Prosodic linking in apology sequences in Finnish elementary school mediations

Abstract

In this article, we analyze pupils' prosodic realizations of the apology sequence anteeksi–saat anteeksi “I apologize–apology accepted”, focusing on pitch, rhythm, and loudness. Drawing on teacher-led mediations in which teachers settle pupils’ peer conflicts in Finnish elementary schools as data, and conversation analysis as a method, we examine how the participants' orientation to the interaction of the mediation episode as unproblematic (i.e. contributing to the smooth progress of interaction) vs. problematic (i.e. long delays in turn-taking and explicit disagreements) is prosodically reflected in the apology sequence. We show that prosodic linking of pitch, rhythm, and loudness play a key role in this regard. The apology sequence was produced using complementary ascending–descending pitch patterns in the unproblematic cases, but the pupils deviated from this pattern in the problematic cases. The pupils also aligned their turns to co-construct an isochronous rhythmic pattern throughout the unproblematic apology sequences, while this did not happen in the problematic sequences. Moreover, the loudness levels were matched in the unproblematic cases but not in the problematic ones. We argue that a mutual apology sequence is highly conventionalized, and that prosody plays a major role in how it is received and treated as legitimate, sincere, and ritually correct.