A study on grammatical metaphor in English
business letters

Vũ Lệ Huyền

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: TS. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ
Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: This study focuses on the investigation of grammatical metaphor in English
business letters. The theoretical framework for the analysis is mainly based on the
systemic functional linguistic theory by M.A.K Halliday, Christian Matthiessen, and
James Martin, who are considered as the representatives of systemic functional
linguistics. The corpus of the study contains 20 real life English business letters chosen
randomly. Through a variety of methods, namely qualitative and quantitative, synthetic
and analytic, the study investigates the frequency, the proportion and the types of
grammatical metaphor used in the corpus. The results of the study show that grammatical
metaphor appeared considerably frequently in the business letters. Then some
suggestions for pedagogical implication are also given with the hope of helping ESP
students easily approach grammatical metaphor in general and in business letter discourse
in particular. It is also hoped that the findings will contribute to a fuller understanding of
business letter discourse.
Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Thư thương mại; Ẩn dụ ngữ pháp; Tu từ
học
Content

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP …………………………………………………………….i

2.5.2.2. Mood metaphors ……………………………………………… 18
2.6. Summary ………………………………………………………………… 19
CHAPTER 3: GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR IN ENGLISH BUSINESS
LETTERS …………………………………………………….21
3.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………… 21
3.2. Definition of Business Letters …………………………………………… 22
3.3. Classification of Business Letters …………………………………………22
3.4. Characteristics of Business Letters ……………………………………… 23
3.4. 1. Characteristics of Business Letters in general ………………… 23
3.4.2. Characteristics of business letters in terms of field, tenor and mode 24
3.5. The use of Grammatical Metaphor in Business Letters ………………… 26
3.5.1. Data analysis framework …………………………………………. …26
3.5.2. Results ……………………………………………………………… 33
3.5.2.1. Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor …………………….33
3.5.2.2. Types of Grammatical metaphor used ………………………….33
3.5.3. Discussion ……………………………………………………… 35
3. 6. Summary ………………………………………………………………….36
PART C: CONCLUSION …………………………………………37
1. Recapitulation ……………………………………………………………….37
2. Implications …………………………………………………………………38

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3. Limitations of the study …………………………………………………… 38
4. Suggestions for further studies ………………………………………………39

REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………… 40
APPENDIX 1 ………………………………………………………………………… I
APPENDIX 2………………………………………………………………………… X
1 PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Metaphor is a very important feature in human language and is always a subject of central
interest in the study of stylistics. But traditional linguistics has long focused only on lexical
metaphor whereas systemic functional linguistics has paid much attention on grammatical
metaphor.
English is considered a key to success in international business. Business letters are still
widely used in the world as a main channel of business correspondence. To achieve
desirable results in communicating through business letters, besides taking some
remarkable features into account such as: style, language, structure of a business letter, an
aspect of the lexicogrammar which involves a higher level of complexity in the process
of production and interpretation of clauses – the use of grammatical metaphor should be
paid a great attention, too. However, it has not attracted enough research attention. A
functional analysis of grammatical metaphor in discourse, especially in business letters will
be very helpful to benefit English learners in better understanding and employing target
language and thus improving the communicative competence more effectively.
2. Objectives of the study
(i) to give a general understanding of grammatical metaphor in the light of functional
linguistics.
(ii) to examine some typical characteristics of business letters to show the general features
of this genre.
(iii) to give an analysis of the corpus of business letters in terms of grammatical metaphor
in order to see how this notable feature is used.
Therefore, the research questions raised here are:
1) What is the frequency of the use of grammatical metaphor in English business letters?
2) What types of grammatical metaphor are used in English business letters?

culture and the context of situation.
1.3. Metafunctions
With respect to the context of situation, all the situational differences between texts can be
explained by three aspects of the context, namely, field, tenor, and mode.
1.4. Summary
In this chapter, an overview of systemic functional linguistics has been briefly given. It is
described as a functional-semantic approach to language which explores how language is
used in different contexts, and how it is construed for using as a semiotic system.
3 CHAPTER 2: THE NOTION OF GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR

2.1. Introduction
As we know metaphor is a very important feature in human language. There is no
exaggeration when we say that language itself is a metaphor.
2.2. Definitions of Metaphor
We start with the definitions of metaphors. A lot of defitions has been given
2.3. Grammatical Metaphor
Grammatical metaphor is one of the most interesting theoretical notions developed by
Halliday (1985/1994) within systemic-functional Grammar. In this research paradigm,
language is regarded as a semiotic system which comprises four different strata (context,
semantics, lexicogrammar, and phonology) related to each other by means of subsequent
realizations.
2.4. Grammatical metaphor vs. Lexical Metaphor
Halliday (1985) suggests that metaphor does not necessarily happen at the lexical level
but often at the grammatical level, which is called grammatical metaphor. “We are
looking at metaphor not „from below‟, as variation in the meaning of a given
expression, but rather „from above‟, as variation in the expression of a given meaning”
(1994: 342)

addressed to a person or an organization, usually in an envelope and is sent by post.
Business refers to the exchange of goods or services for the reason of money or other
goods. So a business letter is a letter dealing with business, used in the negotiation of trade
conditions in national or international business, concerning the quality of specified goods,
specifications, quantity, price, shipment, insurance, payment, disagreement, claim, etc
The other definition by Jacky Gamble eHow contributor: business letters are formal letters
used for business-to-business, business-to-client, or client-to-business correspondence.
3.3 Classification of Business English letters
Business is very complicated transaction involving series of different procedures.
Stewart (1984) classified business letters as follows:
1) Classification according to the content of the letter.
2) Classification according to the different functions in the process of a business trade.
3) Classification according to the nature of the information given.
3.4. Characteristics of Business Letters
3.4. 1. Characteristics of Business Letters in general
Scientific Expression must be of great consideration. Scientific expression means
something said directly and briefly.
5 Any business letter must be short. The significance of a short letter is that the person
reading the letter must understand the significance of the letter in the minimum possible
lines.
The tone of the letter is another very important aspect of the letter. The letter must sound
polite, courteous and firm.
Accuracy is important in a business letter. Whatever you communicate in a letter must be
accurate.
Association of ideas is also crucial. The ideas and facts mentioned in the letter must be
interlinked.
Politeness and optimism are the ‘passwords’ in the business world. Business letters must

Halliday & Mathiessen suggested a detailed description of the metaphorical types. The
classification is based on metaphoric shifts from one elemental class to another. Each type
is treated as a phenomenon on its own.
3.5.2. Results
Twenty business letters were studied carefully in order to identify grammatical metaphor
with reference to Table 1. The author was then able to determine first the frequency of use
of grammatical metaphor, and second, the average number of grammatical metaphor
instances in each clause and third, types of grammatical metaphor used.
No. of business letters: 20
No. of business letters with grammatical metaphor: 20
No. of instances of grammatical metaphor: 418
No. of clauses in these 20 business letters: 346
3.5.2.1. Frequency of use of grammatical metaphor
The frequency of use of grammatical metaphor in the business letters was shown in terms
of, first the percentage of business letters containing grammatical metaphor, and second the
ratio (the average number of GM instances) of grammatical metaphor to the number of
clauses. Table 2 summarizes the results.
Frequency

Figures

Percentage of business letters with grammatical
metaphor
100 %
(20/20 business letters)

GM ratio
1.21
(418/346 clauses)


13
Group 1

Letter 1
2
14 2
4
1

1
10
Letter 2
3
1 1
8
Letter 5
1
8 2
2 2
8
Letter 6

8 1
7
Letter 9

9
1
8
Letter 10
1
10 1

1



1
7
Letter 2
1
7 1
1
1

2
4
Letter 3

9 1
2
1

8 1

1

1
5
8 Letter 7

7 3

1 3

14 4
1
11
No. of
instances
14
182

1
40
23
5

2
3

16
132
Rate (%)
3.35
43.5

letter discourse might not be as simple and straightforward as it has been claimed to be.
The two types of grammatical metaphor used most frequently were types 2 and 13 suggests
that the authors of the letters tended to condense the information which would otherwise be
expressed congruently with a clause (or clause complex) into a nominal group. A nominal
group can be expanded to 'pack in' a great deal of important information (Christie, 1998).
This way of condensing information is called nominalization. Nominalization increases the
density of the information and enriches the content of expressions through making a clause
into a noun or noun phrase. According Halliday, nominalizing is the single most powerful
resource for creating grammatical metaphor. By this device, processes (congruently
9 worded as verbs) and properties (congruently worded as adjectives) are reworded
metaphorically as nouns; instead of functioning in the clause, as Process or Attribute, they
function as Thing in the nominal group. For example:…my sincere apologies for any
inconvenience…can be used in stead of a congruent form: I apologize sincerely because it
is inconvenient for you….
3. 6. Summary
We can infer from the results of the present study that the authors of the business letters
showed a strong tendency to use grammatical metaphor to construct their messages. All
the letters in the corpus contain grammatical metaphor. The most pervasive types of
grammatical metaphor used in the corpus with the reference to table 1 are type 2 and type
13. This suggests that the authors of the letters tended to condense the information into a
nominal group and thus nominalization plays a powerful source of grammatical metaphor
in business letters.

PART C: CONCLUSION
1. Recapitulation
The study has achieved the objectives previously set up. To have a clear understanding
about grammatical metaphor, a feature of lexicogrammar, an overview on the SFG was

proportion of grammatical metaphor is recommended.
3. Limitations of the study
Due to the limitation of time, there exist some limitations in this study first in terms of its
corpus size. The corpus could be made more representative by including more business
letters. Stronger claims concerning the reliability and validity of the findings obtained in
this study could then be made. Second, much focus was put on the analysis of ideational
grammatical metaphor without much attempt in analyzing the instances of interpersonal
metaphor.
4. Suggestions for further studies
From the limitations mentioned above, further studies of the topic should cover a broader
investigation into the use of grammatical metaphor in business letters with a larger corpus.
Furthermore, a contrastive analysis of English and Vietnamese business letters in terms of
grammatical metaphor should be carried out. 40
REFERENCES

English

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M. (2006). Grammatical Metaphor and Lexical metaphor: Different
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Vietnamese