ABSTRACT
Speech acts such as requests, refusals, apologies, and complaints require knowledge of the language as well as appropriate use of that language within its culture. Specifically, refusals are prone to be indirect to mitigate or soften the illocutionary force since refusal can be a face-threatening act to the listener. This chapter investigates the nature of refusal semantic formulae strategies in the Korean speech act of refusal and analyzes them descriptively in terms of sociopragmatics and pragmalinguistics. Furthermore, this study focuses on Korean refusal strategies in terms of politeness, indirectness, routines, and various mitigating devices such as a hedge, which softens the strength of illocutionary forces in communication. The results of the data analysis show that (1) Korean native speakers are prone to using more mitigating devices toward a higher-status person in the realization of refusal speech acts in terms of sociopragmatics, (2) the differences between female interlocutors and male interlocutors in using refusal semantic formulae are relatively minimal, and (3) Korean excuses tend to be less specific; for instance, Koreans usually give vague or weak excuses when refusing.
