A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS OF REFUSAL SPEECH ACTS IN “FAMILY·SPRING·AUTUMN”

Jiang Qingchuan

doi:10.23856/5913

Jiang Qingchuan Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8670-2342

Keywords: face-threatening act, refusal strategy, Chinese culture, feudal patriarchal system, national character, era’s particularity.

Abstract

The study of refusal speech acts has received widespread attention. It is a speech act of uncooperative response to a specific request (such as a request, suggestion, invitation, offering of help, etc.). As a face-threatening act, it is necessary to use appropriate strategies to maintain harmonious interpersonal relationships when implementing it, especially in Chinese culture. Under the influence of Chinese traditional culture, there are certain particularities in implementing refusal speech acts. The paper uses the refusal speech acts collected in the novel trilogy “Family·Spring·Autumn” by the famous Chinese writer Ba Jin as the corpus. There are three types of refusal speech acts: direct, indirect, and strong, and a total of 21 refusal strategies. It was analyzed using document analysis and data analysis, combined with the characteristics of the social background of the feudal patriarchal system. Research on refusal speech acts is of great significance for better understanding the character of a nation and the particularities of an era.

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