A Conversation Analysis Of Refusal In Chinese Daily Talk

Refusal is a common but sensitive speech phenomenon. It happens on everybody in many circumstances. Whether at home or aboard, people don’t want to face the awkward situation of refusing or being refused. It is opposite to the claim of setting up and maintaining friendly relationship among people.This thesis aims at refusal which has been studied by many researchers from different angles. However, there is few scholars who study refusals from the angle of Conversation Analysis in China. In terms of methodology, Conversation Analysis belongs to a qualitative study based on data collection. All the data in the thesis are proved authentic and natural from Chinese daily talks. Conversation Analysis is such a research method which originated from sociology and it focuses on this interesting language phenomenon which has aroused so many scholars’interests.This study aims at analyzing the sequence organization of refusals in the data. In the Chinese daily talks, refusals can be executed through single-turn or multi turns. And multi turns refusal occurs more frequently. We analyze the collected data and finally find out that both direct and indirect refusals are constructed by short sentences and even simpler words and phrases. Besides, through analyzing the refusal data from Chinese daily talks, the present study analyzes the sequence organization and preference or dispreference organization.Through analyzing the refusal data from Chinese daily talks, the present study tries to find out the specific pattern of this interesting and common language phenomenon by applying Conversation Analysis. It is hoped that the research can guide us to maintain harmonious relationship with other people.