Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 The Social Background 2
1.2 The Research Background 4
1.3 Research Objectives 7
1.4 The Rationale of the Study 9
1.5 Summary 11
Chapter 2 Literature Review and Descriptive Framework 13
2.1 Relevant Research on Business Negotiations 13
2.1.1 Definition of Negotiation 14
2.1.2 Current Discourse Studies of Business Negotiations 16
2.1.3 Current Studies of Interpersonal Communication 19
2.2 Relevant Studies of Negotiation Structure and Patterns 23
2.2.1 Prescriptive and Descriptive Models 23
2.2.2 Social Conversational Structure and Speech Elements 26
2.3 Negotiation Language and Culture 32
2.3.1 Business Negotiation Language 33
2.3.2 Politeness in Communication 43
2.3.3 Chinese Business Contexts 53
2.4 Summary 62
Chapter 3 Research Scope and Methodology 63
3.1 Introduction 63
3.2 Research Scope 64
3.3 Research Methodology 65
3.3.1 The Data and Transcription Conventions 66
3.3.2 Subject Selection and Recording Procedures 68
3.3 3 Analysis Procedure 70
3.4 The Division of Interpersonal Relationships in Business Negotiations 72
3.5 Summary 75
Chapter 4 The Structure of Interpersonal Business Negotiations 76
4.1 Introduction 76
4.2 The Global Structure of Business Negotiations 77
4.2.1 Opening Stage 79
4.2.2 Negotiating Stage 112
4.2.3 Closing Stage 132
4.3 The Conversational Structure of Business Negotiations 138
4.4 The Impact of Interpersonal Relationship on Business Negotiations 143
4.5 Summary 146
Chapter 5 Requests and Politeness Strategies in Business Negotiations 147
5.1 Introduction 148
5.2 Requests and Politeness Strategy 148
5.2.1 Requests and Politeness Strategies in Business Negotiations 149
5.3 Generic Preference for Business Requests and Politeness Strategies 185
5.3.1 General Distribution of Politeness Strategies in Business Requests 186
5.3.2 Interpersonal Variation in Request Strategies and Politeness 188
5.4 The Impact of Interpersonal Relationship on Business Requests and Interpersonal Politeness System 199
5.5 Summary 202
Chapter 6 Metaphors as Politeness Strategies in Business Negotiations 203
6.1 Introduction 204
6.2 Metaphors as Politeness Strategies 204
6.2.1 FTAs 206
6.2.2 Metaphors as Politeness Strategies in FTAs 207
6.2.3 Linguistic Realizations of Metaphorical Expression in FTAs 216
6.2.4 Distribution of Metaphors in Business Negotiations 219
6.3 Negotiators'Generic Preferences for Metaphors in Business Negotiations 221
6.3.1 Metaphors Used by the BS Group 223
6.3.2 Metaphors Used by the BF Group 228
6.3.3 Metaphors Used by the BP Group 234
6.4 The Impact of Interpersonal Relationship on Metaphors in FTAs 243
6.5 Summary 247
Chapter 7 Conclusion 249
7.1 Introduction 249
7.2 Summary of the Key Findings 250
7.3 A Cultural Perspective on Conversational Structure 254
7.4 A Cultural Perspective on Request 256
7.5 A Cultural Perspective on Metaphor 257
7.6 A Cultural Perspective on Interpersonal Business Communication 259
7.7 Significance 261
7.8 Limitations 264
7.9 Summary 266
References 269
List of Tables 24
2.1 Prescriptive phase models of negotiations 24
2.2 Descriptive phases models of negotiations 25
2.3 The shared generic structure elements of agnate service encounters 29
4.1 The occurrence of speech elements in business negotiations 78
4.2 The salutation patterns at the opening stage in business negotiations 85
4.3 The patterns of greeting exchange in business negotiations 90
4.4 The introduction patterns in business negotiations 96
4.5 The distribution of seat allocation across three groups 98
4.6 The patterns of drink serving in business negotiations 103
4.7 The distribution of small talk in business negotiations 110
4.8 The patterns of business initiation in business negotiations 117
4.9 The patterns of information inquiry in business negotiations 123
4.10 The patterns of problem resolution in business negotiations 130
4.11 The initiation patterns of opening-up closure in business negotiations 134
4.12 The ending patterns in business negotiations 138
4.13 The generic structure of business negotiations and exchange features 141
5.1 The generic linguistic preferences of BS group in requests 190
5.2 The generic linguistic preferences of BF group in requests 193
5.3 The generic linguistic preferences of BP group in requests 196
6.1 The classification of FTAs 206
6.2 Distribution of metaphors in speech acts 208
6.3 General distribution of metaphor realizations in speech acts in business negotiations 219
6.4 The preferences for metaphors in speech acts by negotiators across three interpersonal relations 222
6.5 BS's preference for linguistic realizations of metaphors 223
6.6 BF's preference for linguistic realizations of metaphors 229
6.7 BP's preference for linguistic realizations of metaphors 234