British Refusals

超过一半的英国拒绝包括表达式of regret and an excuse/reason such as these combinations below:

1. excuse/reason + regret
2. regret + excuse/reason
3. regret + excuse/reason + promise or suggestions of future agreement
4. regret + excuse/reason + statement of negative willingness

Giving a reason is probably central to refusals in British English as in American English. A concrete and specific reason tends to be necessary. For instance, in response to a request for a ride home, specific reasons might be that the speaker was not going home directly and/or why s/he was not doing so. Some examples are:

• I'm not going home straight away. I've got to go meet someone first.
• I'm not going straight home tonight. I was going to do some late night shopping.
• I've got to pick some friends up from out of town straight after work.
• I'm meeting my sister at the apartment.

There is less of a tendency to give reasons for refusing someone familiar and possibly of equal status. The explanation is that it is probably more acceptable to make refusals in speaking to a familiar person and giving a reason is not as necessary as when speaking to a less familiar person.

Direct refusals are rare and performative refusals (I refuse...) are hardly ever used. "No" and statements of negative willingness (I can'tetc.) occur only rarely.

In response to a refusal to a small request, an expression of regret is likely to be offered, especially to status equals rather than to people of higher or lower status. For a larger request, apologies are sometimes offered.

[Research notes on the section above...]

Above passages taken from (Kitao, 1996)

Reference

Kitao, S. K. (1996).Communicative competence, preference organization, and refusals in British English.Sougou Bunka Kenkyujo Kiyou, 13, 47-58.