Politeness In Refusal--A Comparative Study From Perspective Of Cross-Cultural Communication

This study investigates both mandarin Chinese and American English refusal speech act from perspective of cross-cultural communication within the theoretical framework of P. Brown and S. C. Levinson's politeness strategies and Kasper's pragmatic transfer theory. Language data are collected by means of a questionnaire, i.e. a written discourse completion test, which consists of five refusal situations (three requests, one invitation, and one suggestion) involving interlocutors of equal or unequal status. 75 people help with the questionnaire, and they fall into three groups, namely, native English speakers, native Chinese speakers and English learners. Refusal responses from the questionnaire are divided and classified according to various refusal strategies and are compared and analyzed across the three groups. The results show there are similarities as well as differences between Chinese and American refusal strategies. For instance, both groups use similar strategies like "explanation/reason", "apology", etc. Differences lie in the occurrence frequency and in the use of strategies such as "suggestion of alternative" and "address forms".In the author's view, cultural patterns like individualism-collectivism, low-high-context culture exert influence on people's perceptions of linguistic politeness, which in turn affects the selection and frequency of linguistic strategies. This impact can be summarized in the following three points: (1) Chinese politeness in refusal means recognizing the status discrepancy and conveying it in linguistic formula, and American politeness in refusal stresses equality; (2) Chinese politeness uses more indirect and implicit face-negotiation strategies, while American politeness attaches more importance to direct face-negotiation strategies; (3) Chinese politeness expresses a greater degree of positive face maintenance, while American politeness values autonomy and negative face maintenance. With respect to the English learners' refusals, the data show negative pragmatic transfer takes place both in the frequency and in the perceptions of refusal strategies. In other words, learners tend to be influenced by the refusal styles of their native language when conversing in the target language. The thesis also puts forward pedagogical implications for classroom.This comparative study contributes to a better understanding of appropriate refusals in Chinese and English and of the different cultural patterns underlying the perceptions of politeness in refusal.