A Comparative Study Of Sino-american Refusal Strategies In Social Communication

Culture shapes how individuals perform speech acts.In order to avoid unnecessary pragmatic failures and facilitate communication between Chinese and American,this thesis makes a comparative study on the similarities and differences of the refusal strategies in Chinese and American cultures.The present thesis collects 120 refusal items from 6 Chinese and American TV serials which were produced after 2000 s,and examines them with face theory.According to Beebe(1990),the author divides these refusal items into direct refusal and indirect refusal.Frequency analyses on the 120 refusal items are also done in terms of social distance,social status and initiating acts.This thesis finds that there are similarities and differences between Chinese and Americans in refusal and face-saving strategies.The similarity is that both Chinese and Americans are more likely to use indirect refusal strategies,because indirect refusal strategies are consistent with the politeness principle and reduces the risk of threatening the face of the interlocutors.Second,Chinese and Americans have the similar refusal strategies,but in interpersonal communication,Chinese have more diverse choices on refusal strategies,they tend to use indirect refusal strategies.Although Americans tend to use indirect refusal strategies,they do not have any other alternatives.Different cultural patterns account for the differences.More specifically,the size of the right distance,individualism or collectivism and the high context or the low context affect the choice of refusal strategies and the frequency distributions.It concludes that Chinese pay more attention to the social status of the speaker and prefer to use euphemism,and the Chinese have a higher demand for face than Americans.Americans also care about the politeness,but the understanding of politeness is different from Chinese,and they are more inclined to refuse directly.Identifying Sino-American differences in refusal strategies helps us develop intercultural competence and contributes to the harmonious interaction across cultures.