Abstract This article is concerned with the history of yours sincerely, a popular closing formula in English epistolary discourse. The formula was already used sporadically in the seventeenth century, gradually increased in frequency in the Late Modern period, and was the preferred subscription in English business correspondence by the end of the 1950s. This study investigates patterns of usage of closing formulae in a bestselling business letter-writing manual William Anderson’s Practical Mercantile Correspondence, A Collection of Modern Letters of Business, etc., whose first edition was published by Effiingham Wilson in 1836 in London. The first half of the nineteenth century was a period during which sincerely appears to have been gaining in popularity. The analysis of the repertoire of the closing formulae in Anderson shows that sincerely was starting to compete with truly for the same slot within the matrix of the extended type of closing formulae. This competition of sincerely with truly can be read as an indicator of a larger social and cultural change, which saw the rise of sincerity, reinterpreted as genuineness of feeling, as the new cultural buzzword.

中文翻译：

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“以最大的诚意”：用英语在十九世纪的商务往来中表达感情的真实性

摘要本文真诚地关注您的历史，这是英语书信语中一个流行的结束语。该公式已在17世纪被零星使用，在近代后期频率逐渐增加，并且在1950年代末成为英语商务信函中的首选订购方式。这项研究调查了畅销商业信函撰写手册威廉·安德森（William Anderson）的《实用商函》，《现代商业信函集》等中的闭合公式的使用方式，该书的第一版由埃菲汉姆·威尔逊（Effiingham Wilson）于1836年在伦敦出版。十九世纪上半叶是一个真诚地逐渐流行的时期。对安德森（Anderson）中的封闭式公式的分析表明，真诚地开始真正地与扩展式封闭式公式矩阵中的相同位置竞争。这种真诚与真实的竞争可以看作是更大的社会和文化变革的标志，它把诚意的崛起（重新诠释为感觉的真实性）视为新的文化流行语。