摘要

中国加入世界贸易组织之后，在经济,政治,文化,特别是商务领域里，同国际间的交流与合作更加频繁，同时以英语为最主要的商务交流语言的国际商务信函往来也越来越频繁地出现在现代经济中。本文主要通过阅读众多作者的研究成果和查阅专著基础上,对商务英语信函的语篇特征进行详细的研究和描述。
本论文主要由四个部分组成。第一部分是本论文的介绍。第二部分主要阐述相关概念的定义，第三部分是关于作者所做的资料收集和对比分析。第四部分是总结。
对比分析发现商务英语语篇有特有的特征,包括语言特征,语篇结构等方面。作者对材料进行分析，希望能使广大商务英语爱好者更加了解商务英语信函的语篇特征，从而提高商务信函写作水平。

关键词：商务英语信函；语言特征；语篇结构; 语篇特征

Abstract

Since China entered the World Trade Organization, among the fields of economy, politics, and culture, especially, in the field of business, there are more frequent communication and cooperation between China and other countries. Meanwhile, business letters written in English frequently occur in modern economic activities. On the basis of reading lots of authors’ research papers and monographs, the writer of this thesis analyzes and studies the English business letters’ discoursal features.
This paper consists of four parts. The first part serves as an introduction. The second part mainly describes the definition of some related concepts. The third part is the author’s material and analyses. The last part serves as a conclusion.
The comparative analysis shows that English business letters have their own features in terms of linguistic features, discoursal structures and so on. The study aims to help the English business lovers have a better understanding of English business letters’ discoursal features, thereby improve the business letters writing.

Key words: English business letters; linguistic features; discoursal structures; discoursal features
   
1. Introduction
Since China entered the World Trade Organization, in the fields of economy, politics, and culture, especially, in the field of business, there are more frequent communication and cooperation between China and other countries. In international business activities, English plays an important role. Business English is a branch of English for special purposes and the application of English in business situations.