Performance of face-threatening speech acts in Chinese and Japanese BELF emails

Abstract

The paper explores the performance of face-threatening speech acts by Chinese and Japanese in BELF emails, focusing on the genre structure and the linguistic realizations of mitigation. Based on a corpus of 469 emails, the study identifies a five-move structure, i.e., openings + reasoning supportive moves (RSMs) + head acts + mitigating supportive moves (MSMs) + closings, for performing FTAs in business emails and finds that the major difference between Chinese and Japanese move structures lies in that Chinese tend to use more MSMs than Japanese. Both Chinese and Japanese exhibit a preference for the “RSMs + head acts” sequential pattern. In terms of the mitigating devices in MSMs, Chinese demonstrate a preference for the expression of gratitude as a mitigating strategy while Japanese prefer to use tag questions and apologies. The findings of the research can be explained from the perspectives of mode of thinking, language education and cultural identities. The study aims to shed some light on BELF communication by raising our awareness of certain taken-for-granted patterns in email interactions between two seemingly similar cultures to avoid possible communicative breakdown. In addition, the paper offers some pedagogical implications for business English teaching.