Understanding how language is used in specific contexts and the reasons for this can be helped by examining historical change in genres. In this study focusing on business communication, texts serving the same purpose of demanding payment for a debt but separated by 4,000 years are analysed. The ancient text is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet which is…

Based on Jenny Thomas's dichotomous classification of pragmatic failure, this study proposes a new perspective and classifies pragmatic failure in interpretation into three categories: pragma-linguistic failure, socio-pragmatic failure and malaprop-pragmatic failure. Specific examples are given to illustrate the causes and effects of each category…

This paper investigates code-switching and script-switching in medieval documents from the Cairo Geniza, written in Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic in Hebrew script), Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic. Legal documents regularly show a macaronic style of Judaeo-Arabic, Aramaic and Hebrew, while in letters code-switching from Judaeo-Arabic to Hebrew is tied in with…

The present study investigates how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) improve the readability of their texts in an explicit genre-based approach that is utilized in an oil and gas exploration workplace in Angola. By drawing on the English for Specific Purposes and Systemic Functional Linguistics genre traditions, the study engages 18…

This is the book of abstracts for the conference held in 2017 entitled: ''METADISCOURSE ACROSS GENRES: MAPPING INTERACTION IN SPOKEN & WRITTEN DISCOURSES'', also known as MAG2017. The 1st International Conference on Metadiscourse Across Genres took place in METU Northern Cyprus Campus, Cyprus between 30 March-1 April 2017 with the…

Examines comical problems arising from the overuse of business and technical jargon and syntax, including alienation of the reader. Offers suggestions for business writers to avoid usage that can appear comical in their business correspondence. (HTH)

Isolates a dozen problems with diction and sentence structure that comprise the "gobbledygook syndrome." (RL)

This article discusses the various styles of commercial correspondence in Spanish. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

Suggests that good business writing is dependent on solving the problem of the best psychological approach to readers, organization, writing style, and English usage. (MH)

Analyzes complications related to the style of speech in the Korean language. The study focuses on the usage of the proper forms of honorific and humble forms in Korean with particular attention to the use of the honorific system in relaying messages to a third party. Learners of Korean as a second language need to become knowledgeable in the…

The alternating and mixed use of Swedish and Finnish and special trade slang in three relatively small firms (employing a total of 678 employees, 40 percent of whom were Swedish-speaking, 56 percent Finnish-speaking, and 4 percent bilingual) in the bilingual city of Vasa, Finland was analyzed. (CB)