At the beginning of this sentence, the writer takes the initiative to admit his carelessness, which enlarges the degree of agreement and lessens the degree of disagreement. In the latter part, the writer employs a passive voice sentence and further expresses his /her apology, which lets the other party firmly believe that the mistake is not made on purpose. It adheres to Leech?s agreement maxim, that is, minimize disagreement between self and other: maximize agreement between self and other. As a result of this, disagreement is eliminated.
3.6 Application of Sympathy Maxim
In Leech?s definition, sympathy maxim means that minimize antipathy between self and other, in other words, maximize sympathy between self and other.
The key of sympathy maxim is to express the shared feeling between self and other. In the process of international trade, sympathy maxim is usually adopted to show one party?s sympathy to the other who is suffering much loss. For example:
(6) “We regret these faulty goods were sent to you and have today sent a replacement, we hope you will be pleased with the new lot.”
In this case, the writer has made a mistake, that is, to send the faulty goods to the client, so at the beginning of this letter, the writer uses “We
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regret” to show his /her apology and sympathy, and then he puts forward a method to solve this problem, and at last the writer makes the use of the sentence “we hope you will be pleased with…”to express his/her attitude that he/she wishes that his/her counterpart would be satisfied. Meantime, the writer chooses passive voice “faulty goods were sent to you” not “we sent you faulty goods”, which can arouse much more sympathy of the other party. This passive voice sentence fully indicates that the writer is not on purpose and it makes the reader forgive his/her counterpart more easily. This adheres to Leech?s sympathy maxim, that is, minimize antipathy between self and other, in other words, maximize sympathy between self and other, which sets a solid foundation for the friendly business relationships.
The detailed analysis of the application of six maxims within passive voice in Politeness Principle is really important and effective in achieving negotiating goals. Thus, both parties in business negotiation must learn to use it correctly and effectively.
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Conclusion
As business correspondence becomes more and more important in the broader and deeper development of business, more and more scholars and businessmen realize the significance of using right principles to promote the smooth advance of business correspondence. Politeness Principle, as one of the most important principles adopted in business correspondence has grasped the interests of more and more scholars and businessmen and also is studied in details by them. Politeness Principle, by combining with the application of passive voice, is proved to be very useful and effective in helping negotiating parties achieve the business negotiating goals.
This thesis, through the study of cases of business correspondence, analyzes the application of six maxims within passive voice in business correspondence and the important functions of passive voice. With the further development of business correspondence, more and more concrete strategies should be studied in future research to help the negotiating parties achieve the negotiating goals.
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Leech G.N., Principles of Pragmatics, London: Longman, 1983． Stephen C. Levinson, Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press, 2001． Yule G., Pragmatics, London: Oxford University Press, 1996. 曹问雄．《语用学翻译研究》．武汉大学出版社, 2006． 莫再树．《商务英语写作》．北京：国防出版社, 2006．
吴鑫雁．商务英文函电主要写作技巧．《辽宁财专学报》．2002(18):20． 许力生．《跨文化交际英语教程》．上海外语教育出版社, 2007． 杨朝光．《语用学教程》．北京：对外经济贸易大学出版社, 2008． 杨 柳．礼貌原则在外贸英语信函写作中的运用．《宿州教育学院学
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