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A Study on Expression Aspects and Strategies of Refusal Speech Acts in Japanese
The Japanese Language Association of Korea
Abbr :
JLAK
2018, (58), pp.83-99
DOI :https://doi.org/10.14817/jlak.2018.58.83
Publisher : The Japanese Language Association Of Korea
Research Area : Japanese Language and Literature
2018, (58), pp.83-99
DOI :https://doi.org/10.14817/jlak.2018.58.83
Publisher : The Japanese Language Association Of Korea
Research Area : Japanese Language and Literature
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The purpose of this paper is to systematically study characteristic expression aspects and strategies in refusal speech acts from a pragmatic viewpoint. Refusal speech acts do not appear in explicit or fixed linguistic forms, but are mostly indirectly done dependent on various contexts. They appear extensively in Assertive sentences, Non-declarative sentences, Imperative sentences, Interrogative sentences, and Abridged sentences. The speech act is not accompanied with the speaker’s consideration towards the listener in Assertive sentences and Imperative sentences, whereas it is in Non-declarative sentences, Interrogative sentences, Abridged sentences and even in Assertive sentences if the predicate is a negative potential form. Also, linguistic persuasion appearing in Refusal speech acts are generally divided into ‘Persuasive refusal strategy’ and ‘Non-persuasive refusal strategy’. The former includes strategies of ‘expression of apology’, ‘explanation of circumstance’, ‘presentation of alternative’, and ‘response of sympathy’, and the latter includes strategies of ‘expression of non-potentiality’, and ‘evasion’. Refusal speech acts have the characteristic that they are used in a super-positional way because they have a high possibility of infringing on a listener's face. This study has shown that Japanese has been pursuing smooth refusal speech acts through the method of the use of multiple persuasive refusal strategies, or the use of non-persuasive refusal strategies and then adding persuasive refusal strategies again. Since the speaker takes an attitude to have the listener understand their refusal acts, the refusal strategy has a very significant meaning in maintaining smooth human relations. Given that the refusal act may cause a great infringement on a listener’s face, a variety of expressions and high level verbal strategies are pursued in order to reduce a listener’s face-threatening, and thereby maintain smooth communication and a good interpersonal relationship. It can be said that Japanese, which aims at the co-construction utterance type, naturally shows a very sensitive aspect in that regard.
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