THE ROLE OF PRAGMATIC STRATEGIES IN BUSINESS ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA (BELF) EMAILS: A CASE STUDY OF BULGARIAN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) plays a crucial role in global business communication, requiring professionals to develop pragmatic competence to ensure effective interactions. This study examines the use of practical strategies by Bulgarian business professionals in BELF emails, with a focus on politeness, hedging, and mitigation. The study identifies key patterns of pragmatic adaptation and their impact on intercultural business exchanges by analyzing a corpus of authentic Bulgarian business emails written in English. The findings highlight the strategic use of politeness and indirectness to maintain positive business relationships, as well as the influence of Anglo-Saxon business norms on Bulgarian Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) communication. They also shed light on how cultural values shape communicative choices in written professional discourse, particularly in relation to face-saving and clarity. By situating the results within both linguistic and intercultural frameworks, the study offers more profound insight into the communicative challenges faced by non-native English users in high-stakes professional contexts. It concludes with recommendations for BELF users and business communication training programs to enhance pragmatic competence in professional email writing.