Refusal speech act response: differences between South Koreans and North Korean refugees in inducing speech acts and directness
The majority of previous studies on North Korean Refugees (NKRs) focused on the linguistic heterogeneity of pronunciation and vocabulary use. Only a handful of studies examined differences between South Koreans’ (SKs) and NKRs’ language use and they concluded that NKRs prefer direct refusal speec...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2018
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13767/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13767/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/13767/1/21163-76293-3-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | The majority of previous studies on North Korean Refugees (NKRs) focused on the
linguistic heterogeneity of pronunciation and vocabulary use. Only a handful of
studies examined differences between South Koreans’ (SKs) and NKRs’ language use
and they concluded that NKRs prefer direct refusal speech acts rather than indirect
ones. However, we hypothesized that NKRs’ preference on direct refusal speech acts
would vary depending on the types of inducing speech acts; speech acts that induces
refusal expressions. 47 SKs and 43 NKRs answered three questions after watching
video clips of short conversation in refusal situations. The results were statistically
analyzed with independent sample t-tests and multi response analyses, revealing that
NKRs preference on direct refusal speech acts varied depending on the types of
inducing speech act. In addition, multi response analyses indicated that the NKRs and
SKs evaluated the same rejecter’s personality differently and that this difference may
result in miscommunication. Lastly, NKRs’ evaluations on the refusal speech acts did
not change over time, as NKRs who stayed less than a year in South Korea and
those who stayed more than five years did not show significant difference in their
evaluation. This result suggests that explicit education on this may be required.
Additionally, it is worth to note that current research confirms that SKs and NKRs
react differently toward expressions used only in North Korea, and, therefore, not
only the refusal strategy, but also the refusal expression itself are both important for
successful communication. Additionally, the results showed that refusing with nonavoidable
and non-personal reasons were perceived more positively than personal
reasons. These findings suggest that for successful communication to happen between
two groups with different linguistic backgrounds, pragmatic awareness in language use
is helpful. |
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