Cover Image

Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.

Refusals, like other speech acts, occur in all languages. According to Searle (1969), all linguistic communication involves the production of speech acts, such as offering apologies, asking questions, making promises, or refusing. The speech act of refusal has been looked at by many researchers. Ho...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar,, Salasiah Che Lah,, Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman,
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit UKM 2011
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/1/pp69_81.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html.
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my-ukm.journal.2762
record_format eprints
spelling my-ukm.journal.27622016-12-14T06:32:33Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/ Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students. Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar, Salasiah Che Lah, Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman, Refusals, like other speech acts, occur in all languages. According to Searle (1969), all linguistic communication involves the production of speech acts, such as offering apologies, asking questions, making promises, or refusing. The speech act of refusal has been looked at by many researchers. However, in the Malaysian context, the study of refusals has yet to be ventured, either focusing on manifestations in the speaker’s mother tongue, or focusing on manifestations in English. This study aims to discover the preferred semantic formulas or strategies used by Malay university students in Malaysia to refuse a request in an academic context. For this study, 40 undergraduate and postgraduate students were asked to respond to different situations in which they were required to carry out the speech act of refusing a request. The data, collected by means of a Discourse Completion Test, were analyzed in terms of semantic formulas and were categorized according to the refusal taxonomy of Beebe et al. (1990). The findings show that participants differ in the ways they perform refusals. Regret or saying ‘sorry’, and giving excuses or explanations were the preferred formulas used in refusing requests. The choice of these semantic formulas suggests the influence of Malay culture in respondents’ realizations of refusals in English. Penerbit UKM 2011-09 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/1/pp69_81.pdf Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar, and Salasiah Che Lah, and Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman, (2011) Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 11 (3). pp. 69-81. ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html.
institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
building Perpustakaan Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/
language English
description Refusals, like other speech acts, occur in all languages. According to Searle (1969), all linguistic communication involves the production of speech acts, such as offering apologies, asking questions, making promises, or refusing. The speech act of refusal has been looked at by many researchers. However, in the Malaysian context, the study of refusals has yet to be ventured, either focusing on manifestations in the speaker’s mother tongue, or focusing on manifestations in English. This study aims to discover the preferred semantic formulas or strategies used by Malay university students in Malaysia to refuse a request in an academic context. For this study, 40 undergraduate and postgraduate students were asked to respond to different situations in which they were required to carry out the speech act of refusing a request. The data, collected by means of a Discourse Completion Test, were analyzed in terms of semantic formulas and were categorized according to the refusal taxonomy of Beebe et al. (1990). The findings show that participants differ in the ways they perform refusals. Regret or saying ‘sorry’, and giving excuses or explanations were the preferred formulas used in refusing requests. The choice of these semantic formulas suggests the influence of Malay culture in respondents’ realizations of refusals in English.
format Article
author Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar,
Salasiah Che Lah,
Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman,
spellingShingle Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar,
Salasiah Che Lah,
Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman,
Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
author_facet Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar,
Salasiah Che Lah,
Raja Rozina Raja Suleiman,
author_sort Hiba Qusay Abdul Sattar,
title Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
title_short Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
title_full Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
title_fullStr Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
title_full_unstemmed Refusal strategies in English by Malay University students.
title_sort refusal strategies in english by malay university students.
publisher Penerbit UKM
publishDate 2011
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/1/pp69_81.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/2762/
http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html.
_version_ 1643735488241074176
score 13.211869

Similar Items