A Study On False Refusal Speech Act In Modern Chinese

"False refusal" is a common linguistic phnomena in modern Chinese. It refers to "the speech act which violates the maxim of sincerity". This speech act express other intention by means of refusal. So it is indirect speech act. In the past, when they did the research on speech act, the scholars only stressed on the cases which tally with the four maxims proposed by Searl. But they seldom focused on the "false" speech act meationed in this thesis. We think that the research on false refusal has great significance. It can not only make up for the theory of speech act, but can also guide people to carry out linguistic communication smoothly and contribute to Chinses teching for learners oversea. Under the guideline of this thought, In this thesis, I center on the examples found in popular literature of the time and explode the speech act of false refusal by the means of induction and analogy.This essay consists of five chapters. Chapter 1 ,preface. This chapter briefly generalizes the achievements our predecessors have made and their disagreements. Tt also introduces the research thoughts and linguistic material sources of this essay.Chapter 2 ,sum up the specific environment where false refusal appear, that is, which kind of speech act can be followed by false refusal. We classify the environments into two types:"typical environment" and "coexistent environment of real refusal and false refusal". The former mainly includes compliment(or appraise), obligation, intimate act, care(or help). In such environment, generally speaking, the refusals are false and mean to express other things. The latter mainlyconsist in invitation, offering advice and request. In these environment, two types of refusal are mixed and can not be told easily.Chapter 3, with some knowledge of sociology and psychology, in some degree, I analyze the factors responsible for false refusal and divide the factors into subjective factors and objective factors. In these two main categories, I divide them into smaller specific types. Although we put the factors into independent types, still we think false refusal is the artefact of many factors' interaction.Chapter 4 ,drawing from the research on real refusal done by other researchers before, I have summed up seven types of use strategies of false refusal and I will expound on this with specific examples in my thesis. We have found that the types of use strategies of false refusal are almost the same as those of real refusal. But the frequency is quite different. I compare the difference and ponder on the reasons for the difference.At last, briefly summarizes the main points in this thesis.This essay has made three breakthroughs. Firstly, we study the"false"speech act which has not been noticed at past, we found that it is a indirect speech act in fact. We can make the"refusal"speech act more perfectly and provide a little ways on other "false"speech act by this study. Secondly, at the process of study, we found that indirect speech act's has not only one minor illocutionary act, it may has two or more, but we can't confirm by now. Thirdly, we also found some special refusals which can study deeply.