This empirical research provides an insight into the management of small talk (ST) and its interconnection with interpersonal relations in business negotiations, drawing on the study of its pragmatic allocation, modes and functions in business contexts. By examining ST applications in three interpersonal relationships (business stranger, friend and partner), the author explores how the interactional patterns of ST are associated with communicators’ interpersonal cognitive processes, demonstrating why ST should not be deemed ‘small’ in task-oriented contexts. The findings yield that ST constructs an integral, and even essential, part of business communication for various social and professional purposes. Its allocations, topic typologies and move systems in negotiations are not randomly positioned, selected and developed, but strategically organized and interpersonally related. As a meaningful, politic and intentional activity, ST reflects business people’s social and professional cognition, relational negotiation and interactive frame, forming communicative primitives that are used in the underlying negotiation, the rapport management in negotiation and cultural disciplines for business people.
BodenDZimmermanDH (eds) (1991) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press.
2.
BrownPLevinsonSC (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
CharlesM (1996) Business negotiations: Interdependence between discourse and the business relationship. English for Specific Purposes15(1): 19–39.
4.
CheepenC (2000) Small talk in service dialogues: The conversational aspects of transactional telephone talk. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 287–311.
5.
CoatesJ (2000) Small talk and subversion: Female speakers backstage. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 240–264.
6.
CouplandJ (2000) Introduction: Social perspectives on small talk. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 1–25.
7.
CouplandJCouplandNRobinsonJ (1992) ‘How are you?’: Negotiating phatic communion. Language in Society21(2): 207–230.
8.
DrewPChiltonK (2000) Calling just to keep in touch: Regular and habitualised telephone calls as an environment for small talk. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 137–162.
FangT (1999) Chinese Business Negotiating Style. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
11.
FineD (2005) The Fine Art of Small Talk. London: Piatkus.
12.
HolmesJ (1990) Politeness strategies in New Zealand women’s speech. In: BellAHolmesJ (eds) New Zealand Ways of Speaking English. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 252–276.
13.
HolmesJ (1995) Women, Men and Politeness. London: Longman.
14.
HolmesJ (2000) Doing collegiality and keeping control at work: Small talk in government departments. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 32–61.
15.
JeffersonG (1984) On stepwise transition from talk about a trouble to inappropriately next-positioned matters. In: AtkinsonJHeritageJ (eds) Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 191–222.
16.
JeffersonG (2004) Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In: LernerG (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 13–31.
17.
KlauseS (1988) Small Talk: Analyzing Phatic Discourse. Marburg: Hitzeroth.
18.
KuiperKFlindallM (2000) Social rituals, formulaic speech and small talk at the supermarket checkout. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 183–207.
19.
LiWZhuHLiY (2001) Conversational management and involvement in Chinese–English business talk. Language and Intercultural Communication1(2): 135–150.
20.
MalinowskiB (1949) The problem of meaning in primitive languages. Supplement 1. In: OgdenCKArmstrongPI (eds) The Meaning of Meaning, 10th edn.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 269–336.
21.
MalinowskiB (1972) Phatic communion. In: LaverJHutchesonS (eds) Communication in Face-to-Face Interaction. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 146–152.
22.
PlankenB (2005) Managing rapport in lingua franca sales negotiations: A comparison of professional and aspiring negotiators. English for Specific Purposes24(4): 381–400.
23.
ScollonRScollonSW (2001) Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
24.
Spencer-OateyH (ed.) (2000) Culturally Speaking: Managing Rapport through Talk across Cultures. New York: Continuum.
25.
Spencer-OateyHXingJ (2004) Rapport management problems in Chinese–British business interactions: A case study. In: HouseJRehbeinJ (eds) Multilingual Communication. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, 197–221.
26.
TannenD (1993) What’s in a frame? In: TannenD (ed.) Framing in Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press, 14–56.
27.
Ting-ToomeyS (1999) Communicating across Cultures. New York: Guilford Press.
28.
TracyK (ed.) (1991) Understanding Face-to-Face Interaction. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
TracyKCouplandN (eds) (1991) Multiple Goals in Discourse. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
30.
TracyKNaughtonJ (2000) Institutional identity-work: A better lens. In: CouplandJ (ed.) Small Talk. Harlow: Longman, 62–83.
31.
WilsonT (1991) Social structure and the sequential organization of interaction. In: BodenDZimmermanD (eds) Talk and Social Structure. Cambridge: Polity Press, 22–43.
32.
WolfsonN (1988) The bulge: A theory of speech behaviour and social distance. In: FineJ (ed.) Second Language Discourse: A Textbook of Current Research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 21–38.
33.
YangWH (2008) Using metaphors as politeness strategies in Chinese business negotiations. Journal of Applied Linguistics5(1): 113–145.
34.
YangWH (2009a) A Discourse Analysis of Interpersonal Business Negotiations. Beijing: Science Press.
35.
YangWH (2009b) Exploring silence function and politeness strategies in interpersonal business communication. In: TsengSC (ed.) Linguistic Patterns and Spontaneous Speech. Taipei: Academia Sinica, 241–261.
36.
ZhuYX (2011) Building intercultural alliances: A study of moves and strategies in initial business negotiation meetings. Text & Talk31(1): 101–125.
37.
ZhuYXMcKennerBZhunS (2007) Negotiating with the Chinese: Success of initial meetings is the key. Cross-cultural Management: An International Journal14(4): 354–364.
