A discourse analysis of Chinese and English sales letters in Hong Kong Ming Cheung City University of Hong Kong Abstract This study aims to analyse and compare the discourse structures of Chinese sales letters and English sales letters based on an integrated theoretical framework of social discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1997) and genre analysis (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993). The motivation for conducting this study is two-fold. First, while there exists a multitude of studies that compare the syntax and grammar between Chinese and English, very little contrastive analysis has been carried out at the level of text, especially in the realm of persuasive communication. Second, understanding communication across languages is becoming increasingly important in sales promotion, due to the globalization of business. The corpus of this study consists of 160 Chinese and English sales letters, which were randomly selected from a database of over 10,000 sales letters collected from 36 categories of recipients in Hong Kong over a six-month period. The letters chosen originated from 117 companies in Hong Kong, mainland China, and overseas countries. They represent a variety of author styles. Given the letters are written with similar communicative purpose and social function, similarities are found in their move structures across languages, setting aside grammatical constraints. However, a number of differences are identified, and they include, for example, more frequent reference to social issues and less frequent use of pressure tactics in the Chinese letters. These differences can be attributed to the context of situation and to the reader-writer relationship associated with the different corpora. Results of the analysis were verified by 17 specialist informants in the field of sales promotion communication. Key words: social discourse analysis; genre analysis; sales promotion communication; Chinese sales letters; English sales letters Introduction With the globalization of business, understanding communication across languages is becoming increasingly important. This study compares 80 Chinese sales letters and 80 English sales letters. These letters were randomly selected from a database of 10,000 sales letters collected from 36 categories of recipients in Hong Kong over a six-month 142
period. It is believed that the impact would stand out more prominently by contrasting Chinese sales letters with English ones, as Enkvist (1973: 21) states, The essence of variation is difference, and differences cannot be analyzed and described without comparison. Based on an integrated theoretical framework of social discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1997) and genre analysis (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993), this study attempts to investigate the similarities and differences between the discourse structures of the two corpora. Due to the length constraint, the present article will only focus on describing the theoretical approach of the research, explaining the research methodology, and outlining the major hypotheses. The results of analysis will be left to the presentation during the conference. Theoretical approach This study has its focus on analyzing sales letters in Chinese and those in English. Given that Hong Kong is a meeting place of Eastern and Western cultures, to what extent, then, are the characteristic features associated with high-context cultures (Hall, 1989) relevant to the sales letters received by Hong Kong Chinese in this study? What is the impact of social and cultural elements on the discourse structure of sales letters, and how do these elements create or comply with readership in the socio-cultural context of Hong Kong? These questions pull together the notions of context, culture, and society. They require a theoretical framework that looks at language as social interaction, that is, the way meaning is created in the text and in the context. Figure 1 integrates the theories of social discourse analysis (van Dijk, 1997) and genre analysis (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993), which together form the most relevant framework to this study. The figure is original to this research. The theory of social discourse analysis emphasizes that the explanation of discourse needs to take into account not only the internal structures, social actions, and cognitive operations in language use, but also the broader sociocultural structures and processes (van Dijk, 1997: 21). It provides an ideological framework to look at discourse from both macro and micro perspectives. The theory of genre analysis helps reveal how the macro and micro structural choices interact in achieving the communicative purposes of a genre. Using a genre-based approach to text analysis, the researcher can find out how the social function of persuasion in sales letters is realized in discourse structure. 143
FIGURE 1: An integrated theoretical framework for analyzing cross-linguistic communication An integrated theoretical framework such as this can guide the analysis of sales letters across the two languages in this study. A sales letter evolves from a social situation, and flourishes in response to a need in society. Genres are social processes; they are socially determined entities that are created to enable participants to communicate and interact. The communication and interaction in turns re-create the genres. Due to the continuous changes in societies in politics, economies, cultures and so on, genres should be considered as dynamic and emerging over time (Dixon, 1987; Kress; 1987; Christie; 1987; Dudley-Evans, 1987; Bazerman, 1988). In the case of sales promotion, the same product may be promoted in different ways in two societies, and a sales message may be conveyed through different strategies, styles and tones, etc. As Kress (1987: 42) states, what appears as the same generic form at one level has recognizably distinct forms in differing social groups. This brings together aspects of text, language, and society. In the process of text analysis, the researcher needs to take into consideration the relationship between language and society. More specifically, to what extent is the use of language influenced by societal needs and interests? To answer this question, the researcher himself or herself should have knowledge about the society to which the sales letters are addressing. For example, what events have happened or have been happening in Hong Kong? What life styles or habits do Hong Kong people value? Such knowledge can be gained and accumulated through reading news, living in the society, and observing people around. 144
A sales letter is indeed a form of language use, which can be influenced by cultural values. For example, it is a taboo to openly talk about death in the Chinese culture. To what extent, then, is the use of language influenced by cultural norms and expectations? To address this question, the researcher needs to seek comments from copywriters, editors and translators in the field of sales promotion communication in order to understand how they determine the relationship between form and function of language use and why they write the way they do in terms of discourse structure and linguistic elements. Corpus Data Collection Sharing communicative purposes has been the principal criterion that characterizes a class of communicative events as a genre; exemplars of a particular genre share similarities in "structure, style, content and intended audience" (Swales, 1990: 58). Bazerman (1988: 62) has a similar view: "a genre is a socially recognized, repeated strategy for achieving similar goals in situations socially perceived as being similar." Bhatia (1993: 13) also stresses the essential role of communicative purposes in genre identification: "Although there are a number of other factors, like content, form, intended audience, medium or channel, that influence the nature and construction of a genre, it is primarily characterized by the communicative purpose(s) that it is intended to fulfil." Relating the above discussions to this study, a sales letter can be viewed as a "communicative vehicle" (Swales, 1990: 46) that opens up a world of business opportunities so that the "common goals" (ibid: 26) of the business community, winning renown and generating profit, can be attained. It is the communicative purpose of exchanging goods, services and information, and the social function of informing and persuading that allow sales letters to be recognized by both writers and readers as a genre distinct from other modes of communication found within the business community. It is also the communicative purpose that forms the key criterion for identifying data in this study. This study is situated in Hong Kong, which has the position of an international gateway and portal for business in the Asian region (The Government of the HKSAR, 2003). Scollon and Scollon (2001: 141) make a similar remark in referring to it as "a member of the most progressive leading edge of Asian internationalization". In order to develop a representative corpus for data analysis, attention has been paid to ensure that the letters are collected from people of as wide a spread as possible. The criteria 145
for identifying potential letter recipients, as outlined in Table 1 below, are derived from a correlation of four attributes: age group, gender, educational background, and occupation. The selection of these four attributes is based on the assumptions that in order to increase business profitability, products and services are generally designed to fit the needs and demands of different customer segments, and that the correlation among the variables under each of the four attributes should be valid to represent the significant customer segments. TABLE 1. Variables of the sample population for this study Attributes Variables Distribution of population Age group 1. 15 to 25 years old 2. 26 to 40 years old 3. 41 years old or above Gender 1. Male 1/2 2. Female 1/2 Education 1. Up to secondary level or below 1/2 2. Up to tertiary level or above Occupation 1. Management or professional 2. Mid-level or skilled worker 3. Junior or unskilled worker 1/2 The variables of the four attributes demand either half or one-third of the total sample population. Based on the above table, 36 categories of recipients are possible. The recipients were identified through personal contacts. They were asked to forward to me any sales letters in Chinese and English that they received over a six-month period; the letters could come from Hong Kong, mainland China or overseas, and, could aim at selling or promoting any brands, products or services, e.g. magazines, computers, cosmetics, and training courses, etc. The six-month period for data collection covered various major festivals in Hong Kong, including the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, Christmas in December, New Year in January, and Lunar New Year and Valentine s Day in February. As expected, the data collected is rich in variety. Choice of Texts Out of a total of over 10,000 sales letters collected, 160 letters (80 Chinese and 80 English) were randomly selected for a qualitative analysis. The selected texts cover a wide range of products or services, including magazines, computers, cosmetics, medicines, insurance, fashions, financial services, and so on, and also come from a wide spectrum of organizations, such as British Royal Mint, HSBC, Lane Crawford, Manulife, McAfee, and so on. 146
Methodology Move Scheme It is assumed that Chinese sales letters and English sales letters belong to the same genre due to the perceived similarities in their communicative purpose and social function. Moves and steps, as rhetorical instruments that realise a sub-set of specific communicative purposes associated with a genre (Bhatia, 2001: 84), form the units of analysis in this study. Following Zhu (2000), a move is taken in this study as a communicative event, which can be realized in one or more steps. It is further assumed here that if a genre is the result of constant and cumulative selections from structural choices governed by the communicative purposes, then it should be possible to quantify these selections. The two corpora were found to share similar moves and steps according to a new move scheme proposed by Cheung (forthcoming). It was observed from the corpora that a particular move or step might appear more than once in a text. It is believed that a look into the frequency of occurrence of each move or step may shed light on how a unit functions within the overall discourse structure of sales promotion. The frequency was therefore counted out of the total number of analyzed moves and steps, and presented as percentages for the two corpora. Specialist Informants As discussed, it is necessary to verify findings of the analysis with practitioners in the field of sales promotion communication. In order to gain a better understanding of why the letters examined in this study are written and presented in the way they are, further information about the real-life context and reader-writer relationship of sales promotion communication is necessary. Seventeen specialist informants working in the field of sales promotion communication and copywriting were invited for in-depth interviews. A list of 14 questions was prepared to guide the interview process, and the informants had every freedom to share their opinions on any other aspects they deemed appropriate. Each interview lasted for around 45 minutes to 2 hours, and was tape-recorded. Below are a few questions served to draw their comments on the discourse strategy, discourse structure and readership consideration of sales letters. 1. What do you find to be the key elements in a sales letter? What are your criteria of selecting content for a letter? 2. What do you perceive as effective attention-getters in sales letters? 3. How does readership affect the content and style of your letters? How do you get to 147
learn about such readership? 4. How do you adapt the sales letters to cater for the needs and interests of customers in different social contexts and cultures? 5. Why is the letter the way it is, in terms of strategy, structure, language, and so on? Hypotheses Several hypotheses are advanced with regard to the results of the move analysis of the Chinese sales letters and English sales letters: 1. First of all, in keeping with Bhatia s (1993) work on the genre of sales letters, Move C Introducing the Offer will be the most frequent move in the Chinese corpus and in the English corpus. This is also in keeping with Zhu s (2000) study, who found that this move appeared in all the 20 Chinese sales letters and 20 English ones in her corpus. 2. It is predicted that there will be a higher frequency of occurrence of Move A Setting the Scene in the Chinese corpus than in the English corpus. This prediction is made on the basis that most of the Chinese letters are targeting readers in the Hong Kong context while most of the English letters are targeting readers worldwide. For a comparatively more focused group of readers, it may be easier for writers of the Chinese letters to set the scene of a sales proposition through specific social issues and culture. 3. Move C Introducing the Offer and Move D Building Goodwill are each expected to be of a fairly equal spread across the Chinese corpus and the English corpus, as these moves are generic to any sales propositions. 4. It is expected that there will be a slightly larger amount of Move F Using Pressure Tactics and Move G Triggering Action in the English corpus than in the Chinese corpus. Some of the Chinese letters originated from companies in mainland China. If Hall s (1989) description of high-context cultures still applies to these letters, there may be a higher possibility for these letters to be subtler and more indirect in discourse strategy. The writers may be more hesitant to directly ask readers of their letters to take action to purchase right away and to put pressure on them to do so. 5. Move J Building Rapport is expected to appear slightly more frequently in the Chinese corpus than in the English corpus, as effort to establish a long-term agent-client relationship is more evident in Chinese sales letters (Zhu, 2000). 6. This research is based on the notion of genre, which predicts that texts written for similar communicative purpose will display similarities in discourse structure across languages, setting aside grammatical constraints. It is therefore expected that the 148
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