The macro contextual factors shaping business discourse: The Turkish case

AKAR D.

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, cilt.40, sa.4, ss.305-322, 2002 (Scopus)

Özet

This study explores the macro contextual factors that influence the form and function of written business texts in Turkish and English, produced by Turkish business practitioners. Starting from the most general of these factors, there are ostensible influences that come from national cultural ways of conducting business as manifested, for example, in politeness phenomena. The second factor is the type of company, since different organizations varying in structure, size, age and industry evolve distinctive modes of operation and distinctive communicative styles. The third factor involves the communication technology available, and particularly changes in that technology. As something particular to Turkish business discourse, traces of the deep-rooted tradition of state and bureaucracy are still discernible. Given the wide variety of language used in corporate settings, it seems impossible to clearly draw the boundaries of business discourse. Therefore, identifying and describing the contextual factors at different levels should be the essential quality of any analytical approach to business discourse. © 2002, by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved.