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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 2

Publication Date: February 8, 2021

DOI:10.14738/assrj.82.9674.

Poudel,K. K., Acharya, K., & Sharma, N. P. (2021). Linguistic Aesthetics in the Market: Evidence from Oral Business Nepali. Advances in

Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(2) 65-76.

Linguistic Aesthetics in the Market: Evidence from Oral Business

Nepali

Kamal Kumar Poudel

Department of English Education, Tribhuvan University

Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal, Kathmandu, Nepal

Kushmila Acharya

Central Department of Nepali Education

Tribhuvan University Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

Netra Prasad Sharma

Department of English Education, Tribhuvan University

Mahendra Ratna Campus Tahachal, Kathmandu, Nepal

ABSTRACT

Communication in business is usually supposed to be precisely and

directly targeted at the message. The present study was instigated to

answer whether, as generally assumed, communication in business

excludes the artistic or poetic use of language meant for entertainment.

Using observation, recording and field notes as the study techniques, a

corpus of 24000 words was collected in Nepali from the major open

market sites and business hubs located within Nepal. The corpus was

then translated into English. As a delimitation of the study, the aesthetic

aspect of language use and usage was particularly focused and analyzed.

The exploration suggests that the users of oral business Nepali (OBN)

commonly entertain themselves and others side by side as they speak

while conducting business transactions. They commonly achieve this

end by creating art and imagination, expressing and creating humor,

and making associations. A future direction would be to extend the

study in terms of its scope and methodology.

Keywords Aesthetics; oral business Nepali; entertainment; business

transaction; business communication

INTRODUCTION

"How could we get fatter unless you eat! Haha!"

The prelude seems to have come from some kind of literary text. Nonetheless, it was not!

And again, it is rather hard to believe that it was uttered by a business person to his customer. It is

mainly because it does not seem to be part of business communication which, as a rule, is clear,

precise, brief, uncluttered, direct, and to the point (Bennie, 2009). Yet, it was!

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The prelude is a paradox. It is not denotatively true that a certain group of people won't get fatter

unless the others eat enough: how could someone ever get fatter on condition that somebody else

eats? Nevertheless, connotatively one can, provided the 'eaters' are one's customers. Obviously, the

more the customers eat (buy) the more profit for the seller!

Language in business, or business language, can be conceived as a register, a use-based variety

(Halliday, 1989). Most of us must have observed that a business person employs it in the way it

looks business-like rather than the variety used for day-to-day general communication. As Nelson

(2003, mentioned in Bargiela-Chiappini, Nikerson, Planken, 2007) distinguishes, 'business English'

is characterized by its typical vocabulary which 'general English' lacks. In fact, the most salient

aspects which make the business variety different form another variety of the same language are

the vocabulary items, language forms or structure, functions and style-all typical of the business

sector. More simply, business language is 'language in business' (Harris & Bargiela-Chiappini,

2003). By the same token, we identify 'business Nepali' as the Nepali language as it is used in

business. In the present study, the term 'oral business Nepali' (OBN) is employed to refer to the

spoken mode of Nepali employed for conducting business transactions in markets.

When we are located amid very beautiful natural scenery, we may experience like getting lost for a

moment, and transcend ourselves to an imagined scene by an act of looking towards the sky or

shutting our eyes, or so, for some moments. In this case, the scenery is the object- something that is

visible and concretely present; however, it leads us to something, of course, not existing at all: it just

transcends us to a world of imagination through contemplated esthetic experience.

Can business language be aesthetic? Do people use language artistically while transacting in

business? Do they employ it for entertainment? The general and common answer would be "no!"

Yet, as this research concludes, the users of OBN do, to a large extent, at least in the context of open

business centers in Nepal- more specifically, in markets and business hubs located in and around

them.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Upon bringing together the relevant literature, two opposing perspectives on the use and usage of

language can be established. One is that, as language is used in business, its central concern is to

carry out precise communication but the other concerns the art aspect of language use and usage in

which entertainment is the heart. Drawing on the relevant literature, materials have been

highlighted under two broad headings in this section: the perspective on language-in-business and

the linguistic-literary perspective.

Language in Business

Following Halliday's (1989) concept of 'register', business language, a variety of a given language

according to use, can be formalized as a business register. This means that as a mode of discourse

according to use, people involved in the business transactions also use a rhetorical mode of language

suitable in the given situation including the channel (the oral channel in this study).

Complimenting Halliday's concept of register with the so-called 'rules' of business language might

help generate a framework for understanding the nature of business language. Regarding the 'rules'

governing business communication, Bennie (2009) recommends that "business language should be

clear and precise, brief and uncluttered, direct and to the point" (p. 7). Similarly, distinguishing