Young Children's Refusal in Mandarin Chinese

In the studies related to speech acts, refusals has been one of the most important sub-fields. Most research on refusals probes into the refusal production of adults. However, studies on refusals produced by children, especially those relevant to Mandarin, have been scant. This book, therefore, investigates the development of refusals in responses to invitations and requests produced by children and the development of politeness perceived by children. In addition, the children?s sociolinguistic background was also elicited to explore how the levels of social class, represented by the subjects? fathers? occupations, educational levels and monthly income, are related to the children?s refusal production and perception. Furthermore, gender and the social status of a refuser relative to an interlocutor in situations were also taken into consideration. The analysis not only sheds light on the young children's refusal production and politeness perception in Mandarin, but also provides potential viewpoints on refusal produced and perceived by children from all over the world. Readers who are interested in language acquisition could also find worthy information from this book.