Contrastive analysis of politeness in English refusal letters written by native and Vietnamese people

Abstract

Among types of correspondence, refusal letter is a difficult type to write due to its high face-threatening nature, so writing refusal letters politely to maintain relationships is an essential skill. The article analyzes politeness factors in 100 English refusal letters written by native people and Vietnamese people to investigage how politeness strategies (based on the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson, 1987) are used in the moves and steps of the refusal letter. Research results show that politeness factors are used in highest quantities in Move 2 "Refusal", and that there are not remarkable differences between the English refusal letters written by native speakers and by Vietnamese people.