Language Norms in Business Communications
Author: Prof. D. Sc. Galya Hristozova (Burgas Free University)
Keywords: language norms, Bulgarian language, business communications, orthography.
The day-to-day activities of an institution include conversations, negotiations, clarifications; different types of documents and business letters are written, correspondence and telephone conversations are carried out. The various documents created need to be registered, archived, etc. This requres a good knowledge of the basic orthographic, pronunciation and etiquette rules. The article comments on and analyses some of the literary language norms of the Bulgarian language that have to be observed in business communications. They refer to the basic orthographic and grammar rules: the agreement of polite forms - an essential part of the Bulgarian speech etiquette; the use of the “short form” and the “long form” of the definite article for the masculine singular nouns with consonant endings; the count form('broyna forma') which is used only with masculine nouns for non-persons; the У/ja/ and 'e'/e/ alterations of the Old Bulgarian “yat” vowel; the spelling of some of the verb endings, word stress. Indicative examples of deviations and violations are provided as well as easily comprehensible methods of applying the rules. The author has designed algorithms for some of the rules.
