L etter N o S alu tatio n (trans.) S alutation (C hinese) letter 1 respected read er (H) jin g q lz h e
le tter 2 0 salutation 0 sa lu tatio n
le tter 3 person in charge (H) g ü i d ä n w e i fu z e to n g z h l le tter 4 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m m g z i
le tte r 5 respected reader (H) jin g q lz h e
letter 6 M r+ su rn am e (H ) z ü n jin g d e m ö u m ö u x iä n s h e n g letter 7 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i
letter 8 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i
le tter 9 ladies and gentlem en (H) z ü n jin g d e n ü s h lm e n x iä s h e n g m e n letter 10 respected read er (H) jin g q lz h e
letter 11 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i le tter 12 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i letter 13 respected read er (H) jin g q lz h e letter 14 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i letter 15 resp ected read er (H) jin g q lz h e letter 16 0 salutation 0 sa lu tatio n
letter 17 respected read er (K) jin g q lz h e
letter 18 M r+ su rn am e (H ) z ü n jin g d e m ö u m ö u x iä n s h e n g letter 19 M r+ su rn am e m ö u m ö u x iä n s h e n g
letter 20 com pany nam e g ö n g s l m in g z i
As shown in the above table, the letters, generally speaking, tend to use honorific forms to indicate respect and politeness to the reader. This use of salutations is a typical feature of invitations. Table 8 also shows that the frequently used salutations are ‘göngsl m in g z i’ (company name) used by seven letters and ‘jin g q lz h e ’ (respected reader) used by six letters. The reason for the frequent use of company name may be that sales invitations are usually directed to companies, and the writer wants the reader to know that the company in general is invited instead of specific individuals. ‘Xing q lz h e ’ is also preferred because this is the address term that is formal and meets the standard of respect required by an invitation.
Most of the above address terms used as salutations have been discussed in the last chapter. Only one form is not covered, which is 0 salutation, or the lack of a salutation. 0
salutation does not seem to be appropriate for a letter, because a letter usually requires a salutation. This point is often stressed in letter writing manuals, such as Zhao and LÜ (1994), and Chen (1991), and salutations are also preferred by the native speakers in sales letters as discussed in the last chapter. The use of 0 salutation does not seem to be a
frequent practice in sales invitations, however, and is only used in two letters. Since
advertisements usually do not use salutations, it is possible that 0 salutation is an example of influence from advertising style. The more personal address terms found in sales letters such as ‘m ö u m ö u x iä n s h e n g ’ (Mr + surname) and ‘gui dänw ei füze td n g z h i’ (person in charge) were not very frequently used. As noted earlier, the writers seem to prefer company names to indicate an invitation to the whole company.
4.1.3 The linguistic forms used as closing moves
Closings are often written in honorific or respectful forms. Consider the following frequently used form as an example:
jin g q in g g u än g lin respectfully-invite come (H) It is an honour to invite you.
The above closing is related to an invitation as indicated in the term ‘jingqing* (respectfully invite), and is often used in invitations. It is written in honorific form, thus showing more respect to the reader than those without. This is a feature typical of an invitation in which the writer is expected to show high respect to the reader, and in this way, this kind of closing can help achieve the purpose o f relationship building between the writer and the reader as inviter and invitee.
Similar respect can also be found in forms of well-wishes, such as ‘z h ü d ä ä n ’ (wish you good health). These well-wishes are in fact representative of using ‘shangxing’ (the subordinate writing to the superior) words to indicate high respect. This usage of
‘shangxing’ lexical items in ‘pingxing’ genres has already been discussed in the last chapter as a means of showing respect. Although there are no fixed rules about what honorific forms can be used in the closing, a professional writer with appropriate world schemata would know the general guidelines and meet the level of respect required by an invitation.
The signature often takes the form of the company’s name, and the date is written at the end of the letter: a common practice in Chinese letter writing as noted in the last chapter.
4.2 Analysing the content moves
This section analyses content moves in the top-down processing of moves, steps and linguistic forms and discusses how these levels work together to realise communicative purposes. As discussed earlier, six content moves can be found in the corpus: introducing the exhibition, inviting the reader, establishing credentials, describing the exhibition, offering incentives and providing registration details. All these moves will be discussed in detail below:
4.2.1 Introducing the exhibition
Move 1, introducing the exhibition, is frequently the opening section. Among the twenty letters, nineteen (95%) begin with ‘introducing the exhibition’, only one letter (Letter 2) begins with ‘describing the exhibited product’. This move is composed of the following steps:
Step 1 Providing background information Step 2 Indicating background objectives
Step 3 Providing information about the exhibition
In the above steps, the first one is closely related to the second in that the first provides background information while the second relates to objectives arising from the background
information. Only six letters (30%) used the first step, and it does not seem to be a very common practice. Nine letters (45%) introduced the second step. Both the first and second steps can co-occur, and are used as subordinate steps for the third step ‘providing
information about the exhibition’. The third step is the most important in this move, because it introduces the main activities, and includes the name of the exhibition, and the place and time it is to be held. Therefore, all the letters included this information, and eleven letters (55%) began with Step 3. This move is mainly linked to the purpose of informing the reader about the activities. At the same time, it can also be related to other purposes such as attracting attention or interest, and relationship building. The linguistic forms used in the three steps of this move can be exemplified in the following example from the corpus:
(1) sübei diqü de q ic h e göngye xü n m en g fazh än . (2) w e ile m än zü north-Jiangsu district GNE vehicle industry quick develop in-order-to meet