Asian Business Discourse(s)

This book reflects the vigorous interest in studies of business discourse(s) and culture(s) emerging from various Asian communities. It also records the diversity of methodological approaches, ontological perspectives and topics characterising a number of studies conducted by Asian and Western scholars on cultural and linguistic strategies and preferences identifiable in Asian or Asian-Western business interactions. The volume is structured in two parts, including chapters that address linguistic and textual issues (Part I) and cultural and pragmatic issues (Part II) of Asian business discourse(s). Even though the different domains identified – linguistic, textual, pragmatic and cultural – have been combined to provide useful organising labels, they remain strictly interrelated as their occurrence and variation have significant implications on one another.

The Editors: Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, Senior Research Fellow at Nottingham Trent University, has been working on business discourse since 1990. Her research has covered, among others, intercultural pragmatics, management discourse and organisational communication in joint ventures. Her publications include (both with Sandra Harris) and (with Catherine Nickerson). Maurizio Gotti is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Bergamo. He is currently President of the Italian Association of University Language Centres and Director of CERLIS, the research centre on specialized languages based at the University of Bergamo. His main research areas are the features and origins of specialized discourse ( , ).

Contents: Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini/Maurizio Gotti: Introduction – Dániel Zoltán Kádár: Power and Profit: The Role of Elevating / Denigrating Forms of Address in Pre-modern Chinese Business Discourse – Kenneth Kong: Metaphors in Network Marketing Discourse: Language, Ideology and Organisational Culture in Hong Kong – Miranda Lee: Uniqueness of Asian Promotion Discourse: A Contrastive Study of Hong Kong Bilingual Texts and Native English Texts – Yunxia Zhu: Effective Communication in Chinese Business Fax Writing – Habil Hadina/Shameem Rafik-Galea: Communicating at the Workplace: Insights into Malaysian Electronic Business Discourse – Bertha Du-Babcock: Communication Behaviors in Intra- and Inter-cultural Decision-making Meetings – Carl Hinze: Looking into ‘Face’: The Importance of Chinese Mian and Lian as Emic Categories – Michael Haugh: What Does ‘Face’ Mean to the Japanese? Understanding the Import of ‘Face’ in Japanese Business Interactions – Winnie Cheng/Martin Warren: // well I have a DIFferent // THINking you know //: A Corpus-driven Study of Disagreement in Hong Kong Business Discourse – Song Mei Lee-Wong: Raising Awareness of Hedging in Chinese Business Letters: Linguistic Symbol of Precision or Politeness? – Yeonkwon Jung: Power and Politeness in Korean Business Correspondence – Carmela Briguglio: Developing an Understanding of English as a Global Language for a Business Setting.