英文商务信函拒绝言语行为的礼貌策略研究

广西师范大学

硕士学位论文

英文商务信函拒绝言语行为的礼貌策略研究

姓名：徐冬梅

申请学位级别：硕士

专业：外国语言学及应用语言学

指导教师：罗耀光

20080401

英文商务信函拒绝言语行为的礼貌策略研究

研究生：徐冬梅年级：2005级学科专业：外国语言学及应用语言学指导老师：罗耀光研究方向：语用学

中文摘要

“拒绝”是人们日常言语交际中经常会实施的一种言语行为，在过去的20年里，拒绝言语行为一直是语言学家们研究的热点之一。其研究重点集中在几个方面，如社会因素对其策略使用的影响，跨文化语境中的拒绝策略使用，以及通过拒绝行为来研究语用迁移。并且大部分研究都局限于以在校大学生实施的日常拒绝行为为研究对象。

在商务交往过程中实施的拒绝言语行为充分体现了其不礼貌（即威胁被拒绝者的面子）及冲突本质。在英文商务信件中表达拒绝信息时写信人要完成两个目标：一是主要目标，传递坏消息，二是次要目标，和读者保持良好的关系。任何不当的拒绝行为实施都有可能造成（潜在）客户流失，给公司带来经济损失。这类英文商务信件的特点决定了写信人在信件写作过程中必须注重拒绝信息的礼貌传递。

有鉴于此，本文以布朗和列文森的面子理论为指导，对英文商务信件中拒绝言语行为的礼貌策略使用进行了专门研究。本文首先对拒绝言语行为，尤其是英文商务信件中的拒绝言语行为，以及布朗和列文森的面子理论进行了阐述。在此基础上，作者对英文商务信件拒绝言语行为中使用的礼貌策略进行了分析。研究发现，应用于英文商务信件拒绝言语行为实施的礼貌策略有积极礼貌策略、消极礼貌策略和直接策略，每种策略都有不同的语言表现形式，在分析的过程中作者还作了进一步的阐述和例证。通过对这些策略进行定量分析，作者发现在实施拒绝这一言语行为的时候，使用更频繁的礼貌策略是消极礼貌策略，其次是积极礼貌策略，直接策略的使用频率最低。这一分布与写信人的写作目标有一定的联系。最常用的语言表达形式有：关注听话人，宣称双方共同点，使用模糊语，表明原因以及非确指。

本研究有助于人们在商务沟通中更好地运用礼貌策略来实施拒绝言语行为，指导人们提高该类英文商务信件的写作能力，进而帮助人们进行成功的交际。同时，该研究对于英文商务信件的研究与教学也能起到一定的促进作用。

关键词：拒绝言语行为; 商务信函; 礼貌策略

Politeness Strategies for the Speech Act of Refusal in English Business

Letters

Postgraduate: Xu Dongmei Grade: 2005 Orientation: Pragmatics Supervisor: Associate Prof. Luo Yaoguang Major: Foreign Linguistics & Applied Linguistics

Abstract in English

As a common speech act in daily communication, refusal has been one of the hottest issues in the study of language use during past 20 years. The focuses of studies on the speech act of refusal lie in several facets, for instance, the influence of social factors on the employment of refusal strategies, the comparison of refusal speech act across cultural groups, or the study of pragmatic transfer by investigating the characteristics of refusals of non-natives. Besides, the speech acts of refusal they studied are performed by in-school college students in the daily interpersonal communication.

The impolite and conflictive nature of speech act of refusal is fully manifested when refusals are performed in business communication. The writer has to accomplish two goals when conveying the refusal messages in English business letters. The primary one is to convey the bad news; the secondary one is to maintain goodwill with the reader. Any mishandling of the performance of refusal would alienate (potential) customers and bring economic losses. Because of this, politeness should be paid more attention to in English business letters conveying refusal news.

Therefore, the present thesis is intended to study refusals in English business letters from the perspective of politeness under the guideline of Brown and Levinson’s face theory. The author first makes an elaboration of the speech act of refusal, especially the one in English business letters, and the face theory. Based on these, the author conducts a thorough analysis of the politeness strategies for refusals in English business letters. It is found that the politeness strategies used to perform refusals include positive politeness strategies, negative politeness strategies as well as bald-on-record strategies, each of which finds a variety of linguistic realizations. In the process of analysis, each strategy is backed up with examples. By making quantitative analysis of these strategies, it is also found that when the writer performs the refusal the more frequently utilized strategy is negative politeness strategies, followed by positive politeness strategies. Bald-on-record is not used too much. To a certain degree, such distribution is related to the writer’s goals. The most favored linguistic realizations of politeness are