Sorry Not Sorry

Amanda Stefura & Madeline Galvez 

According to the creators of a model of politeness in 1978, Brown and Levinson, “‘face’ refers to the desire that all people have to maintain and defend their own self-image” (Bowe, Martin, and Manns, 53). People in general often find it difficult to say the three little words, “I am sorry” because they are admitting they are wrong and therefore losing face. Politicians too, find it difficult to apologize and they often apologize vaguely or offer remorse for a particular event or action instead of directly apologizing. It is interesting to view how politicians apologize because their apologizes are often structured in order to save their positive face in the public realm.

Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is under attack in the media today for her controversy over using private email to handle her governmental responsibilities during the time she was secretary of state. Now that she is campaigning and running for president in 2016, this controversy is leading to a loss of public approval, hurting her reputation and a loss of positive face. However, on September 8, 2015, Clinton officially apologized for her

Hilary Clinton

usage of private email. Anthony Zurcher summarizes Clinton’s apology in his BBC report titled, “Hillary’s hard and painful road to ‘sorry’”, “she was sorry for the ‘confusion’ the story created and that the email setup ‘wasn’t the best choice’. This apology was not very direct, as she put the blame on the hearer for not understanding her decisions or previous explanations for her actions. Clinton barely makes use of the first major component of Cohen and Olshtain’s major components of apologies, the Illocutionary force indicating device (IFID). Clinton stated that she is “sorry” however she lacks a force and intensifier such as “so” or “extremely” in order to express how sorry she really is. Her apology also includes the 3rd major component of apologies “Taking on Responsibility” by blaming the hearer for misunderstanding her actions. On top of these methods of apologies, Clinton also made light of her apology by joking about her mistakes. She made a joke about how she liked the app “Snapchat” because the messages disappear, unlike her private emails did. Clinton’s apology is a great example of how politicians use Cohen and Olshtain’s major components of apologies in order to help reduce the loss of face.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34192991

This July, Martin O’Malley experienced a serious loss of face when he used the phrase “all lives matter” during a “black lives matter” protest at a Netroots Nation conference.

Martin O’Malley

Protesters shouted O’Malley down and he was unable to redeem himself until later that day when he apologized for his insensitivity and lack of  understanding in the subject. O’Malley did not use a direct apology and he did not use an IFID as he lacked to directly say “I am sorry” or “I apologize” but he did use other components of Cohen and Olshtain’s components of apologies in order to apologize to the protesters and those he had offended. O’Malley used component number 3 of Cohen and Olshtain’s components, taking on responsibility, through usage of explicit self-blame, lack of intent and expression of self-deficiency. In the CNN article by Chris Moody, “O’Malley apologizes for saying ‘all lives matter’ at liberal conference”, O’Malley is quoted saying, “That was a mistake on my part and I meant no disrespect. I did not mean to be insensitive in any way…”, revealing his usage of Cohen and Olshtain’s components in order to apologize in a way that will help him regain face. O’Malley’s usage of taking responsibility and self-blame allows for him to redress his mistake and redress his loss of face in the public view.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/martin-omalley-all-lives-matter/

  Todd Akin is a Missouri Representative who was under scrutiny for an ignorant comment made concerning sexual assault; “ Legitimate rape rarely causes pregnancy”.

Todd Akin

In response to harsh criticism of his comment, Akin released a short 30 second video entitled “Forgiveness” apologizing for the comment made. He begins with a regretful acknowledgement of guilt: “ Rape is an evil act, I used the wrong words in the wrong way and for that I apologize”. With this statement he takes on responsibility for his actions and demonstrates a sense of embarrassment for his actions.Akin follows this acknowledgement of guilt with claiming a lack of bad intent by stating that he was unconsciously offending people by using the “wrong words in the wrong way” in an attempt to restore positive face and also allows the audience to view his negative face.The last component of Todd Akin’s apology consisted of an explanation for his actions: “The truth is, rape has many victims, the mistake I made was in the words I said, not in the heart I hold”. With this statement Akin attempts to explain that his ignorance was the result of his comment, as opposed to his true beliefs on the matter. Akin also attempts to restore his positive face halfway through the video by stating that “As a father of two daughters I want tough justice for predators, I have a compassionate heart for the victims of sexual assault. I pray for them”. Akin does use IFIDs within his apology video: “For that, I apologize” and “I ask for forgiveness”. He does not use intensifiers, however, I attributed this to the fact that he is apologizing for a pre-recorded video with script and IFIDs may have therefore been unprofessional or unnecessary to accomplish the overall goal of convincingly apologizing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2012/08/21/todd-akin-asks-for-forgiveness-in-new-tv-ad/

 

Apologies across cultures are similar in the fact that they are expressive speech acts however they are not used in the same way across cultures. Different cultures have different expectations of politeness and therefore use apologies in a variety of ways in order to express politeness and to save face. Politeness is varied among different cultural schemes and therefore varied among cultural dimensions. For example, cultures with uncertainty avoidance prefer directness and therefore find directness more polite, which would indicate that a direct apology would be considered the most polite way to apologize. Another example of apologies being different among cultures is how Americans apologize compared to how the Japanese apologize. American culture is short-term oriented and their apologies are thought up quickly and on the spot. The ability to apologize quickly is valued for individuality and considered to be a polite way to apologize. In contrast, Japanese culture is long-term oriented and prefer apologies that are more private and formulaic. Therefore, these two cultures view apologies in different ways and see certain ways of apologizing more polite than others. Apologies also vary among the cultural schemes based on social distance, relative power distance and absolute ranking. Depending on how cultures interact based on their power-distance will change the way they apologize to certain people. It is important to consider the many dimensions of cultures and their views on politeness in order to see how people apologize within their culture.  

Sources:

Moody, Chris. “O’Malley Apologizes for Saying ‘all Lives Matter’ – CNNPolitics.com.” CNN. Cable News Network, 19 July 2015. Web. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/martin-omalley-all-lives-matter/>.

Sullivan, Sean. “Todd Akin Asks for Forgiveness in New TV Ad.”Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2012. Web.Sullivan, Sean. “Todd Akin Asks for Forgiveness in New TV Ad.”Washington Post. The Washington Post, 21 Aug. 2012. Web.

Zurcher, Anthony. “Hillary’s Hard and Painful Road to ‘sorry’ – BBC News.”BBC News. N.p., 9  Sept. 2015. Web. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34192991>.


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One response to “Sorry Not Sorry”

  1. Katie Faull Avatar
    Katie Faull

    Exemplary post! Well done!

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