A Contrastive Rhetoric Analysis of Professional Register in Internal Communication Electronic Mails

Abstract

This study employs a corpus-based approach to identify and examine professional register features and some cultural-rhetorical patterns from a corpus of 50 internal communication electronic mails (e-mails) randomly culled from one Filipino and two American companies. Using the ten linguistic parameters in register variation in professional communication, similarities and differences in professional register features, as well as fluctuation tendencies, have been accounted. The findings have revealed that both e-mail corpora from the two language communities contained features significantly marked by professional casual register. However, a close inspection of the individual parameter frequency results has revealed considerable differences including register fluctuation tendencies, conformities to genre norms and conventionalities, and some culture-related rhetorical peculiarities. Moreover, the study has provided explanations on the importance of understanding rhetorical differences across cultures, as well as suggestions for further research endeavors on the given genre and language research field.