Jose Antonio C.
Dasig ELS – 2, ELS 2107 T/TH 12:00 – 1:30
Prof. Charity Turano November 22, 2020
Activity 2. Analyzing Speech Acts. Interpreting Apologies
I’ll first analyze the US’s ‘two sorries’ using Owen’s (1983) sample criteria or the felicity
conditions. First, he made mention of how the act A specified in the propositional content is an
offence against the addressee H. In this case, China is the addressee H and the act A
mentioned is ‘illegally entering China’s Airspace’ which obviously is an offense to the
addressee. Second, Owen made mention of how the addressee would have preferred S (the
US) not doing the action and S doing the action and then with S believing that the addressee
would have preferred S not doing the action. Obviously, addressee China would have preferred
the US to stay out of their airspace without proper permissions and with the US still entering
China’s airspace and I’m sure they also knew China would’ve preferred them to not do the
action (it is a spy plane). Third, Owen said that the action does not benefit the addressee and S
believes the actions does not benefit the addressee. The action clearly has no benefit
whatsoever to China and I believe the US also knows this (rather it benefits them), so this
condition is fulfilled as well. Now the next condition is the part where the apology is most
ambiguous and where we can understand why the Chinese are reluctant to believe the apology.
Now, Owens mentions that in order to fulfill the ‘felicity conditions’, S should regret having done
the action. According to Jones (2012), one of the problems for these set of criteria are what
must be done in order to support the expression of regret. Sure, the US made mention of their
“sincere regret over your missing pilot” and “very sorry for entering the Chinese air space”,
however, these words are simply not enough to accomplish an apology (Jones, 2012),
especially for an offense of this magnitude. Actions as heavy as this should be accompanied by
words of resolution and the US never made mention of never doing it again. Lastly, Owens said
that the utterance must count as an expression of regret by S for having done the action. The
US states in their apology that they “are very sorry for entering Chinese air space” which is what
China considers as the offense, so the condition is fulfilled. As we can see, most of the
conditions were fulfilled, however, the expression of regret seems to be incomplete as no
resolutions were proposed.
Next, I will try to analyze the apology using Cohen, Olshtain and Rosenstein’s (1986) verbal
strategies. They mentioned that an expression of apology must be made and the US side has
fulfilled this (‘express their sincere regret’ and ‘we are very sorry’). Following this, an explanation
of the situation in the perspective of the offender must be said and the US has failed to do this.
Instead, they merely mentioned their regrets and even expressed their joy on the successful
emergency landing of their crew (that probably further aggravated the Chinese and increased
their distrust). An acknowledgement of responsibility is also lacking with the US failing to note
how wrong and offensive their action as to China. Next, according to the proponents, an offer of
repair must also be presented and the US has not given this. Lastly, a promise of forbearance
or assurance to never do it again is lacking making the apology less credible. Using this model
or criteria, the US’s ‘two sorries’ are obviously lacking in many areas mainly concerning the
aftermath of the incident. No words or resolution, repair, or even a statement of responsibility
(e.g. we acknowledge how offensive/illegal this is) were provided by the US side so we can see
the reason why most people might see this as an insincere apology.
Jose Antonio C. Dasig ELS – 2, ELS 2107 T/TH 12:00 – 1:30
Prof. Charity Turano November 22, 2020
References:
Jones, R. (2012). Discourse Analysis: A resource book for students. In Interpreting apologies.
Retrieved from:
https://www.academia.edu/34028847/DISCOURSE_ANALYSIS_A_resource_book_for_student
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