A Contrastive Study On Refusal Speech Act In Chinese And English

In human communication, "refusal" is a common but sensitive speech act. It risks the hearer's positive face, which is not accordant with the harmoniousness and politeness promoted in society. Thus it is essentially impolite. The performance and criteria of "refusal" differ in different historical background, cultures, geographical factors and social environment, which is a hard core for second language learners and an important point in English teaching.This thesis, on the basis of speech act theory, politeness principle and Kim's conversational constraints, does research on two questions:(1) How are refusal strategies used in offer, suggestion, invitation and request in Chinese and English? What are the differences? (2) What are gender similarities and differences in refusal strategies in Chinese and English? By qualitative and quantitative method, DCT questionnaire and observation, the study has got two groups of results. One is from a general perspective. (1) Both Chinese and English subjects use more indirect strategies than direct ones. The most frequently used indirect strategies are "reason", "external yes, internal no", "regret and statement of principle/criticize". (2) English subjects use more direct refusal strategies than Chinese. (3) Chinese subjects express refusal in a more polite and euphemistic way, abiding by the rule "touching the point". The other group of results is on the study of gender. (1) Both male and female subjects use more indirect strategies than direct ones. (2) Both Chinese and English female subjects use more refusal strategies than male ones, while male subjects use more direct strategies. (3) Gender differences are more remarkable in Chinese. (4) When refusing the opposite gender, all the four groups are more polite than refusing the same gender. In scenarios of "offer", male subjects even use more strategies to express politeness.Factors leading to those results above, apart from social status and distance and historical background, mainly are the differences in cultures and ideas between western and eastern countries. For example, China is a collectivistic country, but many western countries believe in individualism. This may directly influence the criterion and style to use language strategies. This thesis, on the topic of refusal speech act, is doing contrastive research in Chinese and English, in order to reduce the chance of failure in cross-cultural communication and make contribution to English teaching and learning.