A Cross-Cultural Study of Refusal Speech Acts in China, Korea, and America

Abstract

This study compared refusal strategies used by speakers from three cultural groups whose native languages are Chinese, Korean, and American English respectively, from the perspective of cross-cultural communication based on Discourse Completion Task (DCT). Results show that generally speaking, all groups employed indirect refusal strategy more frequently than direct refusal strategy and adjuncts to refusal strategy, but the American subjects used direct refusals and adjuncts to refusals significantly more frequently than Chinese and Korean subjects. Besides, it was also found that the Korean subjects tended to be more direct than the Chinese subjects and showed a tendency towards the American subjects. Finally, with regard to the refuser’s social status, it was observed that all the three groups employed adjuncts to refusal strategy more frequently to lower status interlocutors than to higher status interlocutors.