摘  要

拒绝是一种对听者有严重面子威胁的语言行为，因此要采取适当的拒绝策略，将对对方的面子威胁降到最低。外贸函电是外贸人员进行业务沟通和交流最常见的工具，学会得体拒绝商业合作伙伴的报价或者要求是非常重要的。如果直截了当拒绝容易造成客户流失，也不利于长期合作，所以针对外贸函电拒绝策略的研究是很有必要的。到目前为止，国内外对此方面研究大多限定于语用研究方面,专门针对外贸函电的较为实用的拒绝策略则很少有人涉及。本文将具体分析拒绝类外贸函电的写作策略以及礼貌原则等语用原则在拒绝策略中的应用，帮助外贸人员在有效传达消极信息的同时不损害双方的友好合作关系。此外,因书面拒绝策略的形式相对固定且易于掌握，所以该研究也更具有实用价值和教学意义。

关键词：商务信函；拒绝策略；国际贸易

Abstract

Refusal is a speech act which can severely threaten the hearer’s face, thus appropriate refusal strategies ought to be applied to reduce the negative influence to a minimum. Foreign business correspondence is the most common tool that is used for business communication between businessmen. Therefore, acquiring the skill to properly refuse a quotation or request of one’s business partner through business correspondence is of great significance. If one performs direct refusal towards his business partners, there would be a large possibility of causing a loss of customers and it would do no good to the long term cooperation among the two sides, so it is necessary to research on refusal strategies specific to business correspondence. Nevertheless, at present, researches involving refusal strategies both home and abroad mainly concentrate on pragmatic approach while very few study practical strategies of refusal business letters. Hence, in this study, the author will make a concrete analysis of writing strategies for refusal business correspondence as well as of the employment of pragmatic principles such as politeness principle on those strategies. Through applying appropriate refusal strategies, one can maintain sound trade and cooperative relations in business. Besides, writing refusal strategies are relatively fixed in form and easy to master, so this present study is of both theoretical and practical value in terms of helping the teachers and students in English business correspondence writing.

Key words: business correspondence; refusal strategies; international trade