A Contrastive Study Of Refusal Strategies Between China’s Dongxiang Minority Language And Lanzhou Dialect

The Dongxiang nationality, a minority living mainly in Gansu province, has its own language but no written scripts. The Dongxiang minority language(DML), which belongs to the Mongolic branch of the Altaic languages, is categorized as one of the endangered languages in the world. The studies of DML in the literature are mostly conducted from the perspectives of phonetics, morphology, lexicology and syntax. In recent years, some pragmatic studies are conducted by a research group in the Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Lanzhou University. This research group investigates the pragmatic features of several speech acts such as request, asking, apology, complimenting and thanking in DML, and compares them with those in Lanzhou dialect(LD). As speech acts are the minimal units of human communication, the pragmatic studies of speech acts are essential to understand the communicative and behavioral manner of certain ethnic group. Moreover, the pragmatic studies of DML contribute to preserve the endangered language since a considerable number of semi-natural language materials can be collected through the research. Therefore, more studies of speech acts in DML are required.To further explore the performance of speech acts in DML, the present study is intended to investigate the refusal, a common face-threatening speech act which has not yet been studied regarding DML. Different from previous pragmatic studies conducted against the background of eco-linguistics, this study explores the refusal speech act from socio-pragmatic perspective and focuses on politeness and strategy use in refusals. Furthermore, this study attempts to explore the effects of social variables on the choices of politeness strategies. Different from the social variables examined in previous studies(e.g., age and power in complimenting; gender and ranking of imposition in apology), the social variables explored in this study are gender and social distance. Therefore, this study aims to examine the effects of gender difference and social distance on the refusal strategy choices of native speakers of DML and meanwhile find the similarities and differences between the refusal strategies in DML and LD.Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in the study. I adopted open role-play and Discourse Completion Test(DCT) to elicit data. In open role-play, occurring in a way similar to real-life interactions, the participant performed the role with some other participant and thus semi-natural language materials were obtained. The role-play video recordings were transcribed into phonetic symbols according to Dongxiang Language and Chinese Dictionary by Dongxiang university students, and then were translated into Chinese. The closed DCT questionnaire was designed based on the data collected from the role-play and administered in diverse places such as village fairs, streets and schools. The collected data of refusal speech acts were segmented into head acts and supportive moves, in which head acts consisted of direct refusal and indirect refusal, and supportive moves included the strategies of reason, setting condition, alternative, dissuading, postponement, wish, and apology. The coded data were analyzed through SPSS 17.0.The research consisted of six steps: design of situations, role-play, transcription of role-play video recordings, design of DCT questionnaire, pilot study, and large-scale questionnaire survey. Participants of DML were randomly selected from Wangji Village and Suonan Village in Dongxiang Autonomous County, while participants of LD were indigenous to Gaoya Village and Qingcheng Village in Yuzhong County, Lanzhou City. In total 330 DML speakers and 330 LD speakers aged between 16 and 70 participated in the large-scale investigation. They were equally divided into three groups in each region: the young group(16-34), the middle-aged group(35-54), and the elder group(55-70). The numbers of males and females in each group were the same. A total of 300 valid questionnaires were obtained for each language.The results are as follows:(1) The native speakers of DML adopt a wide range of refusal strategies, and indirect refusals are employed with the highest frequency as head acts to realize the speech act. With respect for supportive moves, reason is the most frequently used strategy and then follows alternative.(2) Dongxiang males and females are different in their respective choices of refusal strategies since gender difference has effects on the realization of the refusal speech act in DML. Compared to females, males tend to use more direct refusals. While the strategy of reason is preferred by both males and females, females tend to provide more reasons than males. Moreover, females adopt more alternatives, while males prefer setting conditions more frequently.(3) Social distance has effects on DML speakers’ choices of refusal strategies. When social distance is shorter, DML speakers tend to employ more indirect refusals and provide more alternatives in support of head acts. When social distance is longer, DML speakers tend to use more direct refusals as head acts, and employ more reasons to mitigate the offence.(4) Both similarities and differences are discovered concerning the refusal strategies employed by DML and LD speakers. With respect to the similarities, both DML and LD speakers adopt a wide range of strategies in their refusal responses, and they all employ more indirect refusals as head acts and use reasons the most frequently in their supportive moves. The differences between the refusal strategies in DML and LD are demonstrated from three aspects. First, the overall patterns of refusal strategies in DML and LD are different. While LD speakers adopt apology in supportive moves, DML speakers do not use this strategy. Second, the differences are discovered separately concerning males’ and females’ choices of refusal strategies in DML and LD. While Dongxiang males prefer setting conditions in supportive moves, Lanzhou males favor postponements. Third, the refusal strategies in DML and LD differ in terms of the effects of social distance. DML speakers tend to use more direct refusals than their LD counterparts whenever social distance is shorter or longer.The similarities existing between the refusal strategies in DML and LD reveal that both DML and LD speakers perceive refusals as intrinsically impolite, and resort to politeness strategies characterized by indirectness to reconcile the competing illocutionary and social goals. On the other hand, the differences illustrate the varying degrees of politeness perceived by DML and LD speakers and reflected in their respective strategy choices, which are largely due to the different norms of politeness respectively accepted in Dongxiang and Han societies and the distinct social and national characters of the two ethnic groups.