A Pragmatic Study Of Refusals From The Adaptation Perspective

In recent years, refusal gradually entered into the view of people. More and more scholars started to pay attention to this linguistic phenomenon and did studies about it. Most of the previous studies are made from the perspectives of Face Theory or Politeness Principle, while only few of them are made under the perspective of Adaptation Theory. Together with the development of pragmatics in recent years, Adaptation Theory gradually becomes more and more popular. So, many scholars begin to use Adaptation Theory to explain linguistic phenomena. This thesis tries to research refusals under the perspective of Adaptation Theory, giving the description and interpretation from four aspect of Adaptation Theory, i.e., contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and salience of the adaptation processes.Refusal is a commonly existed linguistic phenomenon. It is actually a face-threatening speech act, which will affect the daily communication if it is not dealt with appropriately. And the studies of refusals are made just for people to make better recognition and use of this specific linguistic phenomenon, and increase the possibility of successful conversation.Based on the previous studies, this thesis gives the new definition and classification of refusal, believing that refusal is a face-threatening speech act to express that one person does not intend to accept the request, invitation or suggestion that offered by someone else. Through the analysis of the Felicity Conditions of refusals, this thesis classifies refusals into two parts, the true refusal and the ostensible refusal. And the true refusal also can be further divided into the direct refusal and the indirect refusal. Based on the description and interpretation of refusal from contextual correlates of adaptability, structural objects of adaptability, dynamics of adaptability and salienceof the adaptation processes, this thesis holds that:1. According to the Felicity Conditions, when the speaker gives a true refusal, it means that she or he wants to refuse the hearer and will do this action in the future. However, when the speaker gives an ostensible refusal, it means that she or he does not want to really refuse the hearer and usually will accept in the future.2. When the speakers make refusals, they always make choices according to the current context, consciously or unconsciously. And the current context is dynamic, not stable and unchangeable. So the choices also will vary with the change of the context. In addition, the speakers also will adapt to the construction.3. Ostensible refusal is a special kind of refusals. According to the Felicity Conditions, the ostensible refusal violates the sincerity condition, i.e., when the speaker gives an action of refusal, she or he does not means she or he wants to refuse but accept.In a word, the process of saying something is the process of adapting to the current context and construction. The choices are also dynamic and adaptive, and thus have some salient meanings.