REFUSAL STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY BULGARIAN AND ENGLISH NATIVE SPEAKERS WITH LOWER STATUS INTERLOCUTORS
Информация
Autor: Polina Mitkova/Полина Миткова (e-mail:polinamitkova@yahoo.com) докторант в Шуменски университет "Епископ Константин Преславски"
Рецензент: гл. ас. д-р Деяна Вълчева
ШУМЕНСКИ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ „ЕПИСКОП КОНСТАНТИН ПРЕСЛАВСКИ” ФАКУЛТЕТ ПО ХУМАНИТАРНИ НАУКИ КАТЕДРА АНГЛИЙСКА ФИЛОЛОГИЯ 2020 =============================
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to compare the refusal strategies employed by English and Bulgarian native speakers when communicating with interlocutors of a lower status in business settings. The tool used for collecting data is a discourse - completion task (DCT). The refusals are compared in terms of frequency of the semantic formulas and adjuncts. The findings show that recurrent refusals to requests of lower status interlocutors are realized through the semantic formulas Reason/Explanation and Regret/Apology by both English and Bulgarian native speakers, which points their tendency to keep the imploring element of the refusals. Other overlapping strategies for both language groups are Negation of the Proposition and Statement of Fact which indicate shift towards a direct communicative style. The solution-oriented strategies Question and Redirecting to something/someone else are preferred by English native speakers, while Bulgarians show preference for the strategy Faulty Features, which will be addressed in depth in this paper.
Key words: business communication, negotiations, refusals, discourse - completion task, Bulgarian and English native respondents