A Contrastive Study On The Refusal Speech Acts Of Chinese And American Foreign Ministry Spokespersons From A Cross-cultural Perspective

Refusal speech acts are a kind of face-threatening act. In order to avoid embarrassment and conflict, interlocutors adopt various refusal strategies for realizing their communicative purpose. Studies on similarities and differences of interlocutors with different cultural background are significant for realizing cross-cultural communication. This research intends to analyze the cultural factors which influence refusal strategies. To be more specific, this research aims to explore the distinctive and similar points of Chinese and American refusal strategies and to analyze the deep cultural factors from the cross-cultural perspective.The current research endeavors to conclude the same and different points through comparing refusal strategies of Chinese and American Foreign Ministry spokespersons in regular press conferences. There are mainly three research questions in this paper. Firstly,how many kinds of refusal strategies do Chinese and American Foreign Ministry spokespersons specifically take in press conferences? Secondly, what are the similarities and differences of refusal strategies adopted by Chinese and American spokespersons? Thirdly,what are the underlying culture reasons which make the refusal strategies of Chinese and American spokespersons similar or different?The replies of Chinese and American Foreign Ministry spokespersons in regular press conferences about “Korean Peninsula Issues” ranging from January 2013 to December 2014 are regarded as this research object, which are natural data. Based on the classification of questions put up by Quirk et al.(1985), all the questions in this data are classified and all refusals in response are identified according to the classification of question. Then refusals in data are categorized specifically in accordance with the classification of refusals proposed by Beebe et al.(1990). Therefore, the similarities and differences of refusal strategies used by Chinese and American Foreign Ministry spokespersons are concluded through quantitative and qualitative analysis and are analyzed from these aspects, including religious-philosophical systems, perception of politeness and cultural patterns.Several findings are concluded in this research. Firstly, American Foreign Ministry spokespersons adopt three kinds of refusal strategies, including direct refusal strategies,indirect refusal strategies and adjuncts, while Chinese spokespersons only use the first two kinds of strategies and adjuncts are not used. Then, both Chinese and American spokespersons tend to adopt indirect refusal strategies, such as “statement of attitude or wish”, “unspecific or indefinite reply” and “avoidance”. Moreover, American spokespersons are inclined to employ more than one kind of refusal strategies one time for express their opinions clearly, while Chinese spokespersons are apt to give economic response. Finally,“statement of attitude or wish” is used by Chinese spokespersons most frequently while American spokespersons are most likely to adopt “unspecific or indefinite reply”. This research not only helps language learners gain a great understanding of refusal strategies used by Foreign Ministry spokespersons in different cultures, but also prompts interlocutors to employ appropriate refusal strategies for achieving prospective communicative purposes in cross-cultural communication.