Pragmatic Strategies In Mandarin Refusals And Power Relations

This thesis endeavors to explore the relationship between Mandarin refusal strategies and different power relations in Chinese college students and the underling cultural elements by means of face theory and politeness principles.An adapted Discourse Completion Test (DCT) from Beebe et al. (1990) is used in this thesis to collect data, of which all the 80 respondents are sophomores from different majors from Southwest Jiaotong University. Refusals fall into the following four speech situations: (1) refusals to offer; (2) refusals to invitation; (3) refusals to request and (4) refusals to suggestion. Quantitative data are collected by using a revised DCT of Beebe et al. in order to better fit into the current research. SPSS is used to analyze and describe the number, frequency and sequential order of refusal strategies of respondents in different power relations and different situations with qualitative case analysis of typical examples to reveal the refusal strategy patterns of Chinese college students in different situations and their relationship with different power relations.As demonstrated by the research results, there exist statistical differences in the direct and indirect strategy use, frequency of indirectness and sequential order in different power relations. It is revealed by the current research that (1) indirect refusal strategies are used at a much higher frequency than direct refusal strategies. (2) relative concentration of indirect strategies is observed and preference of indirect strategy use in different power relations is demonstrated and (3) there are differences in semantic order of refusal strategies in different power relations.The differences in refusal strategy use are also representation of deeper underlying cultural and social value elements. Three aspects are proposed and addressed in this thesis: Chinese hierarchy, Chinese collectivism and high-context communication characteristic of Chinese.Based on qualitative and quantitative study, the current research is expected to shield light on language teaching and linguistic interaction.