Refusals: discovering how people say "no" a methodological and cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

Refusals are an interesting speech act from a socio-pragmatic perspective. The research described in this thesis investigates two different aspects of the speech act of refusing: variation due to different data collection conditions, and variation when comparing refusals from New Zealand native speakers of English with Germans speaking English as a second language. Three types of refusals from 14 German and 13 New Zealand participants were collected and recorded using three different data collection techniques: natural data collection, role-plays, and discourse completion tasks (DCT). In each case, variation in the expression of the refusals was measured using five methods of quantitative analysis: 1) length of the total refusal, 2) length of the core refusal (measured in number of words), 3) average number of strategies used in the refusal, 4) types of strategies used in refusing, and 5) overall type of refusal. Following the quantitative analysis, the differences between the way that Germans and New Zealanders approach refusals was further discussed using a qualitative approach, exploring responses by the participants to a questionnaire completed subsequent to the data collection process. The results of this project reinforce concerns of previous researchers about the limitations of the DCT as a data collection tool. While the data collected using DCT was similar to the natural data in length and number of strategies used, differences were found in the overall type of refusal. In this case, the data collected using role-plays was more similar to the natural data. Overall, the types of strategies used were deemed to be more important aspects of measuring the authenticity of a refusal than mere length. This study has again shown that the DCT is not the best way to collect speech act data if authenticity is the goal. This needs to be considered when planning future research. Unexpected differences were found in the way that the German and New Zealand students produced refusals. The Germans used more positive politeness strategies than the New Zealanders, and also refused indirectly more often. This contrasts with the common stereotype that Germans are very direct in refusing. The comparison of the German and New Zealand refusals provides interesting insights into the difference that culture can make on how specific speech acts are accomplished.