On the problem of English informal letter genre perception

Bagrov Iurii

This paper is devoted to the genre structure of English informal letter and the problem of its perception. Letter etiquette features, set expressions and verbal formulae are often perceived as a strict formal canon whereas they have, in fact, their own expediency and functional load. Thus informal letter differs from formal one. Bilateral by definition, in informal letter the act of communication tends to monological unilaterality. The genre structure and the etiquette are intended to overcome this paradox.

Keywords:informal letter, writing, genre, foreign language, English language, communication, etiquette, ESL