Realization of the apology speech act: selection of speech tactics and the perlocutionary effect (based on the material of the Russian, English and French languages)

Abstract

This article examines the realization of the apology speech act in the three linguistic cultures: Russian, English, and French. The goal of this work is to determine the similarities and differences in functionality of the verbal act of apology in the context of the indicated cultures. The subject of this research is the expression with illocutionary meaning of apology. The authors review the composition of speech repertoire, means of realization of such speech act (conventional language, conventional speech, and nonconventional means), selection of speech tactics in expressing apology in form of the indirect speech act. Special attention is turned to perlocutionary effect, i.e. verbal response of the interlocutor to the addressed apology, as well as to the speech tactics that are frequent in the instances of expressing apology. The novelty of this work consists in studying the apology speech act of within the framework of cross-cultural pragmatics, with the use of practical material from the three linguistic cultures. The preliminary survey conducted among native speakers allowed concluding that the majority of respondents of these linguistic cultures attribute the ability to apologize with the image of a polite person. This particularly this pertains to the English-speaking and French-speaking cultures. Meanwhile, the examination of the articles of explanatory dictionaries demonstrates that the perception of the ability to apologize as a mandatory component of the concept of politeness is rather inherent to the mentality of native speakers, that to academic science. The analysis of practical material clarifies the speech repertoire and the frequency of selecting separate linguistic (imperative, performative) or speech means (speech cliché) used in realization of the direct speech act, as well as determines the key speech tactics used for expressing apology in form of the indirect speech act. Examination of the interlocutor’s verbal response as a perlocutionary effect on the apology indicates that this speech situation suggests a predominantly positive response. The maximal similarity in expressing apology is observed in the composition of speech repertoire of the speakers belonging to three different linguistic cultures, while the difference manifests namely in the selection of speech tactics for expressing apology or responding to it in form of the indirect speech act.