A Study Of The Pragmatic Transfer In Refusals

This thesis studies the pragmatic transfer in refusals by Chinese learners of English. It has four aims: (1) to discover similarities and differences in refusals between American speakers of English (AE) and Chinese speakers of English (CE), (2) to provide empirical evidence for or against the existing theories of pragmatic transfer in refusals, (3) to reveal the factors of pragmatic transfer, and (4) to promote the teaching of English as a second language.This study investigates both mandarin Chinese and American English refusal speech act from the perspective of cross-cultural communication within the theoretical framework of Leech's politeness principles and 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 six situations (two requests, one invitation, one suggestion and two offers) involving interlocutors of equal or unequal status. 75 people answered the questionnaire, and they fall into three groups, namely, native English speakers, native Chinese speakers and English learners. Refusal responses from the questionnaire are classified according to various refusal strategies and are compared and analyzed across the three groups. The results show that there are similarities as well as differences between Chinese and American refusal strategies. It is proved that pragmatic transfer does exist in responding to a refusal. The data show that the pragmatic transfer in refusals by Chinese learners of English will not disappear as they get a better command of English, but it has a positive effect on SLA. These finding are useful to the English teachers in the teaching of English as a second language.