英语中拒绝语的特点

大学毕业论文

题 目：英语中拒绝语的特点 A Study on the Characteristics of Refusals in English 指导老师: ***** 学生姓名： **** 所属院系： 外国语学院 专 业： 英语 班 级： 2006--5 完成日期： 2010年5月20 日

声 明

郑重声明，此论文是本人在教师的指导和同学的帮助下完成，本人拥有自主知识产权，没有抄袭、剽窃他人成果，由此造成的知识产权纠纷由本人负责。

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Declaration

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institution of higher learning, except where due acknowledgment has been made in the text.

Signature: Name:

Date: May 20, 2010 By

Under the Supervision of Ahynur Sadik

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

Foreign Languages College of Xinjiang University May 20, 2010

新 疆 大 学

毕业论文（设计）任务书

班 级： 2006-5 姓 名： 论文（设计）题目：英语中拒绝语的特点 专 题： 文化 论文（设计）来源： 学生自拟 要求完成的内容： 1. 阅读相关文献资料

2. 提交论文大纲

3. 指导教师的建议下定论文大纲 4. 进行论文写作

5. 指导教师对学生论文进行至少三稿的修改 6. 在提交论文前定稿，完成毕业论文写作

发题日期：2009年12月10日 完成日期：2010 年5月20 日 实习实训单位： 地点：

论文页数： 页； 图纸张数： 指导教师： 教研室主任：

院 长：

摘要

拒绝是一种威胁面子甚至于可能伤及他人自尊的行为，因此恰当的拒绝方式至关重要。本文作者认为：拒绝语为会话过程中交际的一方针对对方的始发语，如要求，邀请，建议，命令和提供等做出的具有动态顺应性特征，并与许多语境性因素相联系的否定性回答。本文主要从英语拒绝语的多样性和顺应性两个角度对收集的具体语料做了分析。了解英语中的拒绝语的特点可以帮助交流者更好的理解对方的拒绝方式和行为，从而对跨文化交际起到良好促进作用，避免误解甚至冲突。

关键词: 拒绝语；语境；多样性；美国

Abstract

As refusal is a kind of face-threatening act , a proper way of refusal is extremely important in reducing the seriousness of refusals. Refusing in this project will be understood as a dynamic and adaptative process of making negative contributions to the previous turn (request, invitation, advice, order, promise, offer, etc) in the ongoing conversation, a process which is correlated with many contextual factors. A more detailed analysis will be made on concrete language materials mainly from the point of variability and adaptability of English refusals. To know the characteristics of refusals in English can help us to use English refusing strategies more properly and reasonably, improve interculture communication as well as avoidmisunderstanding or even conflicts.

Keywords: refusals, context, variability, American refusal

6

CONTENTS

1 Introduction …………… ……… ……………...…… ……… …… …… ……………...……1 2 Speech Art Theory ……………………………………… …………… …… … …...………2 3 The Variability of English Refusal…………… ….…… ……….…….… 5 3.1 Definition of English Refusal……………… ……………… … … …… ...………5 3.2 Characteristics of Refusal … … ……… … … … …………… 7 3.2.1The Nature of Refusal 3.2.2The Cause of Refusal 3.2.3The Target of Refusal

3.3 The Variability Shown in English Refusal 3.31 Variability

3.3.2 Variability in English refusal

4 Ways of American Refusal and Cultural Factors Which Influence Them 4.1 Ways of American Refusal

4.2 The Cultural Factors Which Influence the American Way of Refusal 4.2.1Equality 4.2.3 Individualism

4.2.3 Instrumental Interaction and Fair Play

5 Conclusion……………………………………………...………………………… …… ……19

致谢…………………………………………...……………………………… …… ……………21

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………… ……….22 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………23

1. Introduction

In daily communication, the arts of refusing others happen in many social occasions. If people employ improper strategies of refusals, misunderstandings and some bad effects may appear in communication.

This thesis deals with background information, research objects, significance of this study and organization of the thesis. Part two gives a general study of variation of English refusals along several dimensions. Part three is about ways of American refusal and cultural factors which influence them. In western culture individualism and equality is advocated. Confucianism finds no place there. In order to make the communication more effective, Americans often prefer a more and quicker ways of expressions. The conclusion part summarizes the major findings in this study.

2. Speech art theory

Speech art theory has been one of the basic ingredients of pragmatics for a long time. Austin(1962) holds that to say something may be to do something. It has exerted great influence and been the driving force behind the Anglo-American prominence in pragmatics. Speech art theory is an important theory in the pragmatic study of language. When a conversation occurs, people often do nothing but speak to each other .The speakers usually have to choose the right word so that they can express their ideas and attitudes precisely while the hearers have to comprehend what the speakers say. If the receiver can receive the message consistent with the speaker , it will make a successful act. Speech acts are acts of doing something through speaking. A speech act is an act that depends on the intentions of the speaker and hearer. This is a little physical act and a little like mental act.

Speech acts are used to perform various kinds of functions: A. to convey information

B. to ask for information C. to give orders D. to make requests E. to make threat F. to give warnings G. to make bets H. to give advice I. to make a promise J. to complain K. to thank

Speech Act Theory originated with the British philosopher John Austin in the late 50’s of the 20th century. He definds speech acts as all the things we do with words when we speak. For example, we use language to apologize, to order, to compliment, to request and so on. The essential concept of speech acts is that although the number of utterances in a language is infinite, people use these theoretically unlimited utterances to accomplish a limited set of purposes. These purposes are called speech acts. For Austin, any speech act is composed of at least two and typically three sub-sets, which are e locutionary, the illocutionary and the perlocutionary acts involved in a total speech act as he calls.

Based on Austin’s speech act theory, Searle(1976) attempts to explain the notion of illocutionary act by stating a set of necessary and sufficient conditions for the performance of a particular kind of the illocutionary act. He divides illocutionary acts into five categories such as assertive, directives, commissives, expressives and declaratives.

Besides Austin and Searle, many other researchers have explored the actual forms and their functions of different speech acts in different languages in cross-cultural studies. They have found that speech acts are constrained by politeness principle at different degrees depending on different cultures.

As a common speech act, refusing has attracted more and more attention of scholars home and abroad. There have been a variety of researches on refusing with

different focuse

3 The Variability of English Refusal

3.1 Definitions of refusal

In recent years, the speech art of refusing has become a hot issue in the fields of cross-cultural study, second language acquisition, and pragmatics. From the existing studies we can find out that the concept of refusal has been touched upon by many researchers according to their research focusers and aims.

Most dictionaries have given definitions to refusal, but quite general and simple. The following is a list of definitions given by some authoritative ones.

Longman Dictionary of the English Language: The act or an instance of refusing, denying, or bring refused; the opportunity or right of refusing or accepting before others.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary: refusing or being refused; right or privilege of deciding to accept or reject a thing before it is offered to others.

From the above-mentioned definitions we know that refusals are the dispreferred negative contribution to ongoing discourse. A refusal is an intrinsic face-threatening act which threatens both refuser and the refusee’s face wants, and thus their realization often involves politeness or pragmatic strategies. However, as regards to the definition itself, all the above mentioned only present a certain function of refusal.

There is a comparatively general and comprehensive definition given by Zhang

Xinhong: Refusal is an adaptive responding act in which the communicator makes conscious or unconscious linguistic choices, by adapting to and utilizing a particular context, to satisfy his particular communicative goal of not complying with the initiation proposed by another communicator.

3.2 Characteristics of English Refusal

3.2.1 The Nature of Refusal

Following Speech Act Theory, it is not so difficult to define the term refusal. A

refusal is a complicated speech act which is flexible to be used in many different situations. It is an intrinsic FTA which would threaten the face wants of both the refuser and the refusee, no matter it is understood as a directive, a commissive, or an expressive. It is socially and psychologically dispreferred response to the iniating act.

According to Verschueren’s Adaptation Theory, it is an adaptive responding act in which the communicator makes conscious or unconscious linguistic choice, by adapting to and utilizing a particular context, to satisfy his particular communicative goal of not complying with the initiation proposed by another communicator.

3.2.2 The Cause of Refusal

There would be many reasons to explain a communicator’s performance of refusal, but the root one is the communicative goals concerned.

According to Brown&Levinson’s Politeness Theory, refusing often constitutes

an interactional conflict, which means an intrusion into the domain of the hearer who often does not share the same goals, interests, or values of the speaker. According to Brown&Levinson, there are acts that we speakers must do, that by their very nature, threaten the wants of another individual. They use Speech Act Theory as the framework for their analysis of such acts and they focus on the face-threatening acts as the motivation for using politeness strategies. Whenever people request, invite, suggest, or order, they might all pose a threat to the hearer’s positive or negative face. Their act is against the hearer’s wishes. That’s why people refuse. Moreover, the refuser often needs to use certain strategies to efface the impression that they are inconsiderate, selfish, stingy or cruel in the communication.

3.2.3 The Target of Refusal

Any linguistic choice is the communicators adaptation to the various contextual factors, so does refusing. All communicators can be said to be living in the three worlds: physical world, social world and mental world. Therefore, it is safe to say

that they will try their best to adapt their linguistic behavior to fit the conditions of those worlds.

3.3 The Variability Shown in English Refusal

3.3.1. Variability

Variability, defined as a language property, denotes the range of possibilities from which choices can be made (Verschueren).

Let’s try to illustrate it:

(1) A: What do you think of the skirt on me? B1: (Say nothing). B2: I can’t tell you. B3: (change the topic). B4: I don’t know.

B5: Why do you want my opinion? B6: I don’t have an eye for fashion.

…

From this fabricated example we can see that there are various ways for a particular task-refusing: different ways might have different pragmatic, communicative and effective considerations and values. Furthermore, the same linguistic form may be used to realize different functions. 3.3.2 Variability in English Refusal

English refusal can be classified into direct and indirect ones .Direct refusals are very clear and effective in expression, for they cause no misundersatanding. However, they should be used carefully because they are much more face-threatening than indirect ones. They fail to take the interlocutor into consideration, or make reservation for the future interaction. Look at the following example:

(2) Lockwood: Perhaps I can get a guide among your lads, and he might stay at the Grange till morning-could you spare me one?

Heathcliff: No, I could not.

(Emily Bronte: Wuthering Heights)

Here” No, I could not” is a direct refusal, It is face-threatening in that its illocutionary force is not mitigated. Though Heathcliff succeeded in expressing his idea clearly, it leaves the tenant the impression that the host was a terribly rude and mean man.

Generally speaking, indirect refusals are much more frequently use in daily communication because they help to conceal the real intention of the speaker and show the speaker’s consideration of the interlocutor’s face wants.

Firstly excuse/ reason/ explanation/ is probably the most frequently used semantic element in indirect refusals according to other scholars and our data. Let’s see some examples:

(3) The old man: Another brandy. The waiter: Finished. The old man: Another The waiter: No .Finished.

(张昕，张蕾：英语经典电影对白朗诵，2005) （4）A: Can you help me move tomorrow morning?

B: Well, er, let me see, I have to take Cindy to nursery school and take

my mother-in-low who has just broken her arm to the doctor and Fred my handy man is coming over to fix the attic window.

(王守元， 张传真： 交际英语口语，1991)

Now, let’s come to avoidance next. Although avoidance is indirect and evasive, it is still impolite. It can be realized in several different ways, i.e. topic switch, joke, repetition of part of request, postponement and hedging

(5): A: Can you lend me some money?

B: Let me think it over, and I’ll let you know later.

(王守元， 张传真： 交际英语口语，1991) （6）Principle： All right. What was something you saw? Charlie: I…I couldn’t say. (hedge)

（张昕，张蕾：英语经典电影对白朗诵，2005）

Generally speaking, alternative can be used to avoid a direct confrontation. Though it is used to perform the face-threatening act, it also shows the refuser’s concern for the speaker’s needs, thus soften or mitigate the threatening force. For example:

(7) Teacher: You’re required to hand in your paper this afternoon. Student: can we make it tomorrow?

(8)A: Can you lend me the book for a while?

B: Sorry, I’m in a hurry. I think there is another one in the library.

(Emily Herrick: Conversational campus English, 2004)

Criticizing or questioning is also a strategy to dissuade interlocutor, that’s to persuade the interlocutor to give up. It can be realized in several other ways: threat or statement of negative consequences to the requester; request for help, empty, and assistance; letting the interlocutor off the hook, etc.

（9）Deer: Come into the words with me. Madge: Don’t be absurd. You’re a deer.

(张建秋： 美国当代短剧选，2005)

（10）Nora: Yes, it’s awfully sweet of you. But couldn’t you get rid of somebody

else in the office instead of Krogstad?

Helmer: This really is the most incredible obstinacy! Just because you go

and make some thoughtless promise to put in a good word for him, you expect me…

(Aristophanes: Four Major Plays,

1969)

To sum up, this part aims to show the variability of English refusals for language users’ different communicative purposes .

4 Ways of American Refusal and Cultural Factors Which

Influence Them

4.1 The American ways of Refusal

People from western cultural background will emphasize more on the concern of effectiveness as time and efficiency are highly valued in their culture. Besides, as equality is already a deep-rooted value in America and individualism is a key principal that regulates the interpersonal relationship, Americans prefer the freedom of actions. In order to achieve effectiveness and explicitness, Americans usually prefer direct and blunt ways.

Social status and identity assert few effects on the way of their refusals. When an American is in a higher status, he often resorts to some internal reason and hope that his subordinate should understand the situation. Though his status is higher than his subordinate, he still wants to care the subordinate’s face and feeling as possible as he can. If one is in lower level, he still refuses his superior immediately without considering other things. American subjects prefer the strategies of reason, direct

refusal and regret when refusing others. Though the status and identity are unequal, the American would react in a similar way.

4.2 The Cultural Factors Which Influence the American way of Refusal

The development of society in America is completely different from that in China. America is a rather new country in the world. Without experiencing the period of feudalism, she stepped into the capitalism directly. So some feudal ideas exerted little influence on American society. What is advocated in America is equality and individualism, which are often regarded as the most marked characteristics of American society. These two values are very popular and widespread in the United States. Besides, the highly mobile American society leaves individuals with feelings of rootlessness, isolation, indifference to community welfare, and shallow personal relationships.

4.2.1 Equality

Together with democracy and freedom, equality is one of the most important and long-held values in American culture. “All men are created equal” says the Declaration of Independence. But it does not mean that all human beings are equal in ability or ambition. It means that all men should be treated equally before the law and given equal privileges and opportunities. Every American holds the belief that any individual, no matter how poor, can achieve wealth and fame through diligence and virtue. Of course, the gap between the rich and the poor as well as the large differences of education, opportunity and privilege still exist nowadays. The Blacks are still discriminated currently. But the legal and institutional heritage prescribes equal rights, condemns special privileges, and demands equal opportunity for every American. Actually, the egalitarianism is so popular in America that it is said that Americans have a worship of average Man. The average American will be

overwhelmed with indignation when they meet someone insolent because of the superiority from their hereditary status or special rights.

Due to the pervasive influence of the egalitarianism in America, power distance among people is smaller than that in Asian countries. The emphasis on equality over power on the western side can be best demonstrated in the use of first names in everyday interaction. American children learn to make decisions by themselves when they are very young. And they are taught to be responsible for their decisions and things they have done. The parents would not order or demand their children to do anything. On the country, they would guide their children to go their own way and think independently. The son or the daughter would often call the first names of others instead of using titles. The boss is considered to be the same as others and treated equally as the employee. When the employer is to make a decision, a meeting will be held to gather the suggestions and recommendations from his employees. If the employee has a different opinion, he would always speak it out directly without hesitation. At the same, the employer will also be glad to hear different voice. Equality is no double a dominant value in western culture.

4.2.2 Individualism

In society, social relations are based on the autonomy of each person, which means that each person should be treated as individual first and only secondly as a member of group or occupant of a position in a hierarchy. People often address one another as individuals rather than as roles or positions. In individualist cultures, people tend to be less aware of others’ feelings and may talk more than people from group-oriented cultures.

In individualist culture, where each person acts independently and responsible for his actions, children learn to express their individual desires and make individual desires and make individual choices when they are very young.

People in western culture not only attach more importance to “I” rather than to “we”, but also emphasize individual identity, individual rights, individual needs over

“we” identity, the interests of group, obligations and commitment. The only principle that regulates the interpersonal relationship in the west is individualism. It is widely accepted by American that dog help those who help themselves. So, most of westerners tend to be more independent than people in Asia do. Dependence or interdependence accompanied with obligations and responsibilities are devalued and despised by westerners.

Individualism has its merit and defect. The positive side of individualism includes the following: its opportunity for the individual, its grant of freedom and its encouragement of diversity. The negative side of the individualism is quite obvious. If everyone just pursues self-interest or simply in his search for individual identity, the interests of colleagues, the interests of group and community and even society may get hurt. People would also develop the indifference to the preservation of national honor and the indifference to those who are struggling at the bottom of the society.

4.2.3 Instrumental Interaction and Fair Play

As a result of great influence of individualism and equality orientation in western culture, relationship is not so important in America, which is totally another scene in China. What is highly valued in America is instrumental interaction and fair play. Fair play is considered as the standard between the superior and the inferior, the rich and the poor, the aged and the young.

Fair play is objective and impersonal in nature. It demands people to follow the same rule or standard when interacting with different people. In another word, one should be fair and reasonable when dealing with different people. So Americans tend to adopt similar strategies when dealing with different interlocutors in refusals. No obvious differences are laid in American refusals though interacting with different social roles.

5 Conclusion

I have concentrated on two main points of English refusals in the paper. One is the variability and the other is ways of American refusals and cultural factors which influence them.

From the data and the analysis in the third part, we can see that though English refusing strategies vary a lot from one to another, they are all linguistic means which can be and are actually used by the refuser to satisfy his communicative needs. People tend to use more indirect refusal when they refuse the superior in social status and those who are further on the axis of social distance; it’s the cultural convention that English speakers are more likely to refuse clearly and directly.

Part four shows us , in conversation, American expression are brief and most of the times perfunctory. The points are expressed directly and quickly as well. The forms which can represent the social relations are few and loose. Due to the value of equality, Americans believe that treating everyone the same is ultimately respectful. So Americans usually tend to employ similar strategies of refusals when communicating with people in different social position. Because of the pervasive influence of individualism, Americans gradually become self-oriented and rarely care the feelings and face of others. Besides, Americans pay much more attention to effectiveness. They believe that time is money. All these factors contribute to the American way of refusals: direct, quick and equal treatment to everyone.

Understanding of this help us to learn and use English refusing strategies more properly and reasonably.

致 谢

本文是在我的导师阿依努尔老师精心指导和大力支持下完成的。阿依努尔老师以其严谨的治学精神、她严肃的科学态度，精益求精的工作作风，深深地感染和激励着我。她渊博的知识、开阔的视野和敏锐的思维以及循循善诱的教导和不拘一格的思路给予我无尽的启迪。首先我要感谢老师，感谢老师给予的无私帮助和悉心指导。

在此，我还要感谢大学外国语学院的所有老师，他们在我四年的大学学习和生活中所给予的耐心指导和帮助为我完成这篇论文提供了巨大的帮助。

还要感谢我的同学及朋友，感谢他们对我的无私帮助，使我得以顺利完成论文。另外，我还要感谢我的父亲母亲及哥哥，感谢他们多年来对我的不断鼓励和关爱。

最后，再次对关心、帮助我的老师和同学表示衷心地感谢。

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to Ms. Ahynur, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and insightful guidance. She has earnestly helped me all through the searching, analysis and paper-writing stages. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form. Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers at the English Department of Foreign Languages College in Xinjiang University. Their patient and insightful instructions and invaluable help in my four-year study in this department have provided me with an important preparation for working out this paper. I am greatly indebted to those professors and teachers at the English Department who have instructed and helped me a lot in the past four years. Last my thanks would go to my beloved parents for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. My gratitude also goes to my dear brother who always gives his constant encouragement and love to me. I also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.

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