Refusal Strategies in Two Harry Potter Movies

https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v5i2.41578

Winny Permataningtyas(1*), Thomas Joko Priyo Sembodo(2)

(1) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(2) English Department, Universitas Gadjah Mada
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract


This research investigates refusal acts and the strategies used in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movies. It aims to identify what types of refusal acts are used by the characters in the movies and how they are expressed throughout the movies. The data were obtained from the two movies. A total of 91 refusals and 12 adjuncts were found in the movies. The results indicate that indirect refusals were more commonly used (65%) than direct refusals (35%). However, the direct strategy negative willingness/ability is the most commonly used (26%), followed by the indirect strategies Attempt to dissuade interlocutor (21%) and Reason/Explanation (18%). The findings seem to suggest that the characters in the Harry Potter movies tend to express their refusals indirectly, especially through persuasion and explanation.

Keywords


direct refusal; indirect refusal; refusal; speech act; refusal strategy

Full Text:

115-126 PDF


References

Al-Kahtani, S.A.W. (2005). Refusal realizations in three different cultures: A speech act theoretically-based cross-cultural study. Journal of King Saud – Language and Translation, 1-28.

Austin, J. L. (1962). How to do things with words, (2nd Edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Beebe, L. M., Takahashi, T. & Uliss-Weltz, R (1990). Pragmatic transfer in ESL refusals. In R C. Scarcella, E. Andersen, & S. C. Krashen (Eds.), Developing communicative competence in a second language (55-73). New York: Newbury House.

Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chen, X., Ye, L. & Zhang, Y. (1995). Refusing in Chinese. In G. Kasper (Ed.), Pragmatics of Chinese as native and target language, Technical Report #5. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i at Manoa,.

Columbus, C. (Director), & Heyman, D. (Producer). (2001). Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone [DVD]. United Kingdom & United States of America: Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films & 1492 Pictures.

Columbus, C. (Director), & Heyman, D. (Producer). (2002). Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets [DVD]. United Kingdom & United States of America: Warner Bros. Pictures, Heyday Films & 1492 Pictures.

Cutting, J. (2002). Pragmatics and discourse: A resource book for students. London: Routledge.

Felix-Brasdefer, J. C. (2006). Linguistic politeness in Mexico: Refusal strategies among male speakers of Mexican Spanish. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Fraser, B. (1990). Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics 14, 219–236.

Gass, S. & Houck, N. (1999). Interlanguage refusals: A cross-cultural study of Japanese-English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2016, from http://www.gazette-du-sorcier.com/IMG/
pdf/CoS_Script.pdf.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Script. (n.d.). Retrived October 3, 2016, from http://tomfeltonandmore.tripod.com/home/id9.html.

Kasih, C. M. (2015). Indirect refusal strategies in two American and three British movies. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. Yogyakarta: Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Leech, Geoffrey. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London: Longman.

Mey, J. L. (2001). Pragmatics: An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Montero, R. L. (2015). Most common refusal strategies used by students of English teaching as a foreign language. Costa Rica: Universidad de Costa Rica Press.

Morkus, N. (2014). Refusals in Egyptian Arabic and American English. Journal of Pragmatics 70, 86-107.

Ramos, J. (1991). A study of pragmatic transfer in refusals among Puerto Rican teenagers speaking English. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Columbia: Columbia University.

Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2001). Intercultural communication (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Searle, J. R. (1974). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Searle, J. R. and Vanderveken, D. (1985) Foundation of illocutionary logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Setiono, F. P. (2015) English refusal strategies by English Department students of Universitas Gadjah Mada to English native speakers’ request. Unpublished undergraduate thesis. Yogyakarta: Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Smith, C. (1998). Can adults ‘Just Say No?’: How gender, status and social goals affect refusals. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Florida: University of South Florida.

Yamagashira, H. (2001). Pragmatic transfer in Japanese ESL refusals. Kagoshima Immaculate Heart College, English Department. 4-22-1 Toso, Kagoshima 890-8525, Japan, 259-275.



DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/lexicon.v5i2.41578

Article Metrics

Abstract views : 2179 | views : 3465

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2018 Winny Permataningtyas, Thomas Joko Priyo Sembodo

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


Lexicon Office

English Department
Faculty of Cultural Sciences,
Universitas Gadjah Mada
Soegondo Building, 3rd Floor, Room 306
Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281
Telephone: +62 274 513096
Email: lexicon.fib@ugm.ac.id

ISSN: 2746-2668 (Online)

Web Analytics View Stats

Creative Commons License
LEXICON is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Lexicon is indexed in

 

About UsSubmissionIssuePoliciesReview