Особенности деловой переписки на английском языке/§1. The notion and classification of Business English Vocabulary

I. The intrinsic diversity of BE vocabulary

Vocabulary is at the core of Business English proficiency: without well-organized and ongoing vocabulary extension one will never become a confident user of spoken and written English as a means of business communication. It should be mentioned, however, that the range and structure of Business English vocabulary is an issue which many authors in the field tend to avoid. At best, business vocabulary is taken for granted, with surprisingly little effort put into discussing its current status, outlining its boundaries or analysing it into the component strata.

Business English can be viewed as an interplay of different registers (socializing, negotiating, giving presentations, etc.). It’s quite natural to expect that different vocabulary would be employed in different registers. Indeed if we look at some sample texts from different registers we’ll see that they differ not only in style but also in words used in them. The latter demonstrate the intrinsic diversity of the vocabulary used in business communication for different purposes.