Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Request-Refusal as a Face-Threatening Act

2.1 Speech Act Studies and the Illocutionary Force

2.2 Concept of Face in Speech Acts

2.3 Face-Threatening Acts and the Relationship with Politeness Strategies

2.4 Critiques of B＆L's Politeness Model and Refusal

2.5 Summary

Chapter 3 Request and Refusal Strategies and the Previous Studies

3.1 Requests

3.2 Previous Studies on Request Strategies

3.3 Refusals

3.4 Previous Studies on Refusal Strategies

3.5 Summary

Chapter 4 Research Methodology and Analytic Framework

4.1 Research Questions about Request-Refusals in Contemporary Chinese Teledramas

4.2 Methodology

4.3 Factors Influencing the Use of Request-Refusal

4.4 Analytic Framework

4.5 Summary

Chapter 5 Request Strategies in the Contemporary Chinese Teledramas

5.1 Coding Scheme for Chinese Requests

5.2 Request Strategies Used in the Nine Situations of Contemporary Chinese Teledramas

5.3 Request Strategies from the Perspective of Social Variables

5.4 Summary

Chapter 6 Request-Refusal Strategies in the Contemporary Chinese Teledramas

6.1 Coding Scheme for Chinese Request-Refusals

6.2 Request-Refusal Strategies Used in the Contemporary Chinese Teledramas

6.3 Request-Refusal Strategies from the Perspective of Social Power

6.4 Request-Refusal Strategies from the Perspective of Social Distance

6.5 Summary

Chapter 7 Conclusion

7.1 Major Findings of This Study

7.2 Implications of This Study

7.3 Suggestions for Further Research

Bibliography

Appendixes

Appendix 1 Samples of adjacency pairs of request-refusal in Chinese teledramas

Appendix 2 Contemporary Chinese teledramas analysed in the study