Forms of Self-representation in 19th century Business Letters

This chapter discusses the linguistic strategies employed by encoders of nineteenth-century business letters, in order to introduce themselves and the purpose of their letter. As this relates to issues in asymmetrical power relationships, such strategies inevitably involve positive and negative politeness moves, and encoders may be seen to adopt fluctuating identities, depending on how forcefully they wish to argue their case and – as a result – how powerful an image they wish to convey of themselves.