Saying “no” in emails in Mandarin Chinese and Australian English
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 03:13authored byWei LiWei Li
The present study examined the differences between Mandarin Chinese and Australian English in email refusals. An email production questionnaire (EPQ) and retrospective verbal reports (RVR) were used to collect data. Results showed that while both groups preferred directness to indirectness at the utterance level, Chinese participants used indirectness significantly more frequently than Australian participants in refusals of requests. In addition, Chinese refusals were more indirect than Australian refusals at the discourse level. Chinese participants chose significantly more supportive moves than Australian participants and tended to put multiple supportive moves before the direct head act in refusals of either invitations or requests. The two groups also differed considerably in the content of refusal strategies. Moreover, both the EPQ and RVR data showed that Chinese were more sensitive to social status than Australians. The findings of this study were broadly consistent with studies on refusals in oral communication despite some differences.
History
Publication title
Journal of Politeness Research
Volume
18
Pagination
367-402
ISSN
1612-5681
Department/School
School of Humanities
Publisher
De Gruyter Mouton
Place of publication
Germany
Repository Status
Restricted
Socio-economic Objectives
Communication across languages and culture; Languages and linguistics