A Comparative Analysis of Sorry for and Sorry about in Two Corpora

Abstract

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of Sorry for and Sorry about in the COCA and BNC. When it comes to the COCA, it is interesting to point out that the types Sorry for and Sorry about show the same pattern in the TV/movie and fiction genres and the academic genre, whereas they show a different pattern in the blog, web, magazine, newspaper genres and the spoken genre. With respect to the BNC, it is significant to note that Sorry for and Sorry about show the same pattern in the fiction genre and the spoken genre, whereas they show a different pattern in the newspaper and magazine genres and the misc, non-academic and academic genres. It can thus be inferred that these two types are synonymously used, but they are slightly different from each other in their use. A major point to note that in the COCA, Sorry for is the furthest type from Sorry about in the TV/movie genre, whereas Sorry for is the nearest type to Sorry about in the academic genre. A further point to note is that in the BNC, Sorry for is the furthest type from Sorry about in the spoken genre, whereas Sorry for is the nearest type to Sorry about in the academic genre. The COCA clearly shows that Sorry for people is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry for Mr., Sorry for me, and Sorry for Mrs., in that order. The COCA shows, on the other hand, that Sorry about dinner is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry about lunch, Sorry about Mr., Sorry about agent, and Sorry about that, in descending order. The COCA clearly indicates that the expression Sorry for being is the most preferable one among Americans, followed by Sorry for interrupting, Sorry for having, Sorry for getting, and Sorry for making, in descending order. The COCA also shows that the expression Sorry about being is the most preferable one for Americans, followed by Sorry about getting, Sorry about calling, and Sorry about leaving (Sorry about having), in that order. It is worth noting that only two nouns (Mr. and things) can be the collocations of both Sorry about and Sorry for. It is also worth pointing out that eleven of thirteen seven gerunds are linked to both Sorry about and Sorry for. This in turn suggests that Sorry about and Sorry for are interchangeably used, but they are somewhat different from each other in their use.