politenessstrategiesusedinenglishrequestsandrefus.docVIP

Politeness Strategies Used in English Requests and Refusals by Chinese College EFL Learners by Zhu Xiaoning Under the Supervision of Professor Wen Qiufang Professor Chen Xinren Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts English Department School of Foreign Studies Nanjing University March 2004 I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person or material which has to a substantial extent been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any university or other institute of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text. Signature: _______ Name: Zhu Xiaoning Date: March, 31, 2004  Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to all those who have contributed, directly and indirectly, to the completion of this thesis. My greatest thanks should first be extended to my supervisors, Professor Chen Xinren, who has helped me all the way through the design, development and revision of the thesis and Professor Wen Qiufang, who read my drafts patiently time and again and offered valuable advice either on proposal designing and thesis revision. It is due to their sincere encouragement, insightful suggestion and patient guidance that this thesis can finally assume its shape. I am also indebted to Professor Yue Meiyun, Professor Ding Yanren and Professor Wu Keming, who have acquainted me with the theories in linguistics, applied linguistics and teaching pedagogy from which I have benefited a lot. Thanks also go to Miss Zhu Yeqiu, Miss Wang Yu, Miss Zhou Dandan, and Mr. Bao Gui, the Ph.D. students in the English Department at Nanjing University and to all my classmates who have helped me in choosing the research topic and designin