The Discourse Analysis of E-Business Instant Communication from the Perspective of Politeness Principle

With the popularity and frequency of e-business activities, e-business instant communication plays an increasingly important role in e-business, and the appropriate and reasonable use of business language usually directly influences the economic interests. Therefore, the present study takes politeness principle as the theoretical framework and the participants’ chat records of e-business instant communication as the research data, and adopts the methodologies of discourse analysis and interview to explore the language use in e-business activities from the perspective of politeness principle. And the present study finds that servicers and customers use different linguistic resources from the perspective of politeness principle out of different interest pursuit. More specifically, servicers strictly observe the six maxims having no violations in e-business instant communication, while customers go against Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim and usually comply with Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, nevertheless, they violate Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim on special occasion in e-business instant communication. What’s more, if customers can strictly observe Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, and servicers can study how to avoid and deal with customers’ violation to Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim successfully, enterprises, servicers and customers will benefit.


Introduction
With the rapid development of economy and network technology, e-business activities are becoming more and more frequent and popular, the competitions among e-business providers are getting fiercer, and the relationship between the e-business providers and customers is becoming increasingly complex.Because language urges people to communicate, e-business activities can't be separated from language (Felemban, 2012;Grice, 1975), in other words, e-business instant communication plays an increasingly important role in e-business.Furthermore, the appropriate and reasonable use of business language usually directly determines the success or failure of e-business communications, and further influences the economic interests.Therefore, it is necessary to adopt the method of discourse analysis and interview to analyze the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, and further reflect the vital function of appropriate use of politeness principle in business activities and facilitate the exertion of the politeness principle in business activities by both parties so as to improve the quality of service, promote the achievement of trade, increase the developmental efficiency of e-business and economy and finally make both enterprises and customers beneficial.The research's theoretical significance is to enrich the application of politeness principle and discourse analysis.And its practical significance is to strengthen the use of politeness principle in e-business instant communication and further make both enterprises and customers beneficial.

Literature Review
The key concepts, namely, politeness principle, e-business instant communication and discourse analysis, used in the present study and previous studies on them are analyzed and presented in this part.

Politeness Principle
The politeness principle was raised by Leech, a British linguist, to "make up for the lack of cooperative principle" (Gu, 1992;Sun & Tian, 2012).Politeness principle means that in the communicative activities, the level of politeness and the consciousness of thinking for others should be raised to the maximum, and the sense of harming to others should be minimized.
According to the studies on politeness principle in both domestic and overseas, we can find that most scholars put emphasis on politeness principle itself, such as Levinson (1983), the application of the politeness principle in cross-cultural and business communication (e.g.Holgraves & Joong-nam, 1990), the exertion of politeness principle in language teaching and learning and the combination of politeness principle with cooperative principle and other linguistic principles, such as Lin, 2011;Shen, 2013;Ma & Zhao, 2007;Zhou, 2007;Wu, 2003.However, quite a few scholars pay attention to the application of politeness principle in e-business activities and e-business instant communication -the concrete exertion of the six principles of politeness principle in e-business activities and e-business instant communication.Therefore, this study starts from the perspective to analyze the specific exertion of politeness principle in e-business instant communication.

E-business Instant Communication
The instant communication is "a kind of terminal service which allows two or more people to transfer text messages, files, audios and videos in real time via internet" (Wan, 2016).And e-business instant communication mainly refers to the application of instant communication in e-business, such as Alitalk, which is conductive to the communication among servicers and customers and further smooth the trade.

Discourse Analysis
The discourse is "a specific verbal act of communication among people, and a verbal activity of communication between a certain speaker and a subject in a particular social context, including speakers, subjects, text, communication, context and other elements.And discourse analysis is a study on what people say (narrate), how to say it, and the social consequences of what they say" (Huang, 2006).And Lin (2007) pays attention to the records of the language and expression of the chat room of the Alitalk.Similarly, the present study focuses on the discourse analysis of e-business instant communication.
With regard to the relationship between instant communication and e-business, most scholars often study the use of tools of e-business instant communication in business activities, especially in e-business activities, such as Lin (2007) and Wan (2016).But few scholars analyze the effects of the language of instant communication and the application of specific signs of communication in business activities, for instance, Wan (2016) analyzes the advantages of instant communication tools in network marketing and studies the application of instant communication tools in various e-business websites, and further concludes that the application of instant communication tools can help improve the success rate of transaction between enterprises and customers.Moreover, Lin (2007) argues that e-business websites can build good relationships between enterprises and customers and achieve excellent online sales results via instant communication software by describing the current status and trends of the development of instant communication tools, including the current status and trends of instant communication tools in the global marketplace and in the Chinese market, and analyzing specific cases, such as, C2C, B2B, B2C and other applications of instant messaging software in e-business.
The discourse analysis is not only a discipline but also an analytical tool.Many studies focus on the development, classification and the application of discourse analysis in specific context as an analytical tool (e.g.Huang, 2006;Zhu, 2003;Brown, Gillian, & Yule, 1983).And Zhu (2003) reviews the development of discourse analysis in the past years and the achievements, characteristics and deficiencies at different stages of development.

Theoretical Framework and Methodology
In this part, the present study explains the connotation of the politeness principle considered as the theoretical framework and the research methodology which includes research objective, research questions and data collection.

Politeness Principle
The politeness principle mentioned by Leech and considered as the theoretical framework contains six criteria, each of which has two norms.The first criterion is the Tact Maxim meaning to minimize the adverse information to others and benefit others as much as possible.The second criterion is the Generosity Maxim meaning to minimize the information of self-interest and benefit oneself less.The third criterion is the Approbation Maxim meaning to minimize accusations against others and praise others as much as possible.The fourth criterion is the Modesty Maxim meaning to minimize the praise to self and criticize self as much as possible.The fifth criterion is the Agreement Maxim meaning to minimize disagreement with others and agree with others as much as possible.The sixth criterion is the Sympathy Maxim meaning to minimize opposition to others and maximize the mutual understanding (Leech, 1983).Because each criterion can be involved in the discourses of e-business instant communication, this study analyzes the discourses of e-business instant communication from these six criteria respectively.

Research Methodology
The present study takes politeness principle as the theoretical framework and the chat records of the participants of e-business instant communication as the research data, and adopts the methodologies of discourse analysis and interview to explore the language use in e-business activities from the perspective of politeness principle.Then, the research objective, research questions and data collection are elaborated in this part.

Research Objective
The research objective is to facilitate the exertion of politeness principle in e-business activities by both parties so as to improve the quality of service, promote the achievement of trade, increase the developmental efficiency of the e-business and economy and finally make both enterprises and customers beneficial through analyzing how the application of politeness principle affects the communication between servicers and customers in the e-business instant messaging software chat rooms and further affecting the efficiency and success rate of e-business activities.

Research Questions
If the above-mentioned research objective is to be achieved, the present study should clarify some questions first.The concrete questions to be explored are as follows: 1) What are the results of customer service staffs and customers observing politeness principle?
2) What are the results of customer service staffs and customers violating politeness principle?
3) How does the application of politeness principle influence the transaction?

Data Collection
The data analyzed and discussed in this thesis are chat records of customers when they do pre-consultation or after-sales service and servicers, which occur in the e-business instant messaging software chat rooms in the most unaffected situation, express both parties' real opinions and true feelings, and are presented in the form of screen-shots of the smart phone.And the database includes 459 pieces of screen-shots of chat records coming from 73 participants (49 women and 24 men from different occupations and ages) and some representatives will be presented in the thesis.What's more, the present study carefully analyzes the collected data and selects those data that are conductive to the study at first.And then, the present study further subdivides the selected data into discourses of servicers' conformation to politeness principle in e-business instant communication, discourses of customers' conformation to politeness principle in e-business instant communication, discourses of servicers' violation to politeness principle in e-business instant communication and discourses of customers' violation to politeness principle in e-business instant communication.Finally, the present study classifies these subdivided discourses according to the six criteria of politeness principle.

Use of Politeness Principle in E-Business Instant Communication
In this part, the present study respectively analyzes the expression of servicers' and customers' discourses observing and violating politeness principle.

Discourse Analysis of Servicers' Conformation to Politeness Principle
In this section, the present study respectively analyzes the expression of servicers' discourses conformation to politeness principle's six maxims in the following sequence: Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim, Sympathy Maxim through analyzing the concrete examples.

Servicers' Conformation to the Tact Maxim
First of all, the Tact Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize disadvantageous information to others and benefit others as much as possible.In other words, what servicers do or say is in customers' shoes, considers the gain and loss of customers and finally satisfies customers.Are there some bigger than it?
As shown in example 1, when the commodity, bought by the customer, isn't satisfying and the customer is planning to complain, the servicer steps up and offers all possible solutions, like sentence 5.Moreover, the servicer also uses the cute modal particles, such as "oh", which not only can ease the embarrassing condition and bring the customer closer to the servicer, but also can further facilitate the conclusion of the transaction and resolution of the conflict.
For verifying what we have talked about, the author has interviewed those customers whose shopping experience has been selected as the typical cases.
…I was really angry about that for my being anxious for using laptop bag.But when I saw the servicer's message, I felt that the servicer had thought a lot of my best interests, and I changed my mind taking a more peaceful way to settle the matter.Even more surprising, with the enthusiastic assistance and careful guidance of the servicer, I changed it for another laptop bag which was delicate with proper size… [Mr. Zhang] In a word, although there are many unexpected situation in the process of trading, the transactions will be conducted more smoothly with the Tact Maxim taken by the servicers.

Servicers' Conformation to the Generosity Maxim
Secondly, the Generosity Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize advantageous information to self and benefit self as little as possible.In other words, what servicers do or say isn't in their own shoes, doesn't consider the gain and loss of themselves and finally satisfies customers and further closes the deal smoothly.As a matter of fact, the Generosity Maxim has the same effect with the Tact Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle making customers benefit a lot and letting servicers gain little.
Example 2: Hello, there indeed are some peculiar smells at the beginning of the using of the clothes, but the peculiar smells will disappear quickly.6 Servicer: 质量问题和运输破损的，坏了包换

Servicer:
If there are some damages caused during the transportation and quality problems, you can change it for free.
As shown in example 2, the servicer strictly observes the Generosity Maxim-when the customer asks the quality of the commodity, the servicer doesn't praise the commodity and says it is perfect, but strictly observes the Generosity Maxim like sentence 5.
…Because I worried about the quality of the commodity at the quite low price, I just tried to ask.But I was surprised that the servicer was honest, hahaha.He told me that there indeed are some peculiar smells at the beginning of the using of the clothes, but the peculiar smells will disappear quickly.I believed what the servicer said and bought one, and the fact proved that the servicer and I were right…I think I will buy things I need in this shop again for their honesty… [Mr. Wang] On the surface, the servicer exposes the shortcomings of the commodity to the customer, however, the servicer who lets the customer know the commodity clearly and feel the honesty of the servicer is the true beneficiary.

Servicers' Conformation to the Approbation Maxim
Thirdly, the Approbation Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize criticism to other people and pay other people compliments as much as possible.In other words, even if there are some problems caused by errors or omissions of customers, servicers should be magnanimous and good-mannered containing customers' faults and errors and not bothering about too much of the gain and loss.What's more, it will be better if the servicers can praise the customers at a proper moment.
Example 3: …I was very sorry to bother the servicer and worried about the color I wouldn't like.However, the servicer was friendly for which I had a wonderful shopping experience and also gave this shop a five-star high praise… [Ms.

Liang]
From example 3, we can find that although the problems caused by errors or omissions of customers has caused trouble to servicers, such as noting error message and forgetting to note message, etc., the servicers don't find faults with or complain the customers, but help the customers correct the mistakes heartily and further facilitate the completion of the deal successfully.As a result, the customer has a wonderful shopping experience in this shop, and the servicers and the merchants likewise get returns because of their favorable attitudes and superior services, such as "five-star high praise" and repurchase.

Servicers' Conformation to the Modesty Maxim
Fourthly, the Modesty Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize compliments to self and find faults with self as much as possible.In other words, in the process of transaction, servicers should take more responsibilities and look into their conducts constantly on their own initiatives.As a matter of fact, the Modesty Maxim has the same effect with the Approbation Maxim when used-on transactions with principle paying customers compliments as much as possible and finding faults with servicers as much as possible.But in the real deal, the cases that servicers criticize themselves seriously are rare, and what they often do is to extend a formal apology and take some remedial measures to solve the problems.In this case, the servicer just says sorry but has no specific remedial measures.If the customer doesn't want to look for unnecessary troubles, he or she may accept the servicer's apology and concludes the deal, however, if the customer doesn't take this problem lying down, only one "sorry" can't satisfy the customer.What's worse, the fame of the servicer and the shop and the performance of the shop can be subjected to bad influences.Therefore, in the event of the servicers could take the Modesty Maxim at the right time, there will be more incomes than expenses.

Servicers' Conformation to the Agreement Maxim
Fifthly, the Agreement Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize disagreement with other people and express agreement with other people as much as possible.In other words, in the process of communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to avoid or decrease the head-on confrontation.
Example 5: As shown in example 5, it is obvious that the customer is very angry, and fortunately, the servicer strictly observes the Agreement Maxim trying his or her best to avoid the head-on confrontation with the customer and solves the problem smoothly, if not, the fame of the servicer and the shop and the performance of the shop can be subjected to awful influences.From this we can conclude that it is significant that servicers take the Agreement Maxim at the right time.… At that time, I had left the place where the shoes would be sent, so I had to return it and I was also very tough.
If not, I didn't do that for the servicer's comfort and measures… [Mr. Shao] In this communication, when the customer consults the express delivery in an anxious mood, the servicer not only comforts the customer, but also takes some measures immediately.What the servicer has said and done expresses that, in the communication between the servicer and customer, the servicer is sensitive to the mood of the customer and understands the feeling of the customer, if not, the fame of the servicer and the shop and the performance of the shop can be subjected to terrible influences.From this, we can conclude that it is significant that the servicers take the Sympathy Maxim at the right time.

Discourse Analysis of Customers' Conformation to Politeness Principle
In this section, the present study analyzes the expression of customers' discourses conformation to Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim respectively through analyzing the concrete examples, and generalizes the current situation and reasons of customers' use of the six maxims of politeness principle.

Customers' Conformation to the Agreement Maxim
The Agreement Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize disagreement with other people and express agreement with other people as much as possible.In other words, in the process of communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to avoid or decrease the head-on confrontation.As is shown in example 7, although the logistics has been delayed, the customer still expresses thanks to the servicer after learning about the reason, from which we can find that customers usually understand servicers and minimize disagreement with them.Therefore, from what we have talked above, we can conclude that customers usually observe the Agreement Maxim.

Customers' Conformation to the Sympathy Maxim
The Sympathy Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize antagonism with other people and enhance mutual understanding.In other words, in the process of the communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to understand each other and be magnanimous.As a matter of fact, the Sympathy Maxim has the same effect with the Agreement Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle avoiding or decreasing the head-on confrontation and thinking being in each other' s perspective.…The servicer was friendly and accommodating.She had helped me, so I had no reason to refuse her request and, after all, no one works easily… [Mr. Ding] In the communication of example 8, when the servicer asks the customer to give them a favorable comment after helping the customer solve problems, the customer gladly agrees, from which we know that customers and servicers aren't always hostile and customers usually understand servicers in normal conditions.Therefore, from what we have talked above, we can conclude that customers usually observe the Sympathy Maxim.

Summary of Customers' Conformation to Politeness Principle
Among the data the author has collected, there are very few cases that the customers' discourses conform to Tact Maxim, Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim and Modesty Maxim in e-business instant communication, and usually what customers observe is Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, nevertheless, they will violate Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim on special occasions.The reasons why the circumstance occurs are as follows: Firstly, the communicating purposes of customers are to learn about information of commodities, choose the most appropriate commodity and let servicers help them to solve the problems which they have met with during the process of their shopping.
Secondly, all the customers hope to have a wonderful shopping experience, have a strict demand to the quality and speed of the service and commodity and have particular requirements for the attitudes of the servicers.Once there is something not satisfying them, they will argue with the servicers without hesitation.
Thirdly, under certain circumstances, such as unsatisfied requirements, the wrong commodity sent, etc., the customers tend to violate Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim.

Discourse Analysis of Servicers' Violation of Politeness Principle
In this section, the present study generalizes the current situation and reasons of servicers' use of the six maxims of politeness principle.

Situation of Servicers' Violation of Politeness Principle
Among the data the author has collected, there is no case that the servicers' discourses violate politeness principle in e-business instant communication, although sometimes the language of customers is impolite and thrusting, in other words, the servicers observe politeness principle in a strict way under any circumstances.

Summary of Servicers' Violation of Politeness Principle
The reasons why servicers observe politeness principle in such a strict way are listed as follows: First and foremost, communicating with customers friendly and passionately is the basic requirement to the online sales customer servicers.In other words, the particularity of occupation has determined the special requirement to the attitude of related workers.If not, it is difficult to keep the smooth communication between servicers and customers.Secondly, the human nature is a strange thing.Most of people of the society won't be afraid of the people who have ill temper, who are brutal and who are impolite, but frighten and revere those who are gentlemanlike and knowledgeable.And then, the merchants utilize this character to make trade smoothly progressed.

Discourse Analysis of Customers' Violation of Politeness Principle
In this section, the present study focuses on the customers' violation to politeness principle's six maxims.

Customers' Violation of the Tact Maxim
First of all, the Tact Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize disadvantageous information to others and benefit others as much as possible.In other words, what the customers do or say is in the servicers' shoes, considers the gain and loss of the servicers and finally satisfies the servicers.Obviously, it doesn't conform to the common sense.
Example 9: …I knew what I had done causing much trouble to the servicer, but as a customer I had the right to buy or return the commodity… [Ms. Gu] From the communication, we can know that what the customer says isn't the consideration for the servicer, but is conducted by his or her demand.By analyzing the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, the present study finds that the communicating purposes of customers are to learn about the information of commodities, choose the most appropriate commodity and let servicers help them to solve the problems which they have met with during the process of their shopping.According to what we have talked above, we can conclude that the language of customers violates the Tact Maxim.

Customers' Violation of the Generosity Maxim
Secondly, the Generosity Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize advantageous information to self and benefit self as little as possible.In other words, what customers do or say isn't in their own shoes, doesn't consider the gain and loss of themselves and finally satisfies servicers and further closes the deal smoothly.As a matter of fact, the Generosity Maxim has the same effect with the Tact Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle making servicers benefit a lot and letting customers gain little.

…As a customer, I must know clearly about what I want to buy… [Ms. Yang]
From the communication, we can know that the purpose of the customer to communicate with the servicer is to acquire more information benefitting herself or himself.By analyzing the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, the present study knows that the communicating purposes of customers are to learn about information of commodities, choose the most appropriate commodity and let servicers help them to solve the problems which they have met with during the process of their shopping.
According to what we have talked above, it can be concluded that the language of customers violates the Generosity Maxim.

Customers' Violation of the Approbation Maxim
Thirdly, the Approbation Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize criticism to other people and pay other people compliments as much as possible.In other words, even if there are some problems caused by errors or omissions of servicers, customers should be magnanimous and good-mannered, forgiving servicers' faults and errors and not bothering about too much of the gain and loss.What's more, it will be better if customers can praise servicers at the proper moment.
Example 11: From the above example 11, it is known that the customer doesn't minimize criticism to the servicer, but questions the servicer in a fierce mood.By analyzing the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, the present study knows that all the customers hope to have a wonderful shopping experience, have a strict demand to the quality and speed of the service and commodity and have particular requirements for the attitude of servicers.Once there is something not satisfying them, they will argue with the servicers without hesitation.According to what we have talked above, it can be concluded that the language of customers violates the Approbation Maxim.

Customers' Violation of the Modesty Maxim
Fourthly, the Modesty Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize compliments to self and find faults with self as much as possible.In other words, in the process of transaction, customers should take more responsibilities and look into their conducts constantly on their own initiatives.As a matter of fact, the Modesty Maxim has the same effect with Approbation Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle paying servicers compliments as much as possible and finding faults with customers as much as possible.But in the real deal, the cases in which the customers criticize themselves seriously are rare.… I was anxious for using the commodity at that time and hoped they could post the commodity as quickly as possible.Maybe I wasn't the only one who bought this product and I indeed urged the servicer many times within 24 hours... [Mr. Lu] In this communication, the customer takes a tough stance and urges the servicer to post the commodity, although it hasn't exceeded the limitation.What the customer has done violates the Sympathy Maxim.What's more, by analyzing the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, the present study finds that under certain circumstances, for instance, unsatisfied requirements, the wrong sent commodity, etc., customers are inclined to violate the Sympathy Maxim, and usually, customers observe the Sympathy Maxim as well.

Conclusion
From the data analysis above, it can be found that although customers sometimes don't observe politeness principle, but servicers observe politeness principle all the time and servicers' politeness can calm down customers who are angry for some reasons occurring during the purchasing, promote the close of deals and even enhance the reputation and performance of the company.The findings are summarized as follows: On the one hand, servicers strictly observe the six maxims of politeness principle with no violations in e-business instant communication.Even so, there will be different results for other reasons.Firstly, in the absence of accidents, in other words, commodity, logistics and other related things are all right, servicers' conformation to politeness principle can make the communication and trade better.Secondly, if there are some accidents and customers observe Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, and at this time servicers and customers understand each other, servicers' conformation to politeness principle can promote to solve problem and close deals.Thirdly, if there are some accidents and customers violate any of Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, deals can't go smoothly even if servicers observe politeness principle totally.
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… I was angry with the servicer.MaybeI should be tolerant, because the servicer had said sorry to me.But the sorry couldn't solve the problem, and the servicer didn't take any measures…I won't come to this shop again anyway…[Ms.Zhao] the servicer hadn't agreed to refund, I would have complained them.Even though, I have some prejudice against this shop now… [Mr.Li] …If 4.1.6Servicers' Conformation to the Sympathy Maxim Sixthly, the Sympathy Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize antagonism with other people and enhance mutual understanding.In other words, in the process of communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to understand each other and be magnanimous.As a matter of fact, the Sympathy Maxim has the same effect with the Agreement Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle avoiding or decreasing the head-on confrontation and thinking being in each other' s perspective.At the same time, what the Sympathy Maxim stresses is the understanding of each other.
At the same time, what the Sympathy Maxim stresses is the understanding of each other.
As is shown in example 12, the customer buys pre-sale product for his or her carelessness and the commodity only can be posted one month later.However, the customer directly argues with the servicer, ignoring his or her mistakes.What's more, the communicating purposes of customers are to learn about information of commodities, choose the most appropriate commodity and let servicers help them to solve the problems which they have met with during the process of their shopping.In other words, what customers say in the e-business instant communication just violates the Modesty Maxim.4.4.5 Customers' Violation of the Agreement MaximFifthly, The Agreement Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize the disagreement with other people and express agreement with other people as much as possible.In other words, in the process of the communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to avoid or decrease the head-on confrontation.As is shown in example 13, it is obvious that the customer is very angry, and violates the Agreement Maxim.By analyzing the discourses of e-business instant communication from the perspective of politeness principle, the present study concludes that under certain circumstances, such as unsatisfied requirements, the wrong sent commodity, etc., customers tend to violate the Agreement Maxim, but customers usually observe the Agreement Maxim, too.4.4.6 Customers' Violation of the Sympathy MaximSixthly, the Sympathy Maxim means people who observe politeness principle will try their best to minimize antagonism with other people and enhance mutual understanding.In other words, in the process of communication between servicers and customers, both sides should endeavor to understand each other and be magnanimous.As a matter of fact, the Sympathy Maxim has the same effect with Agreement Maxim when used-carry on transactions with principle avoiding or decreasing the head-on confrontation and thinking being in each other's perspective.At the same time, what the Sympathy Maxim stresses is the mutual understanding.My darling, each order will be arranged to be posted according to the order time.We will arrange the delivery as fast as we can, after you pay for the order, and please wait in patience.Emoticon/Smile.If the order contains a pre-order, the delivery time is based on the scheduled time.
… It was my carelessness not to see the introduction clearly.However, emm, maybe it is usual that a customer consults with servicers… [Ms.Geng] … Indeed, I had a bad attitude at that time.The servicer said that she didn't learn clearly and didn't know how to deal with the matter, which made me angry.If she didn't help me, who can I ask?So I was totally dissatisfied with her.I didn't have interest in shopping anymore, even though she sent me another commodity…[Mr.Gao]