aphorism in the context of disputes over the influence of international and local conflicts on the economic sphere. In general, the epigraph is perceived as preliminary verbalization. It significantly facilitates the perception of factual information. In other material of the IMF published under heading "Financial Sector Conditionality: Is Tougher Better?", authors open the discussion of problems of the banking sector with two different quotes: the statement of the outstanding financier Stanley Fischer ("... it is important that ownership of any banking sector program stays with the country itself.") and the words of the ancient Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius ("What is food to one man is bitter poison to others."). The special structural salience of both epigraphs against the background of other parts of the text containing the dry economic analysis of the current situation in the sphere of credit institutes draws the attention of readers and creates good conditions for reception of crucial components at the beginning of semantic development of a business discourse. If the first quotation is in harmony with subject of the document and causes insignificant stylistic deviations in the interaction with a communicative situation, the second part of an epigraph considerably makes the discursive system chaotic, without being coordinated with the requirements of a traditional genre rules. Intertextual elements are extensively used in the publications of some other leading financial institutions, for example, the Federal Reserve Bank of the USA (International Journal of Central Banking). The report entitled "Discussion of "of Get Real: Interpreting Nominal Exchange Rate Fluctuations” of the famous economist Hans-Helmut Kotz begins with the quote from the founder of the neoclassical economics Alfred Marshall of "Facts never tell their own story". The semantic elements of the quote discord with the semantic system which is set by the title of the text. The weak functional deviations promote an intensification of exchange processes with the recipients who provide the semantic system with new pragmatic components of persuasiveness and academism. Headings of articles and documents where they act as an obligatory structural element can be a rich source of examples of intertextual elements for the optimization of semantic system of an English business discourse. As a rule, titles attract readers to the text, focus their attention on a semantic thematic dominant and serve one of primary operators of modification of pragmatic space [110], [111]. All range of semantics of some titles is easily caught by readers without detailed acquaintance with the content of material, implication of other titles tend to be revealed only after reading and the careful analysis of all text. The integration of the semantic components in the structure of allusions provides non-standard diversification of the foregrounding concepts, frames and background knowledge, bringing a variety to conventional business discourse and attracting absolutely new components sufficient for transition to higher level of orderliness. The heading of the article "The Rip van Winkle of Risk" telling about activity of the world famous insurance company Lloyd's is based on a successful use of allusion. AnthroponymRip van Winkle in combination with a definite article causes the small functional and stylistic fluctuations strengthening an exchange with environment and activating the information about a literary work. As a result the system obtains the new semantic components which determine the direction of semantic development of discourse. A tough competition in this sphere of business forced this company to make new attempts to modernize its activity to fully meet the requirements of the XXI century. Only the acquaintance of a reader with the contents of the article can reveal the author’s idea about drawing parallels between the hero of the of W. Irving’s story awakened from a deep sleep and the company Lloyd's suddenly realizing that cannot keep up to date. The title is filled with a new sense due to active processes of semantic self-organization and exchanging with external environment and promotes successful advance to a functional attractor - thought that the future of this enterprise is in a serious danger. And if the company does not manage to correct its image in time and to change its strategy, more modern companies will be able to redistribute the market in their favor. The author of article "Subdivide and Conquer" in the popular Australian business magazine "Australian Property Investor" intentionally makes a reference to a widely known Latin saying Divide and conquer (Divide et impera) - divide and dominate. Modification of the first element by means of addition of a prefix and change of a word meaning fills the name of the text with the new meaning actualizing in a subtitle: "This month we look at the tax consequences of subdividing a property that you’ve owned for a purpose other than subdivision into vacant lots of land for sale". Within the functional space of a business discourse semantic fields of lexemes conquer and subdivide discords with each other. The arising fluctuations start internal self-organizational processes. If a recipient possesses the sufficient level of a vertical context and is familiar with the mentioned saying, there arise the new semantic components which stabilize the system and bring it to the new level of orderliness. As a result, the idea of high profitability of disaggregation of real estate tends to be formed. This kind of device aimed at producing the communicative effect is used in the article "To List or Not to List" of the New Zealand business magazine “NZ Business”. The functional fluctuations resulting from modification of the quote from W. Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" intensify the exchange processes between discursive system and consciousness of readers, drawing attention of audience to the publication and marking a high value of the problem under discussion. The name of the bulletin of the IMF "As You Sow So Shall You Reap: Public Investment Surges, Growth, and Debt Sustainability in Togo" contains a popular proverb: “As you sow so shall you reap” originating in the Bible and predicting to everyone requital on deeds. The proverb in the heading of the official document deregulates a discourse, provoking functional and stylistic fluctuations due to blocking the exchange with the external environment. The adequate interaction with communicants provides nonlinear perception of the elements of the proverb if the recipients have sufficient thesaurus for identification of the intertextual "signal" sent by authors. Alliteration (Sow, So, Investment, Surges, Sustainability) unites both parts of the title in a whole, giving it expressiveness and strengthening the communicative pragmatic effect of approval of a deserved success. The analysis of factual data allows us to draw a conclusion that allusions in the headings of business documents or articles violate the norms of a business discourse, causing the functional and stylistic fluctuations. Thus, the recipients have associations of the substantial and/or emotional character. Due to these associations a deeper level of penetration into the main idea of a text can be achieved. In addition, they stimulate the readers to activate a wide range of knowledge structures and literary competence for the purpose of adequate understanding of the message. The inclusion of intertextual elements into the semantic system provides a business discourse with a wider range of meanings and catalyzes its semantic-stylistic evolution. The impact made by the system on the external environment activates various layers of background knowledge, concepts and frames which are not connected to business and have more personal character. As a result, the system receives the new components which are crucial for persuasive rhetoric, and the discourse acquires the spontaneous functional properties giving the speaker an opportunity to convince communicants and establish an effective contact with them, by realizing main objectives of communication. The discourse represents an integral part of public relations and forms these relations. Business discourse as interaction of social groups and individuals should be studied within the context of social structures and the cultural factors covering human values and mentality of society. Business discourse tends to reflect the conditions of professional groups and the rules of speech etiquette. Successful implementation of business communication assumes mastering skills, values and norms of both special and ordinary socio-cultural areas, including knowledge of norms and rules of communication. Metaphor serves as one of the most powerful rhetorical tools oriented towards a long term impact on the addressee. The use of metaphor considerably increases the pragmatic potential of the statement. The use of metaphor as rhetorical device in English business discourse varies depending on a concrete genre, degree of officiality of communication and form of communication. Metaphor is more actively used in a written type of discourse. Intertextuality in business discourse demands additional intellectual efforts and possession of a wide vertical context including different knowledge of certain facts of socio-cultural character, words realia, idioms, quotes, etc. The use of intertextual devices in business discourse strengthens the interaction of discursive space with an external environment. The intertextual nomination activates background knowledge structures representing universal or culture-specific factors. The integration of the semantic components in the structure of allusions provides non-standard diversification of the foregrounding concepts, frames and background knowledge, bringing a variety to conventional business discourse and attracting absolutely new components sufficient for transition to higher level of orderliness. In general, intertextuality in the headings of the official documents tends to violate the norms of business discourse by provoking functional and stylistic deviations. The adequate interaction with communicants provides a successful perception of semantic-stylistic elements if the recipients have sufficient thesaurus for identification of the intertextual "signal" sent by authors. Thus, allusions in the headings of business documents or articles violate the norms of a business discourse, causing the functional and stylistic fluctuations. Thus, the recipients have associations of the substantial and/or emotional character. Due to these associations a deeper level of penetration into the main idea of a text can be achieved. In addition, they stimulate the readers to activate a wide range of knowledge structures and literary competence for the purpose of adequate understanding of the message. Cognitive study of discourse has developed several areas and set their own objectives for exploring different knowledge structures involved in the discursive activity. One of these areas combines research works related to the modeling of cognitive processes of formation and perception of discourse. The attention of another area is focused on the study of knowledge structures, as well as the ways of knowledge storage, processing and retrieval in the course of discursive activity. In addition, the study of knowledge structures and information processing necessary for the implementation of the discursive interaction of people can be viewed as a separate area of cognitive discourse analysis. Each of these areas makes its own contribution to the development of general cognitive theory of discourse. Business discourse has a number of specific characteristics distinguishing it from other institutional types of discourse. Business discourse reveals its own cognitive, communicative, pragmatic, lexical, syntactic, textual, composite, visual-graphic, normative, stylistic and other features. Generally, business discourse is treated as intercultural communication, cross-cultural negotiations, business meetings (e-mails, reports, letters etc.). The specificity of business discourse has led to the introduction of “Business Linguistics” as a separate discipline within the framework of applied linguistics. Business Linguistics studies the language functioning in business and the linguistic component of business communication. The methodology of this new discipline should involve traditional research methods of discourse and of text as its result, discourse analysis, conversation analysis, empirical-descriptive and comparative techniques, cognitive, pragmatic and genre-style analysis, etc. The English business discourse belongs to the institutional type which is understood as a specialized clichéd sphere of communication between people who have to communicate according to the norms of the society. Institutional character of English business discourse is displayed by the fact that the participants of business communication traditionally act as the representatives of particular legal entities and/or the carriers of clearly identified social and professional status, they take their own place in the hierarchy. The semi-official business communication is characterized by a smaller conventionality and rituality, the use of smaller quantity of professional lexicon and clichéd expressions, frequent application of the colloquial, stylistically marked words and expressions, humor, irony, owing to the personal relations between participants of communication. The specific features of English-speaking business communication impose essential restrictions on the use of verbal funds allocated for modification of a communicative situation and producing pragmatic impact on a partner. Planning of functional prospect of an English business discourse (with consideration of the existing norms, traditions, rules and requirements) is in close connection with the strategy and tactics of communication. The application of cognitive approach to exploring business discourse tends to develop the communicative-pragmatic aspects of a language sign, deeper understanding of socio-cultural specifics of the business communication. Successful implementation of business communication requires mastering both language system and conceptual system which includes representations, skills, values and norms of special and ordinary socio-cultural areas, as well as knowledge of norms and rules of communication. Such knowledge accumulates into a global frame of an institutional business discourse on the basis of formation of the corresponding institutional frames and tends to be structured by means of specially selected texts containing frame presupposition. Thus, the study of business discourse, undoubtedly, demands an appeal to extra linguistic factors, and also takes into account cognitive, cultural and social interpretations. Since both cultural and social parameters have a significant impact on speech activity by means of cognitive system of the business communicant. Metaphor serves as one of the most powerful rhetorical tools producing a long-term influence. However its use in business communication, as a rule, involves violation of a number of postulates that can lead to a dereglamentation of the discourse type. Metaphorization as a cognitive operation 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. 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" of 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. A frequent use of metaphor as rhetorical device in the English business discourse varies depending on a concrete genre, degree of formality 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 communication is explained by their considerable potential for effective explaining various phenomena and processes taking place in economic sphere. The introduction of intertextual elements into the semantic system deviates from the norms of business discourse. They block an exchange with external environment subsystems - a communicative situation and the consciousness of participants of communication. According to the speaker’s intentions, participants of communication have to actualize deep meanings by activating the frame structures which are not connected with semantics of business and produce complex associations of emotional and aesthetic character. As a result the system attracts the new semantic components promoting the way out of discourse to a new level of semantic orderliness and the successful movement in the direction of a functional attractor. Introduction of allusive elements into the semantic space of the English business discourse is regarded as one of the most effective language tools for creating irony which has a great pragmatic potential in business communication. The analysis of factual data allows us to draw a conclusion that allusions in the headings of business documents or articles violate the norms of a business discourse, causing the functional and stylistic fluctuations. Thus, the recipients have associations of the substantial and/or emotional character. Due to these associations a deeper level of penetration into the main idea of a text can be achieved. In addition, they stimulate the readers to activate a wide range of knowledge structures and literary competence for the purpose of adequate understanding of the message. The inclusion of intertextual elements into the semantic system provides a business discourse with a wider range of meanings and determined its semantic-stylistic evolution. The impact made by the system on the external environment activates various background knowledge structures, concepts and frames which are not connected to business and have more personal character. жүктеу/скачать 379 Kb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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