Gender Differences In Refusals In Chinese

Since refusal is one of the complex speech acts that represents an inherent threat to the interlocutor's face. It is generally considered as a speech act that performs speaker's intention of denying engaging in an action proposed. It requires a lot of techniques to convey the refusing intention as well as minimize negative effects of the FTA. Therefore, refusal strategies are highly necessary for successful communication between different sexes. However, many such research projects are often carried out from a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective rather than from the perspective of gender, especially in the Chinese setting. Sex is a fundamental variable of human life, and has attracted many linguists' attention in recent years, especially in the West. They have proved that women and men speak differently in one way or another. So, there is a need to examine gender-based refusals in Chinese context.The present study is focused on the genre of TV series, which are all about people's daily life of Beijing. Analyses are conducted based on gender theory, speech act theory and politeness theory. Gender differences in refusal speech act are examined related to different initiating speech acts, social status and social distance. The findings show that males and females have significant differences in using direct strategy in overall situations; and different initiating speech acts do affect the choice of the direct refusal strategy to both groups. There exists significant difference both within group and between groups; females are more status conscious in doing a refusal speech act. In terms to different social distance, males and females adopted similar frequency of direct refusals; and they are all used more indirect strategies to strangers/acquaintances and less to intimates.