Abstract
The paper discusses the impression that Japanese noda sentences and Korean geos gata sentences make when used in two different refusal situations. A comparison with the sentences where noda and geos gata forms are not used has also been conducted in both languages. Data for the analysis were gathered by administering a questionnaire to native speakers of Japanese and Korean, asking about the impressions they have about the above sentences in their respective languages. The informants evaluated the sentences based on the following five opposite pairs: inconsiderate vs. considerate, direct vs. indirect, unfamiliar vs. familiar, close vs. distant, and informal vs. formal. Noda sentences show a high degree of consideration, indirectness, familiarity, closeness and informality. Geos gata sentences show a high degree of consideration, indirectness, familiarity, distance and formality. The difference is that geos gata sentences show a high degree of distance and formality, whereas noda sentences manifest a low degree of distance and formality.
