Talk:
Dear Boss. How are you? Addressing superiors in letters

Dr. Ylva Carlsson
The Department of Scandinavian Studies, The Stockholm University

Date: January 26 (Wednesday)
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Venue: LE7, Library Extension Building

Abstract:
Writing well-crafted texts in a culture in which norms are changing is difficult not only for native writers, but obviously even more so for second-language writers. The writing of letters in various practical situations is part of the everyday lives of adults in their contact with authorities, companies and institutions.

The purpose of my investigation was to study practical writing in adult life situations. I chose as a writing assignment a series of letters, the first of which was a job application and the second another letter to the same company with a request for a new interview appointment. The third letter consisted of an apology to the managing director of the company after a private dinner at which an accident occurred.

My material consists of 360 texts written in Swedish by 120 adult students. The informants were evenly distributed between three language groups: Persian, Spanish and Swedish speakers. There was an even distribution between women and men.

Introductory and concluding phrases of letters are often demonstrated and commented on in textbooks on Swedish. It may therefore be assumed that these are the parts of a letter most influenced by formal teaching. Nevertheless, I found that there were greater differences in these phrases than I had expected. I also studied the use of personal pronouns. During the last few decades there has been a change especially among young native speakers of Swedish. They tend to go back to a respectful ni (French vous) when addressing older people. Many non-native speakers also claim they prefer ni to du (French tu) to their superiors. However, I found there were differences in the choice of personal pronouns between all the three language groups.

The informants represent cultures with different conventions and norms for social intercourse, respect and politeness. How is this reflected in the choice of social markers in their written communication? Do women and men choose similar strategies? Several of the letters showed how difficult it is to master both the choice of personal pronouns and the introductory and concluding phrases.