The Types of Grammatical Metaphors Used in Native and Nonnative Request Emails

Abstract

The present study investigates the frequency of grammatical metaphor (GM) use by native speakers of English in request emails compared to non-native speakers of English. A total of 50 request emails written by native and non-native speakers were analyzed in terms of different types of GM to identify the possible similarities and differences in native and nonnative request emails in terms of different types of GM were assessed. Applying Halliday and Matthiessen’s (1999) conceptual framework, it was found that GM was used in 72% of the native request emails (18 out of the 25 request emails) and in 46% of the non-native request emails (11 out of 25 request emails). It was also found that GM was utilized in 117 out of 600 clauses, giving rise to a GM to the number of clauses (GMC) ratio of 0.19 in native request emails. As for non-native request emails, GM was used in 63 out of 500 clauses, giving rise to a GMC ratio of 0.12. Moreover, the results revealed that there were thirteen types of GM in native and non-native request emails and the e-mail writers used mostly type 2 (nominalizing a verbal process) and type 13 (expanding the noun resulting from nominalizing a verb)  compared to the other types of GM. The findings of the study can be beneficial for researchers, EFL teachers, and even businessmen working in international companies where they use can opt for different types of GM in their everyday request emails.