L etter N o. S alu tatio n S alutation (tran s.) letter 1 m ö u m ö u jin g f i x iä n s h e n g M r surnam e + title letter 2 p e n g y o u m e n friends
letter 3 q ln ä id e y ö n g h ü dear custom er letter 4 fu z e to n g z h i person in ch arg e letter 5 n ü s h lm e n x iä n s h e n g m e n ladies and g en tlem en letter 6 jln g q iz h e respected reader letter 7 m ö u m ö u jin g fi surnam e + title letter 8 m ö u m ö u jin g fi surnam e + title letter 9 q ln ä id e y ö n g h ü dear custom er letter 10 m ö u m ö u g ö n g s l Co. nam e le tter 11 jln g q iz h e respected reader letter 12 m ö u m ö u jin g f i surnam e + title letter 13 m ö u m ö u jin g fi surnam e + title letter 14 fü z e tö n g z h i person in charge letter 15 fü z e tö n g z h i person in charge letter 16 m ö u m ö u g ö n g s l Co. nam e letter 17 m ö u m ö u jin g f i surnam e + title le tter 18 f ü z e tö n g z h i person in ch arg e le tter 19 q ln ä id e y ö n g h ü dear custom er letter 20 f ü z e tö n g z h i person in charge
As shown in Table 4, there are eight address terms used in the corpus as salutations. They
are: ‘möumöu jingfi xiänsheng’ (Mr surname + title), ‘pengyoumen’ (friends), ‘qlnäide
yönghü’ (dear customers), ‘fuze töngzhi’ (person in charge), ‘nüshlm en xiänshengm en’
(ladies and gentlemen), ‘möumöu jingrT (surname + title), ‘jlngqizhe’ (respected reader),
and ‘möumöu göngsT (company names). The first seven sales letters all refer to persons,
by a general name such as customer, or with specific names such as surname + title.
According to Table 4, ‘Möumöu jingfi’(sumame + title) and ‘füze tongzhi’
(person in charge) are the most popular address terms, each being used in five letters. These
two address terms may have two connotations. First the writer shows respect for the reader
by naming her/his title or responsibilities at work; second, because the letter is related to
promotion, the writer wants to direct this letter to the reader who is responsible for sales
matters.
‘Qinäide yönghü’ (dear customer) and ‘nüshlmen xiänshengm en’ (ladies and
gentlemen) are very fashionable address terms that have been used since the economic
opening up in recent years. ‘Q in a id e ’ (dear) is a very westernised salutation. In Chinese culture, ‘dear’ is mainly reserved for lovers or very intimate friends. But nowadays, under western influence, more and more people are beginning to use this address term in public, both to show the speaker’s or writer’s friendly attitude, and reduce the linguistic social distance between the addresser and addressee. Three letters used ‘q ln ä id e y ö n g h ü ’, which was the third most frequent address term, because it can show both respect and indicate the purpose of promotion by calling the reader ‘y ö n g h ü ’ (customer). ‘P en g y ö u (friend) is a new address term used to replace the old-fashioned ‘tö n g z h i’ (comrade) among males, and can be used in public as a friendly address term in conversation. Despite its friendliness, this address term is the least used (only once) in the corpus, probably because it is too informal and does not indicate the appropriate level of respect.
‘J in g q lz h e ’ (respected reader) is a traditional and formal address term that was used in classical business letters. It is used only twice in the 20 sales letters. This address term is respectful as indicated in the word ‘jin g ’ (respected) and may be good for achieving respect or politeness. However, it appears to be too formal in this context. ‘Company name’ is the only address term referring to the reader as a company. This address term has an impersonal tone, and is preferred in textbooks, but not in this corpus, perhaps because company names are not very appropriate for either politeness or relationship building.
Generally speaking, as shown in the above discussion, the specific uses of formulaic components are related to realising communicative purposes, with emphasis on relationship building, achieving a positive image, and product promotion. At the same time, they also reflect the forms used in ‘pingxing’ genre where people of equal social status can show politeness and respect through address terms.
4.1.2 The linguistic forms used for other formulaic moves
Greetings are very often expressed as:nfnhäo! you-well How are you?
The above greeting is frequently used in everyday conversation or personal letters to indicate politeness. Other types of greeting are also found, such as:
(1) göngzuö m ang m a?
work busy QM
Are you busy with your work?
(2) ben göngsi q u än fi zh lg ö n g xiäng nin zhiyi! this company all staff-member to you (H) greetings All the staff members of our company express our greetings to you!
The first example as shown above is a frequent colloquial greeting to a friend. The second example is in a rather formal register indicated by ‘z h iy i’ (greetings), and is often used in written language. Both of these greetings were found in the corpus to express greetings with slightly different registers.
Well-wishes often use the form of:
(ci)zhi (jing)fi show respect With best-wishes
These well-wishes are also frequently used in personal letters to indicate a polite closing. Other types are also found in the corpus. They include:
(1) z h en zh l de zh ü y u än ! sincere GNE wish With sincere wishes!
(2) z h ü sh ly e fadä!
wish business flourish May your business flourish!
(3) y u an h ezu o ch en g g ö n g wish cooperate success
Wishing every success for our cooperation!
As shown above, the first example is very similar to ‘clzh l jin g fi’ (to show respects), but it emphasises the sincerity of the well-wishes. The second and third examples are wishes relating to business development. In the second example, ‘fa d a ’ is often considered to be a lucky expression especially for business people. In the third example, the writer expresses the wish to develop business with the reader.
In summary, both greetings and well-wishes are used to indicate politeness, and help establish a friendly relationship with the reader. They can be seen as examples of how
formulaic components are used to achieve specific communicative purposes. This also shows how formal schemata are applied in the formulaic moves.
4.2 Analysing the content moves
Content moves are analysed here in the top-down manner. As noted earlier, five moves are found in the corpus. They are the introductory section, establishing credentials, introducing the product, offering incentives and soliciting a response. Among the twenty letters, only eight (40%) begin with the introductory section and the remaining twelve (60%) all begin with either establishing credentials or introducing the product. All the five moves will be discussed in detail below.
4.2.1 The introductory section
Move 1, the introductory section,can be seen as composed of one step. This does not directly relate to sales, but prepares the way for the following section(s). This section can be subordinate information for the whole letter, as seen in the following introductory section of one letter in the corpus: