論 文

Is There Any Special Type of English?

Kenichi Tamoto

要旨「ビジネス英語」は，恰も日常の英語と異なるものであるかのように，扱われ，実際に大学のカリキュラムの中に一科目として位置づけられてきた。本論は，この件をさらに通時的並びに共時的に拡大し，特殊な英語というものが存在しうるのかということを検証した。
通時的検証として，アングロ・サクソン時代の英語，チョーサーの時
代の英語，そしてシェイクスピアの時代の英語を取り上げ，その相違点と類似点を指摘，考察を加えた。共時的検証としては，先ず，business(English) という言葉の語義変遷を辿った。そして，business English の教科書がいつ頃から出版されるようになり，それが最近では，口語のbusiness English の教科書が出回るようになっていることに言及した。
また，共時的検証としては，経済，財政，政治，外交，科学などの分野で使われている英語の実例を取り上げ，統語論上の分析を試みた。新聞の英語，特に，見出しの英語はかなり特殊な印象を与えかねないものであるので，最後に，新聞の英語を別項目を設けて取り扱った。以上の広範囲にわたる実例を検証した結果，すべてが英語であって，それも日常の英語と何ら変わるものではないことが分かった。確かに business
English は，一見特殊な英語のように見受けられるが，その特殊性は，専門用語上のことと，多少の文体論上のことからくるものに過ぎない。

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No. 19Keywords: Business English（ビジネス英語），special type of English（特殊な英語），
synchronic（通時的），diachronic（共時的），textbooks of business English（ビジネス英語の教科書）

Introduction
For nearly a quarter century the present writer has taught what is called “Business
English”, and it is regarded as a special type of English. However, he has recently
noticed that some leading dictionaries register the lemma “Business English”, butothers do not: that is to say, the compilers of some dictionaries regard “Business
English” as a special type of English, whereas it seems that others do not regard it as
special. On the other hand, while the present writer was staying at Oxford in 2007,
he found the expression “Business English” in the brochures of language schools,
which have a business course to teach business in English. Furthermore, English usedin the contexts of other fields of study also tends to be regarded as special types ofEnglish, and therefore tends to pass with the name of the special field in Japan, forexample, “Science and Technology English”, “Political English”, “Literary English”,“Newspaper English”, etc. Those matters have stuck fast in the mind of the present
writer. Can English be classified into various types? If so, why? If not so, why?
   The chief aim of the present article is diachronically to discuss features of English
of various period, and synchronically to discuss how similar English used in the context
of a field is to that of other fields, or how different English in the context of a field isfrom that of other fields. The conclusion will naturally be concerned with adequatenessor inadequateness of the use of the name “Business English”.

1. Diachronic survey of the English language
English which was used about 1500 years ago (Old English or Anglo-Saxon) is very
different from present-day English. We must not ignore the fact that Old English or
Anglo-Saxon is the original type of English, and therefore that it is also English. The
following is an illustration of Old English:― 22 ―

Is There Any Special Type of English?

Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
A
S
O
Listen! We of the Spear-Danes in the days of oldþeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,				Vof kings of the nation the glory have heard,hu ða æþelingas Ellen fremedon.
			
O
M´
S´
O´
V´
how those princes deeds of courage performed.
							

(Beowulf 1–3) 1

The above illustration is quoted from Beowulf, the only existing manuscript of which
is believed to have been written ca. 1000 (MS. Vitellius A. XV, British Museum).
Scholars’ opinions vary in estimates of the date of composition of Beowulf, as isilluminated by the following comment of Stanley:2
We do not know the date of composition of Beowulf . . . A conference atToronto, called to date the poem, found no scholarly consensus, though asurprising number of participants thought of date no earlier than the reign of
Alfred and no later than the reign of Athelstan.
English of those days was highly inflected, and morphology was more important thansyntax in order to indicate grammatical relation. Furthermore, the illustrated work isverse. The versification called alliteration was used in Old English poems. This also
influenced the word order of a sentence. The word order here is S+O+V. Modern
readers will understand the syntactical relation more easily if the Old English words
are arranged in the modern way:1

	  Quoted from Elliott van Kirk Dobbie, Beowulf and Judith, The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records IV(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd 1954), p. 3. “A” stands for an absolute, “S” for a
subject, “O” for an object, “V” for a (predicate) verb, and “M” for an (adverbial) modifier. The
italicized sentence is the modern English translation.
2
	  Eric G. Stanley, In the Foreground: Beowulf (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer 1994), p. 67. The reignsof Alfred and Athelstan are 871–899 and 924–939, respectively.
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No. 19Hwæt! We gefrunon þrym þeodcyninga Gardena in geardagum,
A
S
VO
Listen!
We
have
heard
the
glory
of
kings
of
the
nation of the Spear-Danes in the days of old,	hu ða æþelingas fremedon Ellen.
O (Noun Clause)
M´
S´
V´
O´
how those princes performed deeds of courage.
It becomes apparent that the noun clause “hu ða æþelingas fremedon Ellen” is anobjective appositive to “þrym þeodcyninga Gardena in geardagum”, the head word ofwhich is the noun “þrym”.
   It would not be meaningless to compare the structure of the above illustration
with that of the following prose of the ninth or the tenth century:Hwæt we nu gehyrdon þæt se heofonlica cyning ineode on þoneA S M
VO (Noun Clause)
		
			
conj.
S´
V´
M´
Lo! we have now heard that the Heavenly King went into themedmycclan innoþ þære á clænan fæmnan, þæt wæs þæt templ						S V
		(Adverb Phrase)
humble womb of the ever-pure virgin, that was the templeþære geþungennesse & ealre clænnese.
			Cof piety and of all purity.
						

(The Blickling Homilies, I, p. 5)3

The word order here is S+V+O, S+V+C, and S´+V´. Apparently the structure of the3	  R. Morris (ed.), The Blickling Homilies, EETS OS 58, 63, and 73 (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus
Reprint 1990; originally published by the Oxford University Press in 1874, 1876, 1880). Conj.
stands for a conjunction. The homilies are dated 875–950 by Franz Wenisch in his Spezifischanglisches Wortgut in den nordhumbrischen Interlinearglossierungen des Lukasevangeliums(Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag 1979) at page 30.

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Is There Any Special Type of English?

above prosaic sentence is not different from that of present-day English.
   The other factor that makes Old English look very different from present-day
English is vocabulary. A great many words of Old English were lost, or substituted by
Latin or French words, already in the course of the Old English period and furthermore
in the Middle English period (1100–1500).
   One of the features of Middle English is reduced inflection, which resulted in
more frequent use of prepositions and in dependence upon word order. The following
is an illustration quoted from The Canterbury Tales composed by Geoffrey Chaucer:
A KNYGHT ther was, and that a worthy man,S
M V conj. S (V) C…………………………………………………..…

That| fro the tyme that he first biganS
M (adverb phrase)……………………...

To riden out, |he loved chivalrie,		s VO
Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisie.
(The Canterbury Tales, General Prologue ll. 43–46)4

From morphological point of view, reduction of inflection can easily be noticed. The
versification used here is what is called rhyme, which, as in the case of Anglo-Saxon
poems, tends to exert influence upon word order or sentence structure. So far as thesentence illustrated above is concerned, the word order is not very different from thatof present-day English, though the order of the first clause “A KNYGHT ther was”(= There was a knight), the omission of a verb in the second clause “that a worthyman” (= that (was) a brave man), and the separation of a relative particle “that” and apersonal pronoun “he” may be unfamiliar to the eyes of modern readers. Modern
readers may also be embarrassed by unfamiliar spellings.
   The same author incorporated prosaic stories in the same work:4

	  Quoted from Larry D. Benson (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
Company 1987), p. 24.

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No. 19Here bigynneth Chaucers Tale of Melibee.
M
VS	   A yong man called Melibeus, mighty and riche, bigat upon his wif,
				
S
V
M
that called was Prudence, a doghter which that called was Sophie.
(Adverb Phrase)
O
S´

V´

C´

S´

V´

C´

(The Canterbury Tales, The Tale of Melibee, 967)5

It seems that the word order here is almost the same as that of present-day English. The
word order “called was” (> was called) and the use of the relative pronoun “which”, withredundant “that”, referring to the human antecedent may be unfamiliar to modern
readers. From the lexical point of view, it so happens that the above prosaic sentence
contains vernacular words only except for personal names. The verse sentence illustrated
above, however, includes the words “chivalrie”, “honour”, and “curteisie”, which wereborrowed from French, but they are familiar to the present-day readers as “chivalry”,“hono(u)r”, and “courtesy”. Ironically they are more comprehensible to the modern
readers than the vernacular Old English simple words with full inflection.
   Everybody would agree that William Shakespeare is the most renowned author
in early Modern English period (1500–1700). English of his days had become much
more familiar to the readers of the present day than Chaucerian English. Shakespeare’s
works, however, cannot be understood without labour, as the following instanceshows:
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
M (adverb phrase) S VOThat thereby beauty’s rose might never die,		M (adverb clause)				……………..
conj M´

S´

|

V´ M´

5

	  Benson (1987), p. 217.
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Is There Any Special Type of English?

But as the riper should by time deceaseconj
M (Adverb clause)……………….

conj

S´

V´

|

M´

|

His tender heir might bear his memory:S
VO							

(Sonnets, I, ll. 1–4)6This is quoted from one of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The sentence structure, or syntax,
and the inflexion, or morphology, of the above sentence are not different from thoseof present-day English. The problem may be caused by the poet’s characteristic techniqueof employing familiar words, which might technically be called poetic diction.
   An instance should be quoted from Shakespeare’s prose work in order to illustrate
the difference and the similarity of English in his prose work in comparison with thatof his verse. Readers would immediately understand which work the following passage
is quoted from:
Por. The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
		
S
V M C
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heavenSV
M (adverb phrase) M (adverb phrase)……………

Upon the place beneath: it is| twice |blest;
M (adverb phrase) S V M
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
S
V
O
conj
O
ant.

r. cl.

ant.

r. cl.
(The Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 184–87)76

	  Quoted from W. G. Ingram and Theodore Redpath (eds.), Shakespeare’s Sonnets (London,
Sydney, Auckland, Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton 1964, repr. 1978).
7	  Quoted from The Merchant of Venice, Kenkyusha English Classics (Tokyo: Kenkyusha 1928;
repr. 1983). ‘ant.’ is an abbreviation for ‘antecedent’, and ‘r. cl.’ for ‘relative clause’.
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No. 19These are the lines of Portia in The Merchant of Venice. Syntax here is that of presentday English—S+V+C, S+V, and S+V+O. Morphologically, readers may slightly bebewildered by the conjugation, such as ‘droppeth’, ‘blesseth’, ‘gives’, and ‘takes’. Thisfactor, however, would not be so significant as to exert influence upon interpretationof the above passage, which may have been written in colloquialism of highly literary
quality. The present section is concluded with the remark that even though readers of
Shakespeare’s works may require a glossary and a grammar book of his works,8 as in
the case of Anmglo-Saxon or Chaucer’s works, we should keep in mind that his works
were written in English of his days.

2. Synchronic survey of English
Once a diachronic survey of English has been carried out, it would be natural toattempt a synchronic survey also. A brief research into present-day English employedin various fields is meant here by a synchronic survey.
2.1. English used for business correspondence
As mentioned in the introductory section of the present article, English used forbusiness correspondence tends to be regarded as a special type of English and to becalled “Business English”. This section deals with English employed in the special fieldof business correspondence with some historical survey of the word ‘business’ and thephrase ‘Business English’.
2.1.1. The Origin of the word “business”
The OED classifies the senses of the word ‘business’ into three major categories: I“State or quality of being busy”, II “A company of flies, also of ferrets”, and III “Thatabout which one is busy”. All the senses which belong to the first two major categories
are obsolete now. The earliest instance of the word ‘business’ in the OED, thesignification of which belongs to the first major category and therefore is obsolete now,is cited from the Old English gloss of the Lindisfarne Gospels, which dates back to8	  C. T. Onions, A Shakespeare Glossary, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press; Tokyo:
Kinokuniya Bookstore Co., Ltd., 1919, repr. 1953; 1st ed. 1911). E. A. Abbott, A Shakespearian
Grammar (London: MacMillan and Co., Limited 1929; 1st ed. 1869).
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Is There Any Special Type of English?

c 950. The word occurs in the following context: ‘ne bisignisse mettes 7 woedeshæbende’, glossing ‘nec sollicitudinem escæ et vestis habendam’ (Matt., Table Contents
XX).9 Here the word ‘bisignisse’ is employed as the term equivalent to the Latin‘sollicitudinem’ in the sense ‘anxiety, solicitude, care, distress, uneasiness’.
   Under the third major category are included the following senses: ‘the object ofanxiety or serious effort; a serious purpose or aim’ (c 1392, Obs.),10 ‘a task appointed
or undertaken; a person’s official duty, part or province; function, occupation’ (c 1385),‘a person’s official or professional duties as a whole; stated occupation, profession, ortrade’ (1477), ‘in general sense: action which occupies time, demands attention andlabour; esp. serious occupation, work, as opposed to pleasure or recreation’ (c 1400),‘(with plural.) a pursuit or occupation demanding time and attention; a serious
employment as distinguished from a pastime’ (c 1400), ‘a particular matter demanding
attention; a piece of work, a job’ (1557), ‘a matter that concerns or relates to a particularperson or thing’ (1525), ‘a subject or topic of consideration or discussion; the subjectof a book, etc.’ (1622, Obs.), ‘vaguely, an affair, concern, matter. (Now usuallyindicating some degree of contempt or impatience, esp. when preceded by a sb. in
attrib. relation.) Frequent in colloquial phrases like “a bad business”, “a queer business”’(1605), ‘dealings, intercourse (with)’ (1611, arch.)11, ‘Theat. Action as distinguishedfrom dialogue’ (1671), ‘trade, commercial transactions or engagements’ (1727). It
seems that the last sense of the above list, that is to say, ‘trade, commercial transactions
or engagements’ concern what is called ‘Business English’. It is the sense of the word‘business’ which developed in the course of the first half of the eighteenth century.
2.1.2. Appearance of the phrase “Business English”
The present section deals with the attitude of the editors of the leading dictionaries
toward the phrase ‘Business English’.
9	  Quoted from Walter W. Skeat (ed), The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old
Mercian Versions, synoptically arranged, with collations exhibiting all the readings of all the MSS.;
together with the early Latin version as contained in the Lindisfarne MS., collated with the Latin
version in the Rushworth MS. (Cambridge: University Press 1871–87), Matt. p. 17.
10	  The number in the parentheses signifies the date of the earliest illustration of the word in therelevant sense. Obs. stands for ‘obsolete now’.
11	  Arch. Stands for ‘archaic’.

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No. 19   The OED, 2nd ed. (1989; 1st ed. 1888–1928), does not record the lemma “business
English”, nor does The Century Dictionary (London: The Times; New York: The
Century Co. 1904), which was completed in 1891, that is to say, one and a half
centuries later than the date of the first illustration of the sense ‘trade, commercial
transactions or engagements’ of the word ‘business’ in the OED. The lemma ‘business
English’ does not occur even in the present-day English dictionaries, such as The
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English, ninth edition (Oxford: Clarendon Press
1995; first edition 1911), Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (London: Harper Collins
Publisher 1995), and Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, sixth edition (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2007; first edition 1933). Those dictionaries are all British dictionaries
except for the Century Dictionary, the chief editor of which is William Dwight Whitney(1827–1894), Professor of Comparative Philology and Sanskrit in Yale University.
   On the other hand, editors of modern American dictionaries accept ‘business
English’ as a lemma. Both the first and the second editions of The Random House
Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Random House; first ed. 1966, second
ed. 1987) have the lemma “business English”, defining as “English in business usage,
esp. the style and forms of business correspondence”. Webster’s New International
Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C.
Merriam Company 1950, repr. 1952) adopts the lemma “business English” with its
definition “English as used in business; specif., the study and practice of composition,with emphasis on correctness and propriety, spelling, punctuation and the forms ofbusiness correspondence”. This policy is also adopted by the editorial staff of Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (Springfield, Massachusetts:
G. & C. Merriam Company 1961, repr. 1976), which has the lemma “business
English” with the following definitions:
1: English as used in business; specif : the study and practice of composition
with emphasis on correctness, propriety, spelling, punctuation and the formsof business correspondence 2: English as taught in non-English-speaking
countries in courses that emphasize its commercial rather than its cultural
importance and that are normally designed to produce conversational fluency
within a limited vocabulary.
   To sum up, editors of modern American dictionaries tend to adopt the lemma― 30 ―

Is There Any Special Type of English?

‘business English’, whereas those of British dictionaries do not. The editor of Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (Springfield, Massachusetts:
G. & C. Merriam Company 1961, repr. 1976), as illustrated above, gives helpful andinteresting information as the second definition of the phrase ‘business English’.
2.1.3. The present-day status of “Business English”
It was in 1975 that French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing invited the heads ofgovernment from Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States of America,
and West Germany, to a summit conference in Rambouillet in order to discuss financial
or economic problems of the leading nations of the West. This was what was called
the Meeting of the Group of Six, or G 6. The following year, G 7 was formed with theparticipation of Canada. It has developed as G 8 with the participation of Russia since1997. The members of the summit meeting or conference used to have very little
interest in financial affairs, which had been coped with by government officials, butfinancial or economic matters have become main interest to the heads of the states.
   It may safely be stated that such social movement in finance or economy has
influenced appearance of the phrase ‘business English’ and elevation of the status ofbusiness English in international trade, which appears to be relevant to publication of
textbooks or manuals of business English. As early as 1953 Greta LaFollette Henderson
and Price R. Voiles published a textbook entitled Business English Essentials, Sixth
edition (New York, etc.: McGraw-Hill 1980; first published in 1953). The following
textbooks are examples of those of business English published in Japan:
Takemitsu Toya, A New Approach to English for International Business (Tokyo:
Nan’un-do 1976) 鳥谷剛三「最新貿易英語」．
Takemitsu Toya, A Road to Business English (Tokyo: Seibido; first published in1978) 鳥谷剛三「新貿易英語教本」．
Muto & Kobayashi, Basic English for Foreign Trade (Tokyo: Nan’un-do 1979)12
武藤光太，小林甫「基礎貿易英語」．

Yoichi Usui, Tomoo Otsuka and Yasushi Fukuda, English for International
Business Communication (Tokyo: Seibido 1990) 碓井陽一，大塚朝夫，福田靖
12	  Its last page, which is the advertisement of the four textbooks published from the same company,
has the title “Business English”.

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No. 19「最新ビジネス英語」．

Junzo Hayashi, An Introduction to Business English (Tokyo: Seibido 1993) 林純三「入門ビジネス英語」．

The recent trend is for publishing companies to pay attention to stimulating thedevelopment of speaking abilities in business English. The following would be a good
example of such a textbook: Amy Gillett, Speak Business English Like an American:
Learn the Idioms & Expressions You Need to Succeed on the Job (Language Success Pr.
2005). A final mention must be made of a dictionary of Business: Dilys Parkinson,
Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English (ELT) (Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2005).
2.1.4. Analysis of English used for business correspondenceThis section deals with sentences quoted from manuals or textbooks compiled forbusiness correspondence, and these instances are analysed from the viewpoints ofgrammar and phraseology. The following two sentences are quoted from the textbook
written by Henderson and Voiles, which is mentioned in the preceding section:
We appreciate your recent order for two of our Model B600
S
V
O
Benlux portable mixers. This model is an extremely popular
S
V
C…………………
one—so popular|, in fact, |that we are temporarily out of stock!
		CM      M (adverb clause)				
conj. S´ V´M´C´Thus we regret that there will be a slight delay in shipping your order.
M S V
O (noun clause)(Henderson and Voiles (1980), p. 102)…………………….

Would| you please |send me a corrected statement as quickly as possible.
V
S M
IO
DO
M
Immediately upon receiving it, I will send you a check for the balance
		
M
S
V
IO
DO
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Is There Any Special Type of English?

of my account.				

(Henderson and Voiles (1980), p. 103)

The following illustration is quoted from a textbook published in Japan:
We are glad to attach a price list. The prices are quoted on FOB Japanese port
S V C M (adverb phrase)SV
M (adverb phrase)in our currency. We have airmailed the catalogue and also our standard
M (adverb phrase) SVO
agency agreement form for your careful study, as requested.
M (adverb phrase) M (adverb phrase)(Hayashi (1993), p. 59)

To sum up, syntactically or grammatically no difference can be found between ordinary
English and what is called business English. The only difference between them can befound in terminology and to some extent in stylistics.
2.2. English used in other contexts
The following instances are cited from financial and economic materials, analysedsyntactically as in the previous sections:

Nikkei plunges over 2% on strong yen

S
V
M
M
Tokyo stocks plunged more than 2 percent Friday to close at the lowest level
S
VM
M
M (adverb phrase)
in a week as the dollar’s fall to the upper ¥104 level and fresh credit woes
M (adverb clause)
conj.
S
battered Japanese exporters and financial stocks.
V
O(The Daily Yomiuri, Saturday, March 1, 2008, p. 9)

Mitsubishi Electric to stop making cell phonesSverbalO (noun phrase)
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Monday it would stop developing and making
SVM
O (noun clause)
					
					
S´
V´
O´
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No. 19cell phone handsets due to falling profitability in the domestic market.

(noun phrase)M´ (adverb phrase)(The Daily Yomiuri, Tuesday, March 4, 2008, p. 1)

				
			

CHAP. IV.
Of the Origin and Use of Money				(Chapter Title)	   When the division of labour has been once thoroughly established,	  M (adverb clause)……………………………………………………………………

it| is but a very small part of man’s wants |which the produce of his own labour
SV
C						
						O´S´
can supply.
V´(The Works of Adam Smith, LL.D. (Aalen: Otto. Zeiler 1963) vol. II, p. 33)

	   To talk sense about what determines total production, employment,	  
M (adverb phrase)and prices, we must know what these concepts are and what they measure.
		SVO (noun clause)
conj. O (noun clause)
We also need to know something about their actual magnitudes, and to get
S M V
O (noun phrase)conj.
some historical perspective on their relationships. Gross national product,
O (noun phrase)S
national income, and total employment are three of the most useful over-all						
VC
measures.
(Economics: An Introduction to Analysis and Policy (Englewood Cliffs:
Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1954), p. 66)― 34 ―

Is There Any Special Type of English?

   The following sentences are quoted as instances of English employed in thecontext of politics or international affairs:

Key lawmaker calls for SDF foreign dispatch law

SV
M (adverb phrase)	   WASHINGTON (Kyodo)—A Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker						
S
											
(antecedent)
who heads the House of Representatives’ special antiterrorism panel said									V
				(adjective clause)
Monday he would strive to establish later this year a permanent lawM
O (noun clause)
		
S´
V´
O´
to dispatch Self-Defense Forces troops overseas.
(noun phrase)(The Daily Yomiuri, Wednesday, March 12, 2008, p. 2)

Obama favored to win primary in Mississippi

S (verbal)
M (adverb phrase)	   WASHINGTON (AP)—Barack Obama locked in a tight and						
S
contentious race with Hillary Clinton, was favored to winTuesday’s primary						VM
in Mississippi as the two Democrats battled for every last delegate in their(adverb phrase)
historic contest for the party’s presidential nomination.
(The Daily Yomiuri, Wednesday, March 12, 2008, p. 7)― 35 ―

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No. 193 hurt in attack on whaling vessel

S verbalM (adverb phrase)	   Three people on board a Japanese whaling vessel suffered eye injuries			O (noun clause)
	  
				
S´
V´
O´
after spattered with acidic liquid from bottles thrown at their vessel byM´ (adverb phrase)
members of the U.S. environmental group Sea Shepherd Conservation society

in the Antarctic Ocean on Monday, the Fisheries Agency said.
S
V(The Daily Yomiuri, Tuesday, March 4, 2008, p. 1)

UNSC OK’s new sanctions against IranSVO	   UNITED NATIONS (Reuters)—The U.N. Security Council ratcheted							S		
Vup sanctions on Iran on Monday for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment
MOM
M (adverb phrase)and other sensitive activeness, but Tehran dismissed the decision as illegal.
				
conj. S
V
O
M
(The Daily Yomiuri, Wednesday, March 5, 2008, p. 1)

China defense budget to rise 17%

		Sverbal M	   BEIJING (Reuter)—China will raise its heavily scrutinized defense				  O (noun clause)
				
				
S´
V´
O´
spending by nearly a fifth this year, a top official said Tuesday, warning
					
S
V
M
		

M´

M´
― 36 ―

Is There Any Special Type of English?

self-ruled Taiwan that Beijing would “tolerate no division”.
M (adverb phrase—participial construction)(The Daily Yomiuri, Wednesday, March 5, 2008, p. 1)

The following sentence and paragraph are quoted from scientific works:
The goals of agricultural chemistry are to expand man’s understanding of the			S
V C (noun phrase)
causes and effects of biochemical reactions related to plant and animal growth,
to reveal opportunities for controlling those reactions, and to develop chemical			C (noun phrase)		
conj. C (noun phrase)
products that will provide the desired assistance or control.
				(McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (NewYork, etc.: McGraw-Hall, Inc. 1960, repr. 1977), p. 131)

The literature of science, a permanent record of the communication between
					Sscientists, is also the history of science: a record of the search for truth,		V M
Cof observation and opinions, of hypotheses that have been ignored or havebeen found wanting or have withstood the test of further observation andexperiment. Science is a continuing endeavour in which the end of one
			SV 					
Cinvestigation may be the starting point for another. Scientists must write,								
S
Vtherefore, so that their discoveries may be known to others.
M			
M (adverb clause)(Scientists Must Write (London: Chapman and Hall 1978), p. 25)   The following are instances of newspaper English; our attention should be paid
to the special use in the headlines:― 37 ―

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 19

S. Korea parliament endorses new PM

		
S
V
O
	   SEOUL (AFP-Jiji)—South Korea’s parliament on Friday endorsed
					
S
M
V
Han Seung Soo as new prime minister, giving President Lee Myung BakO
M (adverb phrase) 			
M
a much-needed boost after a rocky first week in office.
(adverb phrase)				(The Daily Yomiuri, Saturday, March 1, 2008, p. 5)

Fed: U.S. not facing ’70’s style stagflationS
M verbalO
But Bernanke admits some small banks may fail due to housing Market,
conj. SV
O (noun clause)
subprime woes.

	   WASHINGTON (Reuter)—U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman							
SBen Bernanke said Thursday the United States was not headed toward
			
V
M
O
1970s-style “Stagflation”, but acknowledged inflation could complicate(noun clause)		
conj.
V		
O (noun clause)the central bank’s effort to spur the economy.

				(The Daily Yomiuri, Saturday, March 1, 2008, p. 8)

Growth down and inflation up, says Bank		O (noun clause)

V

S	    S´      C´   conj.    S´
C´Growth will slow sharply this year but there is limited room for further				
O (noun clause)S´V´
M´
M´ conj. M´ V´interest rate cuts, the Bank of England said yesterday.
				
S
V
M

S´

(The Times, Thursday February 14 2008, p. 53)― 38 ―

Is There Any Special Type of English?

Medvedev to face unpalatable legacy	     S
verbalO	   Most elections have an element of uncertainty about them. Not Russia’s.
		
S
V
O			
M
S
This weekend, barring a miracle, Dmitry Medvedev, President VladimirM
M (adverb phrase)		
S
Putin’s handpicked successor, will win the Russian presidency by a landslide.
					
V		
O
M (verb phrase)(The Daily Yomiuri, Saturday, March 1, 2008, p. 13)   To sum up, syntactically or grammatically no difference can be found between
ordinary English and that employed in the financial, economic, political, international,
or scientific context. The only difference between them can be found in terminology
and to some extent in stylistics. Some special remarks must be made about English
used in the headline and the body of a newspaper. The verb of the headline of the first
instance, endorses, in the present tense, which actually signifies the past. The headlineof the second instance includes the phrase not facing, which is used for ‘was not facing’.
No verb or verbal occurs in the headline of the third instance, Growth down andinflation up: the copula ‘is’ or ‘will be’ could be added between growth and down, andinflation and up. As in the headline of the fourth instance, an infinitive, to face, isnormally used to replace the future tense, ‘will face’ in this case. Concerning the body,the principal clause, as in the third instance, follows its subordinate noun clause.

Conclusion
Both synchronically and diachronically, English is English. English of Anglo-Saxon
period or that of Chaucerian age looks at a glance to be very different from present-day
English, and therefore appears to be a special type of English. However, we should notforget that it was usual English spoken by the ordinary people of those days.
   Both syntactically and morphologically, there can be found no difference between
English employed in business correspondence and that employed in the other fields.
According to the above brief survey of semasiology of the word ‘business (English)’and appearance of textbooks with the title ‘Business English’, it may safely be statedthat Webster’s New International Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (Springfield,― 39 ―

愛知大学

言語と文化

No. 19Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam Company 1950) is the first leading dictionary that
adopted the lemma “business English”, with its definition “English as used in business;
specif., the study and practice of composition, with emphasis on correctness andpropriety, spelling, punctuation and the forms of business correspondence”, and thata textbook entitled Business English Essentials, Sixth edition (New York, etc.: McGrawHill first published in 1953) published by Greta LaFollette Henderson and Price R.
Voiles is the first textbook of this type as far as the present writer owns. The second
sense of the word ‘business English’ in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of
the English Language (Springfield, Massachusetts: G. & C. Merriam Company 1961)
is semasiologically interesting and deserves to be mentioned here again for emphasis:
2: English as taught in non-English-speaking countries in courses thatemphasize its commercial rather than its cultural importance and that arenormally designed to produce conversational fluency within a limited
vocabulary.

The last clause, which goes ‘that are normally designed to produce conversational
fluency within a limited vocabulary’, emphasizes ‘conversational fluency’, Thistendency has been actualized by the appearance of the textbooks such as Amy
Gillett, Speak Business English Like an American: Learn the Idioms & Expressions You
Need to Succeed on the Job (Language Success Pr. 2005). Finally it must be mentioned
again for emphasis that basically there is no difference between business English andthat of the other fields: the only difference, only if it is insisted, may be terminologicaland to some extent stylistic.

― 40 ―