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Li Yang's Chinese Pragmatics

Unit 6: Social Variables that Affect Apologetic Behaviors

According to Brown and Levinson (1987), three social variables have been reported to affect how to perform the speech act of apology. The three factors, as we discussed before, are social distance, power, and rank of imposition. This unit focuses on the impacts of social distance and rank of imposition on how to apologize in Chinese.

6. 1 Goal of Unit 6

The goal of Unit 6 is to familiarize students with the effects of two social variables (i.e., social distance and the rank of imposition) on the choice of apology strategies in Chinese. After studying this unit, students are expected to be able to better assess the appropriateness of apologetic expressions in Chinese according to the social variables involved in the situation.

6.2 Social Distance and Apology

The variable of social distance refers to how well the interlocutors know each other or how close the relationships between the interlocutors are. As we discussed about other speech acts on the website, social distance can be understood as a continuum, with differing degrees of distance along the line. For example, family members and intimates may be put near one end, while distant friends or strangers near the other.

The choice of apology strategies in Chinese is affected by the variable of social distance. With other factors being the same, the use of direct apology strategies increases with the increase of social distance between the interlocutors (Guo, 2002; Wang, 2003). This is congruent with the politeness in Chinese. As discussed before, one underlying notion of the politeness in Chinese is respectfulness, which requires Chinese speakers to show respect and politeness to other people. Therefore, Chinese speakers tend to use direct strategies to explicitly apologize to hearers with distant relationships, since use of direct apology strategies that explicitly indicate the force of apologizing seems more polite. If Chinese speakers, on the other hand, apologize to their close friends or family members, indirect apology strategies are preferred. For example,

Example 1:

Wang Peng accidentally bumped into a stranger on the road, and apologized,

对不起,对不起,你没事吧?Duìbùqǐ, duìbùqǐ, nǐ méi shì ba? (I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Are you alright?)

Example 2:

Wang Peng accidentally bumped into his younger brother who happened to play on the road, and apologized,

你没事吧?Nǐ méi shì ba? (Are you alright?)

In these two similar situations, Wang Peng apologized to a stranger and his younger brother respectively. When Wang Peng made an apology to the stranger, who has distant relationship with him, he used the combination of direct strategy and one type of indirect strategy by way of showing concern for hearers; when he apologized to his younger brother, who has close relationship with him, he only used one type of indirect strategy to apologize.

In addition, according to research findings on the choice of apology strategies in Chinese, it has been reported that certain strategies, and promise of forbearance in particular, are less used if speakers apologize to people with distant relationships like strangers (Wang, 2003). Speakers seldom have the opportunity to meet the same strangers again after the encounter, so promise of forbearance in the future won’t be necessary. By contrast, the use of promise of forbearance has relatively high frequency when speakers apologize to people with close relationships.

 

Thinking: How does the variable of social distance possibly affect the choice of apology strategies in American English?

 


 To Consider

Exercises: Read carefully the scenarios below and complete the exercises step-by-step.

Wang Peng is a college student and shares an apartment with his/her close friend.

Scenario 1: Wang Peng was in a hurry to meet some friends. When running out of the classroom, he/she accidentally stepped on a student’s foot, whom he/she did not know, and needed to apologize to the student.

Scenario 2: Wang Peng was in a hurry to meet some friends. When running out of the room, he/she accidentally stepped on his/her roommate’s foot, and needed to apologize to the roommate. 

1. Compare these two scenarios and provide elaborate answers below

Tips: Pay attention to the social variables involved in the two scenarios.

The two scenarios are similar in terms of ________________________________________

The two scenarios differ in terms of ____________________________________________

2. According to the social variables involved in the two scenarios, decide which types of apology strategies (i.e., direct, indirect or strategy combination) may be chosen. Please list all of the possibilities that you think would work.

If Wang Peng apologizes to the stranger, I think ______________________________can be chosen.

If Wang Peng apologizes to his/her friend, I think _____________________________can be chosen.

 3. According to your own assessment, if direct apology strategies should be used to respond to one of the two scenarios, which word(s)/expression(s) do you want to choose and why? Please specify.

 

4. According to your own assessment, if indirect apology strategies should be used to respond to one of the two scenarios, which type (s) of sub-strategies do you think is better to choose and why? Please specify.

 

5. Below are two possibly apology responses made by two learners. Please decide which one would work appropriate for situation 1 and which for situation 2. Please explain your choice based on the information in this unit.

 Response 1:  你没事吧?疼 (téng, to ache; pain) 吗?我跑 (pǎo, to run) 得太急 (jí, in a hurry) 了。

                     Nǐ méi shì ba? Téng ma? Wǒ pǎo de tài jí le.

 Response 2:  对不起,我跑得太急了。不好意思。

                     Duìbùqǐ, wǒ pǎo de tài jí le. Bùhǎoyìsi.

 


  6.3 Rank of Imposition and Apology

In the case of apology, the variable of rank of imposition can be understood as the obligations of the speaker to perform an apology and the degree to which the hearer expects the apology to take place (Wang, 2012). The obligations of the speaker to perform an apology are usually determined by the severity of the past offence or fault. Generally speaking, the more severe the offence is to the hearer, the more obligated the speaker feels to perform an apology.

Previous studies on apologies have identified different types of offences (Holmes, 1990; Zhang, 2012), such as a) inconvenience, e.g., inadequate goods or services; b) time, e.g., being late or  keeping someone waiting; c) space, e.g., making other people physically hurt; d) possession, e.g., damage to other people’s properties; e) breaking one’s promise, f) social gaffe, to name a few. These offences differ in their degree of severity and therefore have differential effects on the choice of apology strategy.

Generally speaking, with increasing severity of the offence, Chinese speakers are more likely to use direct strategies to explicitly apologize, more modifiers to intensify the force of apologizing, and more elaborate strategies to strengthen the function. For example,

Example 1:

Li You did not pay the apartment rent on time and apologized to the landlord,

真是很对不起,最近太忙了,明天我就把房租给你。

Zhēn shì hěn duìbùqǐ, zuìjìn tài máng le, míngtiān wǒ jiù bǎ fángzú gěi nǐ.

(I’m really sorry. I am quite busy recently. I will give you the rent tomorrow.)

Example 2:

Li You was hungry and made a lot of noise when she was having lunch together with her friend’s family, then she apologized to them:

不好意思,我饿(è, hungry)坏了。Bùhǎoyìsi, wǒ è huài le. (I’m sorry. I’m starving.)

When we compare the severity of the offence in these two situations, it is clear to see that the offence in Example 1 (owing money to the landlord) is more severe than that (social gaffe) in Example 2. As a result, Wang Peng used more elaborate strategies and intensifiers to strengthen the force of apologizing in situation 1.

 

 

Thinking: How does the severity of offence possibly affect the choice of apology strategies in American English?

  


  To Consider

Exercises: Read carefully the scenarios below and complete the exercises step-by-step.

Scenario 1: Li You accidentally broke a vase in a shop and needed to apologize to the shop owner.

Scenario 2: Li You was a bit late for an appointment with his/her new landlord (whom Li You has never met before) and needed to apologize.

 1. Compare these two scenarios and provide elaborate answers below

Tips: Pay attention to the social variables involved in the two scenarios.

The two scenarios are similar in terms of ________________________________________

The two scenarios differ in terms of ____________________________________________

2. According to the social variables involved in the two scenarios, decide which types of apology strategies (i.e., direct, indirect or strategy combination) may be chosen. Please list all of the possibilities that you think would work.

If Wang Peng apologizes to the stranger, I think _________________________can be chosen.

If Wang Peng apologizes to his/her friend, I think ________________________can be chosen.

 3. According to your own assessment, if direct apology strategies should be used to respond to one of the two scenarios, which word(s)/expression(s) do you want to choose and why? Please specify.

 

4. According to your own assessment, if indirect apology strategies should be used to respond to one of the two scenarios, which type (s) of sub-strategies do you think is better to choose and why? Please specify.

 

5. Below are two possible apology responses made by two learners. Please decide which one would work appropriate for situation 1 and which for situation 2. Please explain your choice based on the information in this unit.

 Response 1:    

不好意思,路上 (lùshang, on the road; on the way) 堵车 (dǔ chē, traffic jam) ,所以 (suǒyǐ, so; therefore) 来晚了。

Bùhǎoyìsi, lùshang dǔ chē, suǒyǐ lái wǎn le.                

Response 2:

对不起,真地很抱歉,是我太不小心 (xiǎoxīn, be careful) 了。我把钱赔给你吧。

Duìbùqǐ, zhēn de hěn bàoqiàn, shì wǒ tài bù xiǎoxīn le. Wǒ bǎ qián péi gěi nǐ ba.