A Multidimensional Analysis of Letters to the Shareholders by Chinese and American Advanced Equipment Manufacturing Companies

Abstract

Initially proposed by Biber, the multidimensional analysis is used to examine the linguistic variation among different registers, shedding light on the linguistic features and differences among different genres. Through the tool of MAT, this study compared the register features in the letters to the shareholders by Chinese and American advanced equipment manufacturing companies (AEMCs). It is found that: 1) the letters to the shareholders by Chinese and American AEMCs are both informational, non-narrative, contextually independent, non-overt in expressing views, abstract and well-planned, belonging to the text type of learned exposition; 2) In comparison, the letters to the shareholders by Chinese AEMCs are relatively more informational, narrative and abstract, but less dependent on context and lower in on-line informational elaboration while letters by American AEMCs show more features of interaction with the readers, focusing on the present actions, context-dependence and on-line informational elaboration; 3) The key linguistic features that account for these differences include nouns, nominalizations, first-person pronouns, present tense verbs, past tense verbs, phrasal coordination, phrasal coordination, prediction modals, conjuncts, passives, demonstratives and that-clauses. 4) The future Return on Equity (ROE) of the Chinese AEMCs is related to the dimensions of “explicit/context-dependent references” and “on-line informational elaboration”. 5) In comparison to the previous study, industry is found to have an effect on the linguistic variation of letters to the shareholders. This study gave a comprehensive view of the linguistic features and differences in the letters to the shareholders by Chinese and American AEMCs and had some pedagogical implications for business English teaching and learning.