Abstract
The article presents the description of the functional and semantic features of apology speech act on the basis of the English fictional discourse. The authors analyse the speech act not only within the frames of Politeness Theory, but it focuses attention on the functional and semantic properties of apology speech act. The researchers attempt to study the functions of conventional phrases for speech realisation of apology as well as other communicative meanings of the same phrases. The article also provides the description of apology speech act’s status in taxonomies of illocutionary speech acts of different scientists (J. Austin, J. Searle, G. Leech, W. J. Edmonson). The results show that apology speech act can function as a behabitive, convivial or expressive in speech. This has allowed us to single out primary and secondary illocutionary aims of apology speech act. Besides, there is a detailed description of the pragmatic situation of realisation of apology speech act in the article. We classify apology speech act on the basis of sincerity criterion, according to which we distinguish sincere, phatic and official apology speech act. We also describe the communicative means that are used to express apology speech act. The article dwells on the apology formulae such as “Pardon me” or “Excuse me” which include the semantic component of “apology” but are never used as such. They serve to realise other pragmatic functions.
Highlights
From the last quarter of the previous century up to the present day, the phenomenon of apology has been attracting much attention of both foreign and Ukrainian linguists
The results show that apology speech act can function as a behabitive, convivial or expressive in speech
The classification of Searle presents ASA as an expressive, the illocutionary aim of which is to express the psychological state specified in the sincerity condition about a state of affairs specified in the propositional content
Summary
From the last quarter of the previous century up to the present day, the phenomenon of apology has been attracting much attention of both foreign and Ukrainian linguists. According to Brown and Levinson’s theory, the apology speech act functions as a tactic of negative politeness strategies that are used to mitigate “threat” against the hearer’s “negative face” (Kadar, 2013). Another linguist, Leech (2016; 2014), defines apology as recognition of existing disbalance in relations between the communicants as well as the attempt of restoring harmony between them
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
