JCERJournal of Contemporary Educational Research2208-84662208-8474Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty. Ltd.10.26689/jcer.v8i7.7791ArticleA Comparative Study of Chinese and English Refusal Language Strategieshttps://artdesignp.com/journal/JCER/8/7/10.26689/jcer.v8i7.7791TaoLin2024872024-07-31Using 80 short video examples about refusal language strategies on Douyin short videos as a corpus, this study explores the commonality and individuality, as well as the contradictory relationship between Chinese and British countries in the use of refusal language strategies by combining manual and graphical data analyses. It is found that Chinese people use more indirect ways of using refusal speech acts, and British and American countries use more direct ways of using refusal speech acts. In addition to this, both Chinese and British countries use non-verbal behavior to reject speech as a way of protecting the positive face of the addressee and reducing the threatening behavior to the face of the other party. This study also found that the ambivalent relationship between the emergence of refusal language strategies in both China and Britain is related to their personal psychological state, social values, and personal face. The results of this study have some values for sociology as well as pragmatics, which is conducive to the maintenance of interpersonal relationships.

Austin, 1962, How to Do Things with Words, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Ran Y, 2006, Semantics: Phenomena and Analyses, Peking University Press, Beijing.

Brown P, Levinson SC, 1987, Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Zhou Y, 2019, “Tik Tok” is Becoming Increasingly Attractive: Analysis of “Tik Tok,” a Leading Entertainment Marketing Platform. Journal of News Research, (4): 231–233.

Wu J, 2003, Expressions of Refusals. Foreign Languages and Literature, 19(4): 106–109.

Yao J, 2003, Reflections on the Different Between Western Culture and Chinese Culture from a Contrastive Pragmatic Study on Refusal Strategies. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, (1): 12–17.

Ma Y, 1999, Talking About Chinese and American Rejection Strategies from the Surface of the Discourse. Journal of Qiqihar University (Philosophy & Social Science Edition) (4): 74–77.

Li J, 2004, A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Refusal Speech Strategies, dissertation, Anhui University.

Beebe L, Takahashi T, Uliss-Weltz R, 1990, Pragmatic Transfer in ESL Refusals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Feng G, 2009, Refusal Expressions: An Overview of Domestic Studies. Journal of Huangshan University, 11(1): 107–111.

Ji X, 2015, A Review of Domestic Studies. J. Journal of Lanzhou University of Arts and Science (Social Science Edition), 31(06): 100–104.

Searle JR, 1969, Speech Acts, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Yule G, 1996, Pragmatics, Oxford University Press, London.

Wang A, 2001, An Investigation of English-Chinese Expression Patterns of Rejection Speech Acts. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, (3): 178–185.

Li Z, 2014, Chinese Indirect Refusals and their Gender Features. Journal of Lingnan Normal University, 33(02): 121–124.

Yang W, Chen S, 2002, Pragmatic Research on Socio-Pragmatic Transfer and Speech Act of Refusal in Interlanguage. Journal of Hunan University of Science and Engineering, 2005(8): 158–160.

Wang A, Wu G, 2004, A Socio-Pragmatic Study of English-Chinese Rejection Speech Acts. Journal of University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (Social Sciences Edition), 2004(03): 66–72, 78.

Yu Y, 2012, A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Strategy Study on Chinese and American Refusal Speech Acts. Journal of Educational Institute of Jilin Province, 2012(10): 84–85.

Jia Y, 1991, Cultural Relevance Theory and Speech Act Theory. Foreign Language Journal, 1991(5): 50–54.

Zhao L, Jin W, 2021, Collectivism and Individualism: Social Values in Chinese and Western Ceremonial Cultures Talking Pieces. Journal of Liaoning Open University, 2021(03): 107–109.