How has business communication changed in the last 4,000 years?

Journal article

Authors/Editors

Strategic Research Themes

Publication Details

Author list: Todd R.W.

Publication year: 2020

Journal: rEFLections (1513-5943)

Volume number: 27

Issue number: 2

Start page: 124

End page: 139

Number of pages: 16

ISSN: 1513-5943

URL: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85091117430&partnerID=40&md5=ee3cb3ab48e2484ed400fe4c5c50fc69

Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)

Abstract

Understanding how language is used in specific contexts and the reasons for this can be helped by examining historical change in genres. In this study focusing on business communication, texts serving the same purpose of demanding payment for a debt but separated by 4,000 years are analysed. The ancient text is a Sumerian cuneiform tablet which is compared to two modern model business letters. The texts are investigated through a genre analysis focusing on functions and linguistic features and a multidimensional register analysis. Both analyses produce similar results with the main exception being the sequencing of functions. The lack of much meaningful change in business communication in the last 4,000 years is likely to be due to the dominant influence of communicative purposes in guiding how language is used. © 2020, School of Liberal Arts, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Business communication Sumeria, English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Genre, Register