Abstract
This paper aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of professional communication by focusing on the intertextuality and interdiscursivity of the request e-mails exchanged among a group of professional English language teachers of a public education institution in Hong Kong. The types of intertextual and interdiscursive elements incorporated in the request e-mail discourse produced by the teachers, and the possible reasons for such incorporation, are discussed in the paper. It is found that the intertextual and interdiscursive elements drawn upon by the teachers in constructing the request e-mail discourse serve four pragmatic functions: (1) distancing themselves from the discourse and thus diverting the possible forthcoming resentment to others; (2) convincing others to comply with the requests they made; (3) emphasizing selectively and strategically the various roles they were playing; and (4) managing rapport with the e-mail recipients.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2534-2547 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Pragmatics |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2011 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Interdiscursivity
- Intertextuality
- Professional communication
- Request e-mail
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Artificial Intelligence