The goal of this contribution is twofold: first, there is a discussion of the most important results of pragmatic and sociolinguistic research on politeness and interpersonal meaning. These are then operationalized with regard to their marked and unmarked format, and applied to aforeign-language setting which interprets language as socio-semiotics. Second, the speech act 'rejection' is analysed from both a propositional and interpersonal perspective. Special reference is hereby given to its production and interpretation in spoken as well as written format ...