| Acknowledgement | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract | 第7-9页 |
| 摘要 | 第9-12页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第12-15页 |
| ·Objective of the Study | 第12-13页 |
| ·Significance of the Study | 第13-14页 |
| ·Organization of the Thesis | 第14-15页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第15-33页 |
| ·Speech Act and Speech Act Theory | 第15-16页 |
| ·Indirect Speech Act Theory | 第16-17页 |
| ·Politeness Principle in English and Chinese Culture | 第17-20页 |
| ·Brown and Levinson's Face Theory | 第20-23页 |
| ·Negative and positive face | 第20-21页 |
| ·Face-threatening acts | 第21-22页 |
| ·Politeness strategies | 第22-23页 |
| ·Previous Empirical Studies on Refusals | 第23-28页 |
| ·Discourse completion test | 第24页 |
| ·Semantic formulae of refusals | 第24-26页 |
| ·Cultural-specific refusal strategies | 第26-28页 |
| ·Refusal strategic research concerning social status | 第28页 |
| ·Problems Found in Previous Studies | 第28-30页 |
| ·Pragmatic Failure | 第30-33页 |
| ·Pragmalinguistic failure | 第31页 |
| ·Sociopragmatic failure | 第31-33页 |
| Chapter 3 Methodology | 第33-39页 |
| ·Research Purposes | 第33-34页 |
| ·Research Methodology | 第34页 |
| ·The Subjects | 第34-35页 |
| ·Instruments | 第35-37页 |
| ·Placement interview | 第35页 |
| ·Discourse completion test | 第35-37页 |
| ·The classification of refusal strategies | 第37页 |
| ·Data Collection | 第37-39页 |
| Chapter 4 Data Analysis | 第39-50页 |
| ·Direct Strategies and Indirect Strategies of CEL and NSE | 第39-41页 |
| ·The Comparison of Indirect Strategies of CEL and NSE | 第41-45页 |
| ·The most common indirect strategies of the NSE | 第41-42页 |
| ·The most common indirect strategies of the CEL | 第42-43页 |
| ·The least common indirect strategies of CEL and NSE | 第43-44页 |
| ·The contrast between CEL and NSE | 第44-45页 |
| ·Refusals of Invitations in Relation to Social Status | 第45-47页 |
| ·Cultural Preference | 第47-48页 |
| ·Summary | 第48-50页 |
| Chapter 5 Discussion and Implication | 第50-62页 |
| ·Pragmatic Appropriateness in the Refusal Speech Acts | 第50-56页 |
| ·High-appropriateness speech acts | 第50-55页 |
| ·Low-appropriateness speech acts | 第55-56页 |
| ·The Discrepancies of CEL and NSE | 第56-58页 |
| ·The Implication on the Foreign Language Teaching | 第58-62页 |
| ·Significance of teaching L2 learners' pragmatics | 第58-60页 |
| ·Instruction on L2 pragmatics competence | 第60-62页 |
| Chapter 6 Conclusion | 第62-65页 |
| ·Theoretical and Practical Significance | 第62页 |
| ·Limitations of this Study | 第62-63页 |
| ·Conclusion | 第63-65页 |
| Bibliography | 第65-68页 |
| AppendixⅠ:Demographic Information | 第68-69页 |
| AppendixⅡ:Discourse Completion Test Questionnaire | 第69-71页 |
| AppendixⅢ:Design of the Questionnaire | 第71-73页 |
| AppendixⅣ:Semantic Taxonomy | 第73-75页 |
| AppendixⅤ:Percentage of Refusal Strategies of CEL and NSE | 第75页 |
