러시아어에서의 거절 화행 유형 연구: 간접 거절과 화행 부정의 화용적 함의

A Study on the Types of Refusal Speech Acts in Russian: Pragmatic Implications of Indirect Refusals and Speech Act Denial

This study aims to analyze the types of refusal speech acts in Russian and examine them from the perspective of face-saving strategies. A refusal speech act is an act of rejecting the request or proposal of an interlocutor, which inherently carries the risk of face-threatening. To mitigate this risk, speakers often avoid direct refusals and instead employ various indirect strategies to express their rejection. Expanding upon existing research on refusal speech acts, this study categorizes refusals into two broad types: Speech Act Denial and Indirect Refusal Speech Acts. Speech Act Denial refers to cases where the speaker fundamentally negates the interlocutor’s speech act itself, and it includes subcategories such as countering, ignoring, and mockery. This type of refusal is associated with a high degree of face-threatening potential and may have significant negative effects on interpersonal interactions. In contrast, Indirect Refusal Speech Acts do not explicitly deny the interlocutor’s speech act but instead provide justification for the refusal. This category includes providing reasons, comparison, suggestion, and excuse, all of which can function as strategies to minimize face-threatening effects. This study examines examples of refusal speech acts in actual Russian conversations, specifically through the analysis of film dialogues. The findings indicate that among indirect refusals, Speech Act Denial is particularly prone to causing compounded face-threatening effects, whereas general indirect refusal strategies tend to function as face-saving mechanisms. The study contributes to existing research by introducing a meta-categorical classification of refusal speech acts, which has been largely overlooked in previous studies, and by providing a detailed analysis of how refusals are performed in relation to face-saving strategies. Future research should extend this analysis to comparative studies across different languages to further refine the typology of refusal speech acts and their pragmatic implications.