Traditionally, genres were defined on the basis of their form, their observable physical layout. In modern genre approaches, form is only one of the defining features. For example, in Berkenkotter &
Huckin’s (1995) sociocognitive approach to genre, form and content together represent one of the five principles.16 To refer back to Swales’s (1990: 52) definition of genre, communicative purpose is a privileged criterion whereas “other properties, such as form, structure and audience expectations operate to identify the extent to which an exemplar is prototypical of a particular genre”.
Drawing on Giddens’s (1984) notion of social rules that are used by individuals to produce and reproduce social action, Yates
& Orlikowski (1992: 302) use genre rules, which entail that genres are enacted through rules that associate appropriate elements of the text’s form and substance (or content) with certain recurrent situations (for discussion of content, see 2.3.6). Form is used to refer to the observable aspects of communication, such as structural features, medium, and language (Yates & Orlikowski 1992: 301;
also 2002: 14–15). The structural features include text-formatting devices such as lists. The medium obviously refers to the channel of communication such as pen and paper, face-to-face, email, etc.
Finally, language refers to the level of formality and specialized vocabulary. To take an example of the genre rules for the busi-ness letter, which is used in recurrent situations requiring documented communication with partners outside the organi-zation, Yates & Orlikowski (1992: 302) explain how the rules specify that the form contains an inside address, salutation, complimentary close, and relatively formal and polite language.
Nickerson (2000: 35–46) elaborates Yates & Orlikowski’s (1992) genre rules to allow for the contextualized linguistic analysis of genre textualizations in multinational organizations. Most of the
1 6 The other principles embrace genres as dynamic and situated forms that are properties of discourse communities and have a duality of structure (see Giddens 1984).
elaboration is focused on form (for discussion of content, see 2.3.6).
The first aspect of form, structural features, is defined in terms of text conventions, i.e. “those aspects of form which conventionally contribute to the physical layout of the genre” (Nickerson 2000: 42, original italics). For example, in business letters used by the international business community between buyers and sellers it is appropriate to give a salutation at the beginning of the document (see e.g. Jenkins & Hinds 1987, Yli-Jokipii 1994). Louhiala-Salmi-nen (1999a: 158) has emphasized the relevance of the physical layout of the fax form to the writer in the generation of the fax genre. Nickerson (2000: 181) established a diversity of forms in use in her data, which included both hard copy and email messages. The most striking finding was that subsidiary companies used the layout of a traditional business letter in their regular exchange of information with the head office. As was mentioned above, the business letter is regarded as the genre for external communication and the memo as the genre for company-internal communication, especially in American business (see e.g.
Bovée et al. 2003, Yates & Orlikowski 1992: 302). As Nickerson’s findings show, the division between the letter and the memo is not clear-cut in European business. Indeed, the existence of the concept of a memo in the sense American business uses it can be questioned in the European context.
The two other aspects of form in Yates & Orlikowski’s (1992;
see also 2002) framework, communication medium and language, are discussed separately below. Following Nickerson (2000: 42), language is further classified into Code and Discourse since she argues that language in Yates & Orlikowski’s (1992) framework is limited in its focus on the level of formality and vocabulary, which may be appropriate in monolingual environments but does not provide sufficient details for a linguistic investigation of genres in multinational settings. The discussion about Code focuses on the use of English as a lingua franca in business, and in internal communication in particular. The discussion about Discourse is based on Bhatia’s (1993) three-level linguistic analysis. As
mentioned earlier, previous research related to two features of discourse, i.e. spoken vs. written language features in email communication and politeness in business messages, relevant in the present study are introduced separately in Chapter 3.
Below, communication medium is discussed first, then the focus is on the linguistic code used, and finally on the discourse features of business genres.
Communication medium. – Yates & Orlikowski (1992: 319) argue that the communication medium is theoretically different from the genre which is being transmitted but admit that there maybe some interaction between the two. In other words, media such as fax, email, and hard copy are theoretically different from genres such as business letter, job appraisal, etc. even though business letters are usually understood as being delivered as hard copy and email messages are used to respond to email messages.
Nickerson (2000: 44) suggests that the medium conventionally associated with a recurrent situation within the international bu-siness community may be decisive in the choice of the medium in organizational communication. While letters were still the prominent medium used in international business some 20 years ago, in the 1990s business was carried on using fax and in-creasingly email as is shown by e.g. Connor (1999), Nikali (1998), Ziv (1996), and Louhiala-Salminen (1995, 1999b). The new millennium has witnessed the triumph of email; it has also become mobile with the launch of smart phones. In addition, integration of different streams of spoken and written messages (phone, email, fax, SMS text messages, etc.) into a single in-box, where all the stored data can be accessed through a chosen interface, has been spreading in European business (see e.g. Koistinen 2004, Alkio 2005, Helsingin Sanomat 2005). Thus, with the advances in communication technology, the documents needed in business are delivered via different media than previously. This entails, as Louhiala-Salminen (1997: 331) also points out, that the general purpose of the business letter genre could be shared with that of
the business fax or email message genres. In today’s world, and especially in international business, communication for business purposes is increasingly carried on via email messages, the share of faxes is decreasing, and business letters are rare (see also Louhi-ala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2005).
Louhiala-Salminen (1997, 1999a) further suggests that the me-dium does not leave the message untouched; when the writer decides to write a fax and starts to write it on a fax form, he/she will be aware of the generic constraints and the unmarked conventions that the recipient expects him/her to follow. Drawing on this, it can be suggested that when the writer faces an email template on the computer screen, the generic constraints to be followed will be different than if he/she faced a letter template in Microsoft Word.
Nickerson (2000: 45) admits that whilst the media available may be determined by the wider business context and/or the corporate context, the final selection may also depend on national culture. For example, Yli-Jokipii (1994) points out that Finns prefer the telephone in their initial contacts with potential buyers, whereas British business practitioners use written media in their first contacts. Gunnarsson (1997: 184) indicates that Swedish banks rely more on oral communication than their British counterparts.
These two studies seem to suggest that Finnish and Swedish busi-ness people rely more on oral communication than their British colleagues.
In addition to spoken and written discourse being intertwined in business, as indicated by, for example Gunnarsson (1997) and Louhiala-Salminen (2002a), they can also replace each other.
Gunnarsson’s (1997: 163–164) analysis of the role of spoken discourse in the creation of written documents in a local government office shows that some of the documents could have been replaced by spoken discourse. Although Gunnarsson is not discussing genres, this finding suggests that some written genres would be replaceable by spoken genres, and consequently, they could be delivered via different media.
In sum, consideration of medium as an aspect of the form of genre, in the North American New Rhetoric tradition in particular, implies that the media are situated in the social practices of the organization, and an attempt is made to understand the use in relation to the interplay between the media and the social practice.
For this reason, the background information about the use of me-dia by Finns and Swedes in Stora Enso provided by Louhiala-Salminen’s (2002b) communication survey was of importance for the present study. Unavoidably, the messages delivered via new media would be influenced by pre-existing genres, which may be imported as such to the new medium or which may be modified (see 3.1). Totally new genres may also emerge encouraged by the opportunities offered by the new media (for more, see also 2.3.7).
These phenomena are relevant in the present study which set out to compare its data both to previous email research focusing on linguistic features as well as to guidelines of effective written bu-siness communication.
Code. – Nickerson (2000: 45) argues that language as an aspect of form in Yates & Orlikowski’s (1992) framework is limited in its focus as it is only concerned with the level of formality and vocabulary of one language. To make this aspect better suited for multinational companies in which a number of languages may be used, Nickerson (2000: 45) divides language into two: Code and Discourse. Code is used to refer to the choice of an appropriate language for the genre, e.g. English, Dutch, German, etc., which is necessary in multinational settings with speakers of different mother tongues working together. This conception of genre entails that the code is subordinate to genre; genres are the same and only the code changes. As the present study only focuses on messages using one code, lingua franca English, its nature in bu-siness contexts, in particular, is explored further. This study is not concerned with the nature of genres in other codes, such as Fin-nish and Swedish.
In settings where the participants do not share the same mother tongue, a choice needs to be made of the common language, lingua franca, to be used in communication. In business, the language in the majority of such settings seems to be English (see e.g. Vollstedt 2002: 103). For example, the official language of the majority of the engineering companies listed on the Helsinki Exchanges in 2002 was English (Nurmi 2002). English as the corporate or official language of a company does not mean that its use is imposed on the employees in all internal communication;
rather, it means that English is used in most contacts between employees speaking different mother tongues. For example, Vollstedt (2002: 98) points out that as soon as members of a group do not feel comfortable or competent with the local language, English would be used. For this reason, in Siemens and Daimler-Bentz English is being used increasingly in spite of the strong local languages of German and French. This practice suggests that the users have a very pragmatic view of the language choice.
It has been suggested that in lingua franca communication misunderstandings are more probable than in communication between native and non-native speakers (Lesznyák 2002: 163).
The higher probability has been ascribed to the increase of potential interference sources and the difficulty of determining which norms of language and language use to apply in a given situation. This view has been questioned by Knapp (2002: 219), who argues that investigations into spoken lingua franca interactions are characterized by a high degree of cooperativeness and consensual style (see also Firth 1996; Meierkord 1998, 2000). He explains this by reference to the communication situations being investigated, such as routine business transactions and informal exchanges involving small talk. For example, Firth (1996) identifies three discourse strategies in English lingua franca business telephone conversations to cope with problems in understanding; the common denominator is that the interactants tolerate atypical language forms to a large degree.
Until recently, the English language has been studied as the property of its native speakers, which entails that non-native speakers of the language have been regarded as learners and their language use has been compared to the model provided by native speakers. However, being a learner is not a relevant identity for an adult who uses English fluently in his profession, as is pointed out by e.g. Mauranen (2003: 118-119). Firth (1996) also emphasizes the autonomous form of discourse realized in lingua franca English that should not be regarded as inferior to native English.
Research into English lingua franca (ELF)17 has focused on its features of use as means of communication and its possible differences from English as a native language. It has not been concerned with the nature of language itself. Survey studies of ELF use within companies have been conducted by Vollstedt (2002), who focused on 20 multinational companies, and Suther-land (1994), who examined the use of company-internal ELF between German and Japanese speakers. Vandermeeren (1999), on the other hand, reports on the use of ELF between companies based in different countries, that is, between business partners from Germany and France and those from Germany and the Netherlands.
Some recent studies of spoken ELF interactions in business have been conducted by e.g. Firth (1996), who focused on the pragmatic aspects of telephone conversations; Poncini (2002), who examined the discourse of an Italian company’s meetings of its international distributors; Nikko (in press), who investigated the construction of meaning in company-internal business meetings with Finnish and Swedish participants; and Charles & Louhiala-Salminen (in press), who compared language use of Finnish and Swedish participants in ELF internal meetings. Outside the busi-ness context, spoken interactions have been investigated by e.g.
Meierkord (2002, 2000, 1998), Lesznyák (2002), Knapp (2002), and House (2002).
1 7 The term ELF has been used by e.g. Lesznyák 2002, Knapp 2002, House 2002, and Mauranen 2003.
As mentioned above, studies whose objective is to describe or list the specific language features of ELF are scarce. Jenkins et al. (2001; also Seidlhofer & Jenkins 2001) describe a lingua franca core for Euro-English, which was found to be crucial for intel-ligibility. In addition, they have listed grammar mistakes that do not tend to cause disruptions in ELF communication. Such features comprise
y using the same form for all present tense verbs, as in You look very sad and He look very sad;
y not using a definite or indefinite article in front of nouns, as in Our countries have signed agreement about this;
y treating ‘who’ and ‘which’ as interchangeable relative pronouns, as in a person which;
y using only the verb stem in constructions such as I look forward to see you tomorrow; and
y using ‘isn’t it?’ as a universal tag question, as in You’re very busy today, isn’t it? (p. 16).
In addition, Johnson & Bartlett (1999) have drawn up a more comprehensive list of features based on their observations of the speech of international business practitioners whose native tongue is not English. They do not call this language ELF but International Business English (IBE). They suggest that the English used between non-native speakers is used as a contact language in the same way as pidgin languages have been used for trade and business purposes and that such English seems to be developing in accordance with universals of language (see e.g. Holm 1988, as quoted in Johnson & Bartlett 1999). Johnson & Bartlett (1999: 9) advocate that “simplifications make the language more transparent and so aid communication between non-native speakers”. The features listed in Table 1 consist of non-standard patterns that caused no miscommunication between the non-native speakers and that were common to business practitioners from different mother tongue backgrounds.
TABLE 1. Features of International Business English (Johnson & Bartlett 1999: 9).
Feature of IBE Example
Simplified vocabulary We’ll call together (not each other) We’re waiting for them to sell our products (not expect)
Non-count nouns lacking I have a news We need equipments Pre/Postpositions reduced I’ll pay the coffee.
Have you listened the news?
Simplified question forms Why you are here?
You understand me?
Simplified tense/mood system Tomorrow I go to London.
Passives avoided (no example given) Simplified sentence structure/ A technical driven company morphemes dropped That represent only 10%
Conjoined not embedded sentences That’s one of our main topics and that’s one of the reasons that you’re here that we come together, we know about the project in the other countries and then we every month call together
Infinitives preferred to gerunds It’s not worth to do
Few relative clauses/simplified My company which name is pronouns
We have instead of there is We have a lot of traffic in Seoul Resumptive pronouns All the members they was in contact (e.g. all the members they was in
contact)
Comparison of IBE with the features listed by Jenkins et al. (2001) implies some similarities such as simplified tense system, use of relative pronouns, and preference for infinitives rather than gerunds. Jenkins et al.’s (2001) lack of definite and indefinite
articles and the use of the same tag question are not taken up by Johnson & Bartlett (1999), whereas many other features are.
In their article combining the findings from Louhiala-Salmi-nen (2002b), Charles & Louhiala-SalmiLouhiala-Salmi-nen (in press), and Kankaanranta (2005, in press), Louhiala-Salminen et al. (2005) use the term Business English Lingua Franca (BELF) to refer to English used as a ‘neutral’ and shared communication code for the function of conducting business. In this definition, both the role of the speakers and the domain of language usage are central.
The speakers/writers of BELF are non-native members of the bu-siness discourse community and use English to do their work.
Although the term may not be entirely successful because of its connotations with Business English as one specific type of English in the realm of English for Specific Purposes, it still conveys the idea of using ELF for business rather than for any other purposes.
The present study adopts BELF and uses it for the English language used in the corpus for the reasons presented above and since IBE as a name does not convey the idea of English being used as a lingua franca.
Although genres may transcend language barriers and be the same independent of the code used, the present study only focused on the genres realized in English Lingua Franca, and more specifically Business English Lingua Franca. As only Johnson &
Bartlett (1999) have focused on business discourse and as their classification is more extensive than that of Jenkins et al. (2001), it was chosen in the present study as the framework to investigate how well email messages fall into the categories describing spoken lingua franca business discourse.
Discourse features. – Discourse features of genres have been most explicitly on the research agenda in the ESP tradition, which reflects the researchers’ interest in the language required of non-native speakers in academic and professional settings. The purpose has been to help the language learner to acquire the appropriate language of specific genres. The linguistic orientation becomes
evident in the definitions provided by the two leading genre theorists of the ESP tradition: genres are defined as having
“patterns of similarity in terms of structure, style” (Swales 1990:
58) and being “highly structured and conventionalised with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of intent, positioning, form and functional value” (Bhatia 1993: 13). In Nickerson’s (2000: 46) view, genre analysis in the ESP tradition provides a method of contextualising the discourse of genres used
58) and being “highly structured and conventionalised with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of intent, positioning, form and functional value” (Bhatia 1993: 13). In Nickerson’s (2000: 46) view, genre analysis in the ESP tradition provides a method of contextualising the discourse of genres used