A study on how english speakers and the vietnamese refuse offers

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

CODE: 12

---------------------------

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES
A STUDY ON HOW ENGLISH SPEAKERS
AND THE VIETNAMESE REFUSE OFFERS

Supervisor

: Le Thi Anh Tuyet, M.A

Student

: Pham Thi Thu Hien

Date of birth

: 05/07/1994

Class

: K19A3 (2012-2016)

HANOI – 2016

Graduation Paper
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

At this stage of research accomplishment, I would like to express my deep
gratitude to my supervisor Le Thi Anh Tuyet, M.A from whom I have received
enormous kindness and guidance. Without her kind and patient instruction, it is
impossible for me to finish my thesis.
I also deliver my thanks to my classmates and all friends and teachers in Hanoi
Open University who squeeze their busy schedule to help me finish my thesis.
Finally, I’m grateful to my parents for their love, encouragement and support to
take care of me so that I can concentrate on my study and do it well.
Thank to you all.

Pham Thi Thu Hien – K19A3 (2012-2016)


Graduation Paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
PART A: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................... 1
1. Rationale ................................................................................................... 1
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study ............................................................ 2
3. Scope of the Study .................................................................................... 2
4. Research Questions .................................................................................. 2
5. Methods of the Study................................................................................ 2
6. Design of the Study ................................................................................... 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................ 4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ..................................... 4
1.1.The Relationship between Language and Communication .................. 4
1.2 Cross – Culture Communication ........................................................... 6
1.3. Speech Acts ............................................................................................ 7
1.4. Refusal as a Speech Act ......................................................................... 8
1.5. Refusal to an Offer .............................................................................. 10
1.6. Summary .............................................................................................. 10
CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS ON STRATERGIES OF REFUSING
OFFERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE ......................................... 12
2.1. Categories of Refusals in English and Vietnamese ............................ 12
2.1.1. Direct Refusals in English and Vietnamese ..................................... 12
2.1.1.1. Speech Act of Direct Offer Refusals in Vietnamese ..................... 13
2.1.1.2. Speech Act of Direct Offer Refusals in English............................ 15
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Graduation Paper
2.1.2. Indirect Refusals in English and Vietnamese.................................. 20
2.1.2.1. Speech Act of Indirect Offer Refusals in Vietnamese .................. 20
2.2. Refusal Strategies in English and Vietnamese ................................... 26
2.3. Discussion on the Similarities and Differences between English and
Vietnamese in Refusing Offers .................................................................. 29
2.3.1. The Similarities ................................................................................. 29
2.3.2. The Differences ................................................................................. 29
2.4. Cultural Influences in Refusal Strategies of English and Vietnamese .....31
2.4. Summary .............................................................................................. 34
CHAPTER III: SUGGESTIONSTO HAVE SOUND OFFER REFUSALS... 35
PART C: CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 38
REFERENCES

Pham Thi Thu Hien – K19A3 (2012-2016)


Graduation Paper

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Table 1: Examples of Vietnamese Direct Refusals ................................... 14
Table 2: Structures of Direct Refusal Speech Acts in Vietnamese .......... 15
Table 3: Examples of English Direct Refusals .......................................... 16
Table 4: Structures of Direct Refusal Speech Acts in English ................. 18
Table 5: Distribution of Direct Refusal in Response to Offers by English
Speakers and the Vietnamese in % ........................................................... 18
Table 6: Examples of Vietnamese Indirect Refusals ................................ 21
Table 7: Structures of Indirect Refusal Speech Acts in Vietnamese ....... 22
Table 8: Examples of English Indirect Refusals ....................................... 23
Table 9: Structures of Indirect Refusal Speech Acts in English .............. 24
Table 10: Distribution of Indirect Refusal in Response to Offers by
English Speakers and the Vietnamese in %.............................................. 25
Table 11: Result of Survey on Direct and Indirect Strategies in English
and Vietnamese........................................................................................... 27
Table 12: Result of Survey on Direct Strategies in English and
Vietnamese. ................................................................................................. 27
Table 13: Result of Survey on Indirect Strategies in English and
Vietnamese. ................................................................................................. 28

Pham Thi Thu Hien – K19A3 (2012-2016)


PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
It is undeniable that language is the most important tool for
communication. It is closely related to the way people think and behave.
Through language, people can connect to each other regardless of their
countries and cultures. Each language and the culture of the country cannot be
separated from each other. However, communication can fail to achieve as
misunderstanding of the unique culture of each country with language use.
Hence, it is necessary to master a language. It is not only gives learners
countless opportunities to communicate, study and work effectively oversea,
but also improves language understanding in order to use and avoid
breakdown communication.
Refusal is one of the most important speech acts which is commonly
used in everyday life.Of the universal speech acts, refusal is a subtle ones, it
has a high face-threatening act in communication, especially in intercultural
communication. Sometimes, we want to refuse someone or something but do
not know how to reject without hurting others’ feelings or make them
disappointed. Thus, it is difficult to find out the most effective strategy to
enhance daily conversations. This requires the speaker politeness, delicateness
and word choices.
Based on literary works either published or uploaded in the internet and
English speaking materials written by native speakers, this paper studies
refusals of offers to enhance the efficiency of the teaching and learning of this
speech act in English and Vietnamese, create the tactfulness and flexibility in
language use for both Vietnamese learners ofEnglish and English-speaking
learners of Vietnamese with the maxim declared in a Vietnamese proverb:
“You do not have to buy words, so do not let them hurt the feeling of others.”.
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Moreover, clarify the contrastive featuresand similarities as well as
differences between English and Vietnamese from cultural perspective help
the Vietnamese learners overcome the difficulties when they face the sticky
cases of refusing offers. It also helps to enhance and improve language
communicative competence of Vietnamese learners of English.
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study
This paper aims to find out howpeople express refusals to an offer in
English and Vietnamese. It also clarify the similarities and differences in
terms of syntactic and cross-culture feature of spoken refusals in English and
Vietnamese and analysis it in the effort of increasing not only the
effectiveness of teaching and learning refusals utterance in English and
Vietnamese but also the ability to use language for Vietnamese learners of English.
3. Scope of the Study
Because of the limitation of the time and the scope, my graduation
cannot cover all aspect of the issue. Hence, the study just focus on verbal
aspects of the speech act of refusing offers
4. Research Questions
The research question is aimed to answer the flowing questions:
1. How do English and Vietnamese people refuse an offer?
2. What are basic forms of refusal speech act in both languages?
3. What are the similarities and differences between English speakers
and the Vietnamese in term of refusing an offer?
4. What are cultural influences on refusal strategies of both languages?
5. Methods of the Study
In carrying the research, I have adopted such methods of study such as:
descriptive methods, comparison, contrastive analysis and statistics
techniques.
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6. Design of the Study
The thesis consists of three parts. The first one is the theoretical
background. Next is the most important part in the thesis, it is findings on the
refusal strategies in English and Vietnamese. The last one is suggestion to
have sound offer refusals.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1.The Relationship between Language and Communication
Language is generally accepted as a system of symbols including
sounds, words and the rules of words combination that people used as a mean
of communication. It is one of the most amazing characteristics of human
being which best distinguishes mankind from animals.
Language as a social phenomenon was first described by Ferdinand
Saussure in his syllabus of General Linguistics published in 1916. According
to him, language is a complex of necessary conventions which is socially
accepted. It is a treasure which is maintained by people speaking the same
language in community, a system of signals and grammar exists potentially
inside each brain or community’s brains exactly.
After Saussure’s definition of language, a broader view of what is to be
included in language description has been proposed by many language
scholars working in this field. According to Keraf (1980) “Language is a

means of communication between members of the public symbols of the
sound produced by means of said human. Sitindoan(1984) also shares this
definition of language when the researcher considers language as a symbols
of the sound produced by means of said human, and the system means that are
arbitrary; used by men in his life as a means of communication between each
other to form, express, and communicate thoughts and feelings, culture and nature.
Therefore, what can be derived from these points of view is that
language is a communication tool produced by symbols, system, meaning
which help to express self-expression, make integration and social adaption as
well as hold social control (Keraf, 1980).
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The term culture has a wide range of definitions. According to Tylor. E.
(1871), culture is a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law,
morals, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
member of society.Also, when it comes to the notion of culture , there is a
most widely accepted that culture is the total accumulation of beliefs,
customs, values, behaviors, institutions and communication patterns that are
shared, learned and passed down through the generation in an identifiable
group of people (Linell Davis). However, Goodenough (1981) believes that “a
society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order
to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that
they accept for any one of themselves. Furthermore, the definition of culture,
in Kroeber’s and Kluckhohn’s point of view (1952), consists of patterns,
explicit and implicit of and for behaviors acquired and transmitted by
symbols. It constitutes the distinctive achievement of human groups and
includes embodiment in artifacts. The essential core of culture consists of

traditional (i.e. historically derived and selected) ideas and especially their
attached values. On the one hand, culture systems may be considered as
products of action. On the other hand, it is as conditioning elements of further
action.
The definition of language and culture imply that they are closely
connected to each other. On the one hand, culture seems so inclusive, it
permeates almost every aspect of human life including languages that we use.
On the other hand, when we need to share a culture, we communicate through
language. Moreover, language is complexly intertwined with culture (they
have evolved together, influencing one another in the process, ultimately
shaping what it means to be human). As Krober. A. L. (1923) said, “Culture,

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then, began when speech was present, and from then on, the enrichment of
either means the further development of the other.”
In summary, the relationship between language and culture is complex
and homologous. Language is a major component and supporter of culture as
well as primary tool for transferring messages, which is inextricably bound
with culture. Furthermore, it enables us to store meanings and experience to
facilitate communication. Language is influenced, shaped by culture and
reflects culture. Through language, culture is transmitted and human learn
their culture through language. In other words, without language, culture
cannot be acquired or transmitted. Without culture, language cannot exit.
1.2 Cross – Culture Communication
Based on the discussion above, there is a close relationship between
language and culture. We describe our experiences and culture by using

language, and its structures influence our perceptions. Language in turn shapes
our thoughts and culture. It is a part of culture, which reflects people’s attitudes,
beliefs, worldviews and it can influence the culture to a certain extent.
Therefore, communication between people of different cultural
backgrounds involves much more than overcoming the language barrier.
When the message is sent through a cultural filter, a breakdown of
communication often becomes distorted in the mind of receivers because of
the cultural differences which may cause a great deal of misunderstanding
and friction due to the differences in values, attitudes, beliefs, preconceptions
and expectation of individual senders.
Thus, culture differences are the most serious areas causing
misunderstanding, unpleasantness and even conflict in cross-culture
communication. Consequently, in term of communication, being aware of the

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cultural backgrounds of different people from various places plays an integral
part in avoiding misunderstanding and culture shocks.
1.3. Speech Acts
Theory of speech act was first proposed in 1962 by John Langshaw
Austin, one of the founders of pragmatic, and later developed by John R..
Searle in 1969. Both of them are philosophers of language.
Austin. J.L defined speech acts as the actions performed in saying
something or actions perform using language. That is when we perform acts,
we are making utterances. In other words, we are using words to perform
actions in the real contexts. For example, when Mary says “I promise to clean
the house” in an appropriate context then she does not just say something or

describe what she is dong in particular, rather in making the utterance she
performs the promise. Thus, speech acts are communicative acts that convey
an intended language function. It is a unit of speaking which occur in
everyday

talk,

every

society

and

performnumerous

functions

in

communication such as suggestions, requests, apologies, refusals, offers,
commands.
According to Austin (1962), there are three aspects of speech acts
including locution, illocution and perlocution. A locutionary act is the act of
saying something or the performance of an utterance. It is a physical utterance
by the speaker. For instance, if someone says ‘ Ring the bell!’the locutionary
acts is the realization of the speaker’s utterance. An illocutionary act is using
a sentence to perform a function such as question, command, greeting,
warning. In other words, it is ‘what is done in uttering the word’, the function
of the word, the specific purpose that the speaker have in mind (Ibid.16) For
example, the utterance “I swear this will never happen again” is used to

perform the illocutionary act of promising.
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A perlocutionary act is an act performed by saying something such as
convincing, persuading, comforting, inspiring or surprising. It is the action that
results from the locution .To say “Do not make noise”, for instance, has the force
of warning when spoken in a certain context. By hearing the statement, and
understanding it as a warning, the hearer is warned, which is not to say that she
or he must or will act in any particular ways regarding the warning.
Among the three acts, illocutionary is considered to be the most
important one by Ye G (1996). Also, the illocutionary act which Austin later
termed “speech act” is the core interest of Austin and other pragmatists (
Levinson, 1983).
Meanwhile, according to Searle (1974), each type of illocutionary acts
requires certain expected or appropriate conditions called felicity conditions.
His classification of speech acts are described as follows:
(1) Representatives : stating what the speaker believes to be the case or
not ( assertions, conclusions, or descriptions )
(2) Expressive : expressing psychological state ( pleasure, pain, likes,
dislikes, joy, or sorrow )
(3) Directives : getting the hearer to do something ( commands, orders,
requests, suggestions )
(4) Commissives : committing the speaker to do something ( promises,
threats, or refusals )
(5) Declarations : speech acts that change the world via their utterance
( resignations, declaration, or baptism )
1.4. Refusal as a Speech Act

First, the notion of refusal should be taken into account. According to
Oxford Advanced Dictionary, refusal is an act of saying or showing that you
will not accept something that you are expected to do. In Vietnamese
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dictionary, it means you do not want to accept the things you were given or
offered such as a request, an offer, a command, an invitation, etc.In term of
pragmatism, refusal is a type of speech act that is intended aresponse to
another individual's request, invitation, offer or suggestion. In Kwon’s point
of view (2004), refusals are sticking point in cross-cultural communication
and they can be a tricky speech act to perform linguistically and
psychologically since the possibility of offending the interlocutor is inherent
in the act itself.
In general, refusal can be understood that the disapproval or rejection
of the interlocutor’s idea. It means saying “No, I will not do it” in response to
someone else’s utterance, in which he or she has conveyed to us that he/she
wants us to do something and expects us to do it.
Refusals, as all the other speech acts, occur in all languages. However,
the way of refusing are various from different kinds of languages. And
whether each way make listeners feel comfortable when refusing the same
invitation or request or not is not the same. Refusal is a face-threatening act to
the listener, because it is opposite to his or her expectations. Also, it is
considered to be an especially sensitive nature, and a pragmatic breakdown
which includes a level of rudeness and impoliteness, so performing
inappropriate refusal strategies may damage the relationship between
interlocutors. Thus, proper perception and production of refusals requires a
certain degree of cultural awareness (Hassani, Mardani, &Hossein, 2011).

In order to avoid appearing offensive or impolite, non-native speakers
often overuse indirect strategies that could be misunderstood by native
speakers (Al-Eryani, 2007). According to Al-Kahtani (2005), saying no is
difficult for non-native speakers of a language. How one says 'no' is more
important in many societies than the answer itself. Therefore, sending and
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receiving a message of 'no' is a task that needs special skills. The speaker
must know when to use the appropriate form and its function depending on
his and her interlocutor's cultural-linguistic values. Since, failure to refuse
appropriately may risk the interlocutors’ relations; refusals have variety of
strategies to avoid offending. However, sociocultural appropriateness of these
strategies differs in languages and cultures.
Rubin (1981) as cited in Keshavarz, Eslami, & Ghahraman (2006)
states that for language learners with limitations in linguistic as well as
sociocultural norms of the target language, performing refusal appropriately
necessitates a higher level of pragmatic competence than other speech acts.
Thus, pragmatic transfer from the first to the second language is more likely
to occur in uttering a complicated and face threatening speech act like refusal
(Beebe, Takahashi, &Uliss-Weltz, 1990)
1.5. Refusal to an Offer
The speech act of refusals occurs when a speaker directly or indirectly
says no to a request or invitation. In everyday life, we always receive offers
from others so it is difficult to refuse someone’ offers in any cases. It is
known as a “sticking point” in cross – culture communication (Known 2004)
and a social habit which is sensitive and communicative acts to enhance the
relation or intimacy. Due to this characteristic, failure to refuse appropriate

may lead to breakdown in communication and risk the interpersonal relation
of the speakers, refusal usually include different strategies to avoid offending
one’s interlocutor.
1.6. Summary
The close relationship between language and culture is obvious. Thus,
each language and culture has its different expressions of behaviorand
variousrealizations of speech acts by language users. Of all speech acts,
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refusal is in the top list causing breakdown communication due to its high
face-threatening act. Therefore, analyzing in term of cultural approach is the
best way for English learners to find out the similarities and differences of the
speech act of refusing offers in English and Vietnamese.

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CHAPTER 2: FINDINGS ON STRATERGIESOF
REFUSING OFFERS IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
The previous chapter has established the frame work of the theoretical
background from which the speech act of theory, refusal and other related
issues have been introduced. This chapter will focus on classifying clearly
about direct and indirect refusals as well as investigating the similarities and
differences in terms of syntactic and cross-culture feature of spoken refusals
in English and Vietnamese.

2.1.Categories of Refusals in English and Vietnamese
Directness and indirectness are basic forms of expression, which are
universal in all languages and culture. Although both of them exist in
communication, refusals are different from culture to culture and they can be
direct or indirect utterances.
The aims of this paper is to investigate the similarities and differences
in term of syntactic and cross-cultural features of spoken refusal in English
and Vietnamese, in the effort of increasing not only the effectiveness of
learning refusal utterance in English and Vietnamese but also the ability to
use language for English and Vietnamese but also the ability to use language
for English learners in Vietnam.
2.1.1. Direct Refusals in English and Vietnamese
Directness is a style of communication in which speakers want to get
straightforward to the points. The speech interprets exactly and literally what
the speaker said.
Direct refusal in English and Vietnamese go directly into the main
ideas, the main content and main message that the speaker want to send to the

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interlocutors. As a result, listeners can immediately comprehend and
perceive the message that the speakers want to convey in a conversation
without referring to any illocutionary meaning. The message from
interlocutors will be sent through the specific context.
In this paper, I use five situations for five popular types of refusing an
offer in English and Vietnamese. Here are five situations which I use to
analyze how listeners refuse:

Situation 1(S1): You visit to your friend’s house, she offers you to eat some
cake that you do not want to eat. How can you refuse her?
Situation 2(S2): Your boss offers you a new job position but you are not
confident to undertake this position. How can you refuse him?
Situation 3(S3): Your friend gives you some money as a gift for your
birthday. You do not want to receive it. How can you refuse him?
Situation 4(S4): Your bike is broken. Your friend offers to give you a ride to
school but you do not want to bother him. How can you refuse him?
Situation 5 (S5): You are typing an important report. Your secretary offers to
do the tying for you. How can you refuse her?
2.1.1.1.Speech Act of DirectOffer Refusals in Vietnamese
The speech act of direct refusals account for the minority of proportion in
mysurvey. The number of direct refusals in Vietnamese is 59 out of 132 direct ones.
According to Tran Chi Mai in her doctoral thesis on "Modes of
expression of refusing requests (link with Vietnamese) (2004), basic refusal
structure was modeled as follows:
(No/ không) + core component + expansion of core component.
Consider these following examples collected from my survey to
analyze this kind of structure.

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Table 1: Examples of Vietnamese Direct Refusals
Situations Categories

S1

Food/drink offer

Vietnamese refusals

Thôi,bánh ngọt lắm, tớ không ăn đâu.
(No. Cakes are so sweet, I will not eat
them)
Thôi. Tớ chẳng quen ăn loại bánh này..
(No. I’m not familiar with this kind of
cake)

Em không thể đảm nhận vị trí đó được
đâu mà sếp.
S2

Opportunity

(I cannot undertake this position)

offer

Thôi ạ. Sếp biết là em không thể mà. Dù
sao cũng cảm ơn sếp.
(No. You know I cannot. Thanks anyway)

S3

Gift offer

Không. Tớ không thể nhận món quà này

được.
(No. I cannot accept this gift)
Thôi. Tớ chẳng giám nhận món quà này
của cậu đâu.
(No. I do not want to accept this gift from
you)

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Thôi. Cảm ơn ý tốt của bạn.
S4

Favor offer

(No, thanks for your kindness)
Thôi, đi đi. Sắp muộn học rồi đấy.
(Go away, please. You can be late for
school)

Không cần. Để tôi tự giải quyết được rồi.
S5

Help offer

(No. I can manage by myself)
Thôi. Tôi làm được mà .Cảm ơn cô.
(No. I can do it. Thank you)

According to figures collected from my survey, there have 59 speech
acts of Vietnamesedirect refusals which accounted for 4% of the refusal
speech acts, including the following structure:
Table 2: Structures of Direct Refusal Speech Acts in Vietnamese
Negative words

Thanking

Thôi

Cảm ơn

Không

Cảm ơn

Khỏi cần

Cảm ơn

Không cần đâu

Cảm ơn

2.1.1.2. Speech Act of Direct Offer Refusals in English
There are a variety of ways to turn down an offer from others in
English language. Consider these following examples to find out its syntactic
structures.
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Table 3: Examples of English Direct Refusals
Situations Categories
S1

Food/drink offer

English direct refusals
No. thanks. I’m full.
No. I would not / will not.

S2

Opportunity offer

No. I cannot undertake this important
position. Thank you so much.

Oh. I’m sorry but I’m not comfortable
S3

Gift offer

with accepting this gift.
No. Thanks, but I cannot accept this gift
from you.

S4

Favor offer

No. Thanks. I can manage by myself
No. Thank you.

S5

Help offer

No. I do not need your help.
No. Thank you.

It can be seen from the example 1 to 5 that the listeners or offered
peoplerefuse directly, bluntly and indelicately. These ways of response may
hurt the feeling of the informants or make them be shocked. However, the
number of these sentences is just the minority in both languages.

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The structure of a direct speech act both in English and Vietnamese
always includes core components expressing the intention of refusing directly.
Core component is at the beginning of a speech act and may include negative
words such as “No” or “Không/ Không cần/ Khỏi cần/ Thôi/ thôi khỏi” and
the negative willingness ability such as:
In English:

I would not / will not (S1)
I cannot undertake this important position. (S2)
I cannot accept this gift from you. (S3)
In Vietnamese:
Tớ không thể nhận món quà này được.(I cannot accept this gift) (S3)
Sếp biết là em không thể mà. (You know I cannot) (S4)
As a fundamental of refusal act, core component has a function of
informing the hearer of a refusalspeech act. Expansion is another important
part. It is a minor component which does not express the core meaning of
refusals but it is added to lessen “face-threatening” of refusal act.
For example:
I’m full now. (S1)
I’m not comfortable with accepting this gift. (S3)
I can manage it by myself. (S5)
Bánh ngọt lắm, tớ không ăn đâu.(S1)
(Cakes are too sweet for me. I will not eat them.)
Sắp muộn học rồi đấy (S4)
(You will be late for school)
Tôi tự giải quyết được rồi (S5)
I can manage by myself.

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According to figures collected from my survey, there have 73 speech
acts of English direct refusals which account for 4.9% of the refusal speech
acts including the following structures:
Table 4: Structures of Direct Refusal Speech Acts in English

Item
1

Structures
Negative words

Refusing words

No

I do not need your help
You do not need to help me

2

Negative words

Thanking

No

Thanks
Thank you
Thanks anyway
Thank you so much

The frequency use of direct speech acts in response to different offers
by English speakers and Vietnamese can be found in the table 5.
Table 5: Distribution of Direct Refusal in Response to Offers by English
Speakers and the Vietnamese in %

Item

Categories

Content of the question

Figure
E

You
S1

visit

to

house,

V

Percentage
E

V

your

Food/

friend’s

she

drink

offers you to eat some 20

offer

cake that you do not

17

12% 10%

want to eat. How can
you refuse her?

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Your boss offers you a
S2

Opportunity new job position but
offer

you are not confident to 15

12

9%

7%

10

8%

6%

11

11% 7%

9

4%

undertake this position.
How can you refuse
him?
S3

Your friend gives you
Gift offer

some money as a gift

for your birthday. You 13
do not want to receive
it. How can you refuse
him?
Your bike is broken.

S4

Favor offer

Your friend offers to
give you a ride to 18
school but you do not
want to bother him.
How can you refuse
him?
You

S5

are

typing

an

Offer

of important report. Your 7

help

secretary offers to do

6%

the tying for you. How
can you refuse her?
The table illustrates the percentage of direct refusals produced by 60
English speakers and Vietnamese in response to five different offers.

Pham Thi Thu Hien – K19A3 (2012-2016)

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As seen thatEnglish speakers tend to use direct refusals more frequently
than Vietnamese counterparts and participants of both languages find ithard to
refuse the offer of help from others. The data also reveals that the direct
refusal speech acts were not commonly used in all five surveyed situations. In
1480 refusal speech acts that I collected, the number of direct refusals was132
speech acts which made up 8.9% of total speech acts. Of which direct speech
acts, English accounted for 4.9% and 4% was the figure for Vietnamese.
2.1.2. Indirect Refusals in English and Vietnamese
Indirectness is any communicative behavior, verbal or non-verbal that
conveys something more than or different from what is literally means
(Brown and Levinson, 1987).Sear ( in Brown and Yule, 1983) defines indirect
speech act as a case in which one act is performed indirectly by the way of
performing another.
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary “refuse” means

“to say that you will not do something that somebody has asked you to
do”.The refusal strategies are affected by various factors particularly Culture,
especially face and politeness. Instead of saying “No” or “I do not want” or “I
cannot” which can easily hurt other feeling or emotion, offered people can
response to this in other different ways. For example:
“- Can you lend me some money?
My mother hasn’t sent me money yet.”
“- What’s wrong? Let me check this door for you
Do not worry. I could open it yesterday. It’s too late now, you should
go home.”
This type of refusal is a polite and delicate way to refuse offers from
others. It’s not only make interlocutors satisfy but also save their face to
enhance daily communications.
2.1.2.1. Speech Act of Indirect Offer Refusals in Vietnamese
Pham Thi Thu Hien – K19A3 (2012-2016)

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