華語回應拒絕之語用策略分析及其教學應用

Abstract

本研究以回應拒絕之言語行為為主題，整理華語母語者的回應拒絕策略使用情形，分析不同的協商主題、拒絕言語行為與社會變項對回應拒絕策略使用的影響。前人文獻中針對「回應拒絕」的相關研究較少，而且語料多以語篇補全任務等方式取得，較少使用真實對話，因此無法全面性的理解回應拒絕策略的選用規則。有鑑於此，本研究將語料來源設定為網路影音平台《YouTube》上的影片。從《YouTube》的後台資料庫取得的頻道訂閱數、影片總觀看次數，與各頻道的社群影響力排名比對後，取排名最高的前十一個頻道，從各頻道的影片中搜集到167筆有效語料。 研究結果顯示，搜集的語料中「回應拒絕策略」使用單一策略的情況佔大多數，回應拒絕策略可分為接受拒絕、不接受拒絕、延遲決定三大類，共有十三種回應拒絕策略。在接受拒絕大類下，多使用評論策略；不接受拒絕大類下，多透過使用釋因策略幫助協商性對話的進行，延遲決定大類下，確認策略是母語者迴避或是延遲回應的手段。然而接受拒絕大類下，當主題為請求時說話者會傾向使用緩和策略；當使用提供主題、公開威脅拒絕策略或對話者關係為平輩時，會傾向默認策略；不接受拒絕大類下，主題為請求或是提供時傾向使用重申策略；當為高度非公開拒絕策略、對話者社會距離遠或是關係為上對下的關係時，會傾向使用重申、反駁策略。由此結果可證明，回應拒絕策略會受到協商主題、拒絕策略、社會變項差異的影響。 現有教材多專注在語法及詞彙的教學，然而針對協商性對話教學的技巧卻較少，建議將本論文整理的研究結果應用到協商性對話的教學中，可幫助學生在協商過程中有更多的參考根據。然而本研究受限於時間與人力的因素，有語料數量不足、策略的分類過於主觀的限制，若能在未來的研究中克服這些問題，必能為回應拒絕策略的研究提供更大的貢獻。This study aims to evaluate the pragmatic strategies used by Mandarin speakers when committing speech acts of responding to language refusal and to investigate how negotiation dialogues, refusal strategies, and social variables affect refusal responses. Studies to date have concentrated on refusal speech acts; however, few studies focus on responses toward denial. Besides, a large share of previous studies generally tends to use the Discourse completion task to collect data, which is not an easy method to observe speech acts of responding to refusals. This study uses language samples gathered from “YouTube” videos, gain subscriber count, channel video views count, through Python by applying YouTube API, then compare these two rankings to social network influence rank. Consequently, 167 sentences were taken from the videos of eleven target channels.

The generated data shows that refusal responses appear in negotiation dialogue, and the results suggest that they can be divided into three categories: “accepting refusal”, wherein the speaker accepts the outcome after being rejected; “refusing refusal”, wherein the speaker attempts to confute after being rejected; and “delay the decision”, wherein the speaker has yet to decide whether to accept or not the other party’s rejection. The data reveals that in a single sentence, the use of one strategy is most frequent, while a combination of up to three strategies is in minimal occurrence. According to the language samples, there are 13 different refusal response strategies. Native Mandarin speakers apply the “comment strategy” to convey they are willing to accept the refusal, use the “explaining strategy” to try to carry on persuasive argumentation, and the “confirmation strategy” as a tactic to gain more time, typically to delay or avoid decision making. However, when a speaker wants to accept a refusal after conducting a request from the other party, the speaker tends to express appreciation or apologies considerably; when accepting refusals of supply topics, or accepting a direct rejection, or accepting a refusal from a peer whom the speaker is familiar with, the speakers tend to remain silent. If a speaker wants to decline a refusal when conducting of request or supply negotiation, repetition strategy is the most frequently used. Furthermore, when confronting non-conventional indirect refusal, or when the social distance is far, or the speaker has higher social status. Hence, repetition and refutation strategy are preferably utilized. These results all manifest that acknowledging refusal will be affected by different negotiation topics, refusal strategy, and social variables.

Existing teaching materials focus more on grammar and vocabulary notwithstanding the skills needed in negotiations are few. It is recommended, therefore, that an educator can enhance learners’ ability to use refusal response in negotiation dialogue, by providing refusal responding strategies in language courses. However, due to limited time and manpower, the amount of language corpus in this study is insufficient, and the method of classifying strategies tends towards being subjective.