Situation- and relationship-dependent differences regarding six different forms of apologies (eBook)

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2, University of Salzburg, course: Intercultural Communication: Speech Acts, Politeness and Genres Across Cultures, language: English, abstract: Apologies as a form of politeness have been studied in various contexts over the last years. This paper aims to determine situation- and relationship-dependent differences regarding six different forms of apologies. To do so, a questionnaire containing 19 items was distributed online via social media to various groups of English speakers (N=36). The results partly conform with the existing literature of Deutschmann (2003), but also show that in power relations the need for an apology can come from both parties. Moreover, the most popular forms of apologies were explicit apologies and apologies + the offer of repair, supporting previous studies such as Holmes’ (1990). Due to the small sample and limited comparability, the results must be interpreted with caution and future research is needed to support the findings from the present study.