| Acknowledgements | 第1-7页 |
| Abstract | 第7-11页 |
| 摘要 | 第11-21页 |
| Chapter 1 Introduction | 第21-30页 |
| ·Motivation of the study | 第21-23页 |
| ·Orientation of the study | 第23-25页 |
| ·The aims and hypotheses of the present study | 第25-26页 |
| ·Methods and procedures | 第26-28页 |
| ·Layout of the study | 第28-29页 |
| ·Summary | 第29-30页 |
| Chapter 2 Literature Review | 第30-57页 |
| ·Basic terms in the studies of refusal | 第30-35页 |
| ·The term of refusal | 第30-31页 |
| ·The term of refusal strategy | 第31-32页 |
| ·Categorizing refusal strategies | 第32-35页 |
| ·Face, face work and linguistic politeness | 第35-39页 |
| ·Face and face work | 第35-37页 |
| ·Linguistic politeness | 第37-39页 |
| ·Previous studies on refusal | 第39-51页 |
| ·Prescriptive perspective | 第40-43页 |
| ·Second language acquisition perspective | 第43-46页 |
| ·Sociolinguistic perspective | 第46-49页 |
| ·Pragmatic perspective | 第49-51页 |
| ·The comparison of refusal across cultures | 第51-53页 |
| ·Comments on previous studies | 第53-55页 |
| ·Summary | 第55-57页 |
| Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework | 第57-75页 |
| ·Theoretical background to the present study | 第57-64页 |
| ·Speech act theory | 第57-61页 |
| ·Direct and indirect speech acts | 第61-64页 |
| ·Politeness theory | 第64-70页 |
| ·Relevance theory | 第70-74页 |
| ·The perspective of cognitive pragmatics | 第70-71页 |
| ·A brief introduction to relevance theory | 第71-74页 |
| ·Summary | 第74-75页 |
| Chapter 4 Refusal Data Collection: Design and Methodology | 第75-91页 |
| ·Introduction | 第75页 |
| ·Examples Chinese and American refusals in real life | 第75-80页 |
| ·Methods and Procedure | 第80-83页 |
| ·Pilot study | 第81页 |
| ·Subjects and process | 第81-83页 |
| ·The questionnaire | 第83-89页 |
| ·The design of scenarios in the survey | 第83-85页 |
| ·The Discourse Completion Test | 第85-87页 |
| ·Modifications of the DCT for the present study | 第87-88页 |
| ·Supplementary measures to the questionnaire | 第88-89页 |
| ·Summary | 第89-91页 |
| Chapter 5 Analysis and Discussion of the Results | 第91-151页 |
| ·Introduction | 第91页 |
| ·Refusal strategies in English and Chinese | 第91-92页 |
| ·30 strategies in this study | 第92-115页 |
| ·Lexical forms in refusal strategies | 第93-100页 |
| ·Syntax in refusal strategies | 第100-106页 |
| ·Content concern in refusal strategies | 第106-115页 |
| ·Labeling and marking the strategies | 第115-124页 |
| ·The statistics findings | 第117-119页 |
| ·General statements of the application of the 30 strategies from both NCs and NEs | 第119页 |
| ·Specific scores in terms of the application of each strategy | 第119-122页 |
| ·The findings of body language in performing a refusal | 第122-124页 |
| ·Discussions based on data | 第124-149页 |
| ·Similarities between the NCs and the NEs | 第124页 |
| ·Differences between the NCs and the NEs | 第124-142页 |
| ·The statistical examination of the results | 第142-149页 |
| ·Summary | 第149-151页 |
| Chapter 6 Theoretical Insight into the Results | 第151-180页 |
| ·The theory of relevance | 第151-153页 |
| ·Understanding refusals from the perspective of relevance theory | 第153-155页 |
| ·The varieties of refusal under the model of relevance | 第155-160页 |
| ·The notion of variability | 第160-161页 |
| ·The notion of semantic formulae | 第161-167页 |
| ·Head acts | 第164-165页 |
| ·Supportive moves | 第165-167页 |
| ·The variety in the semantic formulae of Chinese and English refusals | 第167-178页 |
| ·The variety of head acts for the NCs and NEs | 第167-173页 |
| ·The variety of supportive moves for the NCs and the NEs | 第173-178页 |
| ·Summary | 第178-180页 |
| Chapter 7 Tentative Analyses from Cultural Perspective | 第180-196页 |
| ·Cultural scripts | 第180-183页 |
| ·The differences between Chinese and Americans cultural scripts | 第183-184页 |
| ·Collectivism vs. individualism | 第184-186页 |
| ·Power/authority vs. solidarity/equality | 第186-189页 |
| ·Harmony vs. hierarchy | 第189-192页 |
| ·The effect of gender on the choice of refusal strategies | 第192-195页 |
| ·Summary | 第195-196页 |
| Chapter 8 Conclusions | 第196-212页 |
| ·Major findings | 第196-199页 |
| ·Pedagogical implications | 第199-208页 |
| ·Cross-cultural pragmatic failure and pragmatic competence development in foreign language teaching | 第199-200页 |
| ·Cross cultural pragmatic failure | 第200-203页 |
| ·Pragmatic competence and its teachability | 第203-208页 |
| ·Speculations on the weakness of this study | 第208-210页 |
| ·Suggested future research dimensions | 第210-211页 |
| ·Summary | 第211-212页 |
| References | 第212-226页 |
| Appendix i | 第226-231页 |
| Appendix ii | 第231-234页 |
| Appendix iii | 第234-235页 |
