apologies in film implications for language teaching hsin-chou huang

8/18/2019 Apologies in Film Implications for Language Teaching Hsin-chou Huang

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Apologies in Film: Implications for LanguageTeaching

Apologies in Film: Implications for Language Teaching

Hsin-chou Huang

St. John’s and St. Mar’s Institute of Technolog

A!stract

This paper aims at exploring the possibility of film as a resource for pragmatics

research as well as language teaching by examining a corpus of apology in 26

American feature films. To test the valiity of language use in film! the speech act

reali"ations in film are compare with apologies in literature for features of strategy

use! syntactic#semantic features as well as contextual factors incluing types of

offense an gener istribution. It is hypothesi"e that if apology strategies occur in

film are comparable to the patterns in existing literature! film is a potential resource

for the teaching of pragmatics. The moel for coing strategy patterns in this stuy is

base on $ohen an %lshtain &'()'*! %lshtain an $ohen &'()+*! an $$,A-

coing schemes &/lum#0ul1a! ouse! 3 0asper*. -esults show that similarities can

be observe from the aspects of ominant use of a single IFI4 strategy with

expression of regret being most fre5uent across situations! an also a preominance

percentage of the syntactic formulae of sorry confirme by %wen &'()+: 66* I am

(I’m) + (intensifier) sorry + that S /to VP/ if S/ about that. owever! there are inee

some minor ifferences regaring the formulae! apologize, between intimates! the

context when apologies occur as well as gener istribution. 4espite these

ifferences! apologies in film o reflect a large portion of real#life situations.

Therefore! in teaching stuents how to apologi"e! film can be a goo resource!

especially for 7FL learners who have limite opportunities to interact with native

spea1ers to gain such pragmatic 1nowlege.

". I#T$%&'(TI%#

This paper aims at exploring the possibility of film as a resource for pragmatics

research as well as language teaching by examining a corpus of apology in 26

American feature films. To test the valiity of language use in film! the speech act

reali"ations in film are compare with apologies in literature for features of strategy

use! syntactic#semantic features as well as contextual factors incluing types of

offense an gener istribution that influence strategy choice. It is hypothesi"e that if

apology strategies occur in film are comparable to the patterns in existing literature!

film is a potential resource for the teaching of pragmatics. owever! if the patterns are

ifferent! it coul be an unexplore area for further investigation in the nature of film

language. The first section will firstly iscuss the relationship between film an

'


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pragmatics. Following this is the literature of apology exploring the range of

strategies use to apologi"e! their semantic an syntactic structures as well as some

social aspects of apologies. The thir section will compare a corpus of film with

existing literature on apologies an present finings with implications for language

teaching.

). FILM A#& *$A+MATI(S

Although the use of film in teaching pragmatics is a relatively new phenomenon

&-ose! 288'*! the lin1 between film an language teaching has been establishe for

some time in previous literature with a general focus on the teaching of listening an

spea1ing s1ills &Allan! '()9 Lonergan! '();* an only a few of them aresse the

availability of film ata as a pragmatic source &/arovi#arlig! artfor!


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observe patterns of apologies in American aily life.

,. $SA$(H I#T% A*%L%+

An apology is primarily a speech act! which is meant to provie support for the

hearer who was offene or impee by a violation &%lshtain! '()(*. aving ecie

to carry out the verbal apology! the spea1er is willing to humiliate himselfherself to

amit the fault an ta1e the responsibility for the spea1er. In other wors! the act of

apologi"ing is face#threatening for the hearer an face#saving to the spea1er! or

sometimes it can threaten both the hearer an spea1er in some cultures &%beng! '(((

Thomas! '((9*. As apologies express negative politeness! they signal the spea1er?s

awareness of having impinge on the hearer?s negative face an restricte herhis face

in some way. Apology is therefore a compensatory action to an offence! which the

spea1er is causally involve an threatens the face of the hearer &/ergman 3 0asper!

'((+*. This view is supporte by @offman?s &'(='* iea that apologies can be vieweas remeial interchanges serving to reestablish social harmony after a real or virtual

offense.


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severity of the offense &Trosberg! '()=*! an social infractions an violations of space

&olmes! '((8*. >ith regar to the syntactic formula of sorry, the most fre5uent

occurrences inclue sorry without any compliment! sorry to VP an sorry (that) S

&%wen! '()+*. In contrast to the higher fre5uency of sorry, expressions with

apologize appears to be rare &$ohen 3 %lshtain! '()' %wen! '()+* ue to the fact

that apologize is restricte to more formal! an written interactions &Fraser! '()'*. %n

the other han! the ifference between sorry an ex#use lies in the nature of the

offense whether it is relate to personal inDuries or a social rule.


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the $$,A- proDect! whose results are base on eight apology contexts in written

5uestionnaires of seven languages. The current stuy focuses not only on the

ientification of strategy use but also on socio#pragmatic contexts of apologies! such

as syntactic#semantic patterns for apology! istribution of apology strategy uner

social contexts! an relationship between participants. The film ata was collecte

from 26 American feature films &,ee Appenix A* of '(= apologies &Appenix /*.

The criteria for selecting films followe -ose?s stuy &288'*! in which movies shoul

be no more than fifteen years ol an shoul portray contemporary people in real#life

settings. There are also other practical constraints that selections must be available in

vieo rental shops in Taiwan an movie scripts are available on line'. To facilitate

iscussions about genre ifferences! the films are categori"e into four broa

categories base on 'he Internet oie atabase whose classification is generate by

voters aroun the worl2. Among 26 American feature films whose publishing yearsranging from '((2 to 2882! six of them are in the category of S#ien#e *i#tion with a

total of 2= apologies! six films belong to 'hriller an$ #tion &2+ apologies*! ten films

are in oman#e an$ -ome$y &'86 apologies*! an the rest four are in rama &;'

apologies*. In Table '! we can clearly see that on average apologies occur more in the

genre of -omance$omey as well as 4rama while in ThrillerAction an ,cience

Fiction! apologies are relatively few. It coul be interprete that in -omance$omey

oftentimes the protagonists experience ups an owns in relationships an the

interactions between characters are emotionally pac1e therefore! apologies werefre5uently mae to tie up the bon. ,imilarly! in the section of 4rama! whose main

plot involve a s1etch of a maDor history event li1e Pearl arbor an 'itani# as well

as an autobiography of some celebrities li1e rin 0ro#1oi#h, apologies occur Dust

what we foun in our aily life. owever! for the genres of Action an ,cience

Fiction! the main ragging point is to create supernatural powers an create worls

into the future mysteries li1e 0a#1 to the *uture an smash crimes li1e ir *or#e %ne

or even a murer li1e 'he Sixth Sense2 therefore! it is natural that action#pac1e

scenes outnumber episoes epicting human communications. It is not har to

imagine that apologies are rare in the genres of Action an ,cience Fiction.

' >ebsites offering free movie subtitles inclue 4rewGs ,cripts#%#-ama Inex at http:www.script#o#rama.comtable.shtml!


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Table ': Apology istribution across genres

Eumber of apologies Eumber of movies Average

,cience Fiction 27 6 4.5

Thriller an Action 23 6 3.8

-omance an $omey 106 10 10.6

4rama 41 4 10.25

T%TAL 197 26 7.57

0. TH A#ALSIS

The moel use in this stuy was base on $ohen an %lshtain &'()': ''+#'+;*!

%lshtain an $ohen &'()+: 22#2+*! an $$,A- coing schemes &/lum#0ul1a!

ouse! 3 0asper! '()(*. This moel has been empirically evelope an successfully

teste across languages an it is foun that most spea1ers resort to a limite number

of strategies when apologi"ing &%lshtain! '()(*. %f all the above strategies! %lshtain

an $ohen &'()+* note that the illocutionary inicating evice &IFI4*! which contains

the formulaic! routini"e forms of apology or explicit performative verbs to express

an apology! an the secon strategy of expressing the spea1er?s responsibility are

general an non#language specific that is! those two strategies are the most fre5uently

use an can reali"e an apology in any situation.


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7xample &'* shows how $$,A- coe the ata as having all of the basic

strategies.

&'*

IFID RESPONSIBILITY EXPLANATION

I?m sorry. I misse the bus! an there was a terrible traffic Dam. Let?s ma1e

REPAIR FORBEARANCE

another appointment. I?ll ma1e sure that I?m here on time.

Table 2: Apology strategies in film

Strateg Eumber K

'. An explicit expression of apology

a. express regret '6; 99.8K

b. offer apology '( 6.9K

c. re5uest forgiveness '; ;.=K

2. An ac1nowlegement of responsibility 96 ').)K

+. 7xplanation or account +9 ''.=K

;. %ffer of repair = 2.+K

9. A promise of forbearance + '.8K

T%TAL 2() '88K

The most fre5uent apology strategy in film ata is an explicit expression of

apology &'88K* with the routini"e I’m sorry appearing in the maDority of cases

&99.9K* as shown in example &2*. This strategy accounte for over half of the

strategies use. This confirms pervious finings that IFI4 is the most fre5uently use

strategies with the common form! be sorry &%lshtain! '()+! '()(*. The strategy of

ac1nowleging responsibility occupies the secon highest proportion &').)K* among

all the five strategies! which correspons to -intell an


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shown in example &9* or the esire to see the belove one in example &6*! an

explanation might be reunant an waste time.

&2*

7-IE: Jou never calle me bac1. I left messages.

74: Jou i 3o&, sorry about that. &7rin /roc1ovich*

&+*

Alice: eGve misse you on other ays. ,o has an1.

anine: 4eah, &ell I5m sorry. 'hough I &ish I #oul$ isit more often, but... you

1no&. &


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orothy laughs. e loo1s at her strangely. Su$$enly she feels ery nerous, as

he sets $o&n his bags.

4%-%TJ: Sorry. ;h, let me see, hae a seat. I5ll get you some loe Vera for

that #ut too. &erry hat am I paying you fifty cents an hour for

/IFF: I5m sorry, -hamp, (getting to his feet) It &on5t happen again, sir.

&/ac1 to future*

'8


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>ith regar to the combination of strategies! Table + summari"es the

combinations which occur using the five broa categories an provies information

about the ifferent patterns foun in the ata. The single strategy I*I ominates the

ata &62.;K*! which correspons to finings in $$,A- that one single strategy

constitutes native spea1ers apology formula. The secon highest fre5uency of

occurrences is the combination of two strategies &2(.;K* with the category of IFI4 N

responsibility ran1e the highest. The use of three strategies &=.=K* an four

strategies &8.9K* were relatively rare in the film corpus. 7xamples of combination of

strategies can be foun in examples &''* to &')*. The number of combine strategies

occurre much less than one single strategy in the film ata. As for the orer of

strategy use! most of them appear to have IFI4 coming the first &(9K* with only a

few exceptions with responsibility coming the first place &9K* as shown in examples

&'(* an &28*. $omparatively spea1ing! few research has been one in the areas of how strategies are combine in remeial exchanges. Although Trosberg &'()=*

observe the phenomena of combination of strategies in her role#play ata! she i not

give exact percentage of such strategy combination nor i she further analy"e the

possible cause of combing strategies. /ut she i mention that the reason why a

comparatively few number of irect strategies use in her role#play ata was that

responents were pressure to prouce more strategies uner chosen situations when

role#playing &Trosberg! '()=*. owever! in olmes? Eew ealan ata! we i fin

that combination strategies only occurre in weightier offense an compose of fewer portions of apologies than single strategies. This fining is similar to film ata. In

aition! strategies that were least li1ely to occur inclue reress! such as let me pay

for that an forbearance! such as this &on’t happen again. This correspons to

omes? &'((8* an


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$-AI@: Eah! I?m not hungry. I?m sorry I in?t call. It was Dust! you 1now har

to get away. &/eing ohn


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Table ;: ,yntactic#semantic patterns in apology

Pnite 0ingom Film

attern E K E K

Variant of apologize or apology/ies

Herb

7g. Iwe Nmustought towoul li1e to N

apologi"e

3 3.6% 16 8.1%

Eoun

7g. I have an apology to ma1eQ

Accept my apologies

1 1.2% 3 1.5%

IGm afrai 7 8.4% 0 0%

Patterns &ith sorry

&Intensifier* sorry 20 24.1% 41 20.8%

IGmam &intense* sorry 21 25.3% 53 26.9%

&IGm* &intense* sorry to iffor H&that* , 22 26.5% 47 23.9%

&IGm* &intense* sorry about thatit 9 10.8% 23 11.7%

%ther patterns

7xcuse meus 0 0% 10 5.1%

Forgive me 0 0% 4 2.0%

T%TAL 83 100% 197 100%%verall! the ifference in terms of syntactic#semantic features between film

corpus an /ritish ata is not statistically significant &p＜.89*+. In film ata! there is

also a ominant number of the formula &2'* &)+.+K*! with I5m/am (intense) sorry

being the first &26.(K*! (I5m) (intense) sorry to /if/for VP/(that) S the secon &2+.(K*!

(Intensifier) sorry the thir &28.)K*! an (I5m) (intense) sorry about that/it the last

&''.=K*. The use of Sorry without subDect occurre most fre5uently when offense was

of no potential amage! such as a slip of tongue as shown in example &22*! failure to

catch the flow of conversation as in example &2+*! or between intimates as in example

&2;*. This fining confirms what %wen fins in her /ritish ata that Sorry is often

use for trivial offenses an even when Sorry is use for more substantial offenses! it

is mostly applie to closer relationships! suggesting a Btrae#off between seriousness

of offence an closeness of relationshipC &%wen! '()+: 6=*. Pnli1e Sorry, which is

often use for minor isturbances an may not be costly to the aress?s face! the

+ The statistical measure use for this stuy is Kolmogorov-Smirnov Testing. !"

#$8.8=(+)+92; R 48.89 ! 48.89S (


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structure! I’m sorry! is use for relatively serious offense an occupie the most

fre5uent occurrences &26.(K* in the film ata. In fact! it covere a wie variety of

situations! incluing revealing an unexpecte news in example &29*! functioning as a

conversation opener in example &26* or forgetting someone?s preference in example

&2=*. ,uch percentage is also similar to %wen?s stuy. The rest two formulae were

Sorry with complements either of a full complement or verb phrase. %ftentimes &99

out of =8 examples* it is lin1e with expression of responsibility as shown in

examples &2)* an &2(*. In aition! intensifiers! such as really &') cases* were use

when offenses were more serious as shown in example &+8* an so was use between

lovers to express losing time to be together as shown in example &+'* &= cases*. ,uch

tenency can be foun both in film an %wen?s /ritish ata. Li1ewise! in %lshtain?s

stuy &'()(*! internal intensification! which as routini"e intensifier such as ery

an really to IFI4! occurs mostly when stuents forgot to return boo1s to their professor. /esies! %lshtain &'()(* foun that a significance correlation between

social status an the level of internal intensification. In other wors! apologi"ers with

lower status than the aressee will choose to use more intensification! such as I’m

really sorry. I’m terribly sorry. This is also confirme by film corpus.

&22*

$ole: Jou sai the BsC wor.


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&2)*

-ay: I’m sorry I &as ru$e 9ust then.

4orothy: It?s %0. >e are in it together now. &erry


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-%F7,,%- 7ell! ill! I thin1. &beat* I apologize if you canGt unerstan a wor IGm saying!4r. ,chwart".

4r.: I unerstan perfectly. &American /eauty*

&+9*

4%-%TJ: Jou onGt have to explain.

7--J: Loo1! the other night! I want to apologize.

4%-%TJ: (#an5t rea$ her) Jeah! what happene there. &erry arehouse commercial!

ex#use me, you are ma1ing him common. e is pure gol an youGre

giving him O>aterbe >arehouseO when he eserves the big four U

shoe! car! clothing# line! soft#rin1. The four Dewels of the celebrity

enorsement ollar. &erry


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The pervious section iscusse that similarities between film an %wen?s /ritish

ata lie in their ominant usages of the expression of regret! I a+ 'I,+* ! 'intensi%ier*

sorry ! that S -to .P- i% S- a#out that/ The ifferences lie in their percentages of the

occurrences of apology with film ata &(.6K* being higher than the /ritish ata

&+.)K* %n the other han! the situations when apologies occurre varie. In this

section! we can fin another three ifferent aspects between film an %wen?s corpus

incluing usages of afrai$, forgie me an ex#use me. %wen &'()+* propose that

when I’m afrai$ is followe by a full complement sentence! the function of the

utterance is to express regret an thus the remeial effect may be achieve. There are

a total of = cases in her ata however! in film ata we i fin one case of using

afrai$ as shown in example &+)*. /ut it was lin1e with I’m sorry so the single

formula of I’m afrai$ was counte as "ero in my film ata. ,econly! the instance of

forgie was absent in %wen?s ata but it i occur in the film &a total of ; cases* asshown in example &+(* when a mother wante to win bac1 her aughter an in

example &;8* when -ose as1e one of the crew members on boar if the number of

life boat was enough! an use forgie me to tone own the imposition of her re5uest.

It coul be interprete that as movies are emotion#pac1e! the auience might

appreciate passions using strong verbal inflations such as forgie to ma1e the episoe

more ramatic. The last semantic#syntactic ifference lies in the usage of ex#use me!

which is virtually absent in %wen?s /ritish ata. ,ince it is more relate to the issue of

the context of apologies! it woul be iscusse in the next section.&+)*

FL%-I,: lease have a seat!


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0., 7hen to apologi6e: (onte3t

The thir area centers upon how the seerity of offense etermines the choice of

strategy. In consiering various factors influence the choice of an apologi"ing

strategy! the first 5uestion might be! V>hy i the person even choose to apologi"e?

It might because the apologi"er feels regretful for what heshe has one! want to set

things right by ta1ing up responsibility an express regret &Fraser! '()'*. owever!

there are some cases that people apologi"e Dust to facilitate moves when social rules

have been bro1en. ,uch istinction is useful in examining the ifference between

"x#use meC an B I’m sorryC &/or1in 3 -inhart! '(=)*. For example! when one was

hurrying out of his way through a large crows! x#use me is more appropriate than

I’m sorry since it is not socially acceptable to rush through crows. owever! if this

person is getting in someone else?s way or even stepping on hisher toes! it woul be

proper to say I’ sorry because such act has cause personal inDury. This is an exampleof how the nature of the offense influences strategy choice. In real life situations!

social violations range from slight offenses! such as bumps! causing a minor

inconvenience to someone or entering the wrong room! to more serious offenses! such

as cause someone?s eath or putting someone?s life in anger! an the li1e.


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&;+*

-%,7: x#use me. &,he stal1s away*.

-PT :I o apologi"e. &Titanic*

In $$,A-! the use of the five strategies all occur in the ata! but the

istribution of strategies varies across the situations. %lshtain &'()(* only mentions

the egrees of using strategies vary across situations! but he in?t specify the

tenency that what strategy is most favore uner which situation. ,ituations in

$$,A- inclue a university professor who has not correcte a stuent?s paper! a

stuent forgetting to return a boo1 to the professor! a manger who is late for an

appointment! a waiter serving the wrong course! a stuent being late for a meeting

with his frien! a rive an an insult. owever! the category cannot fit in film ata in

that film is emotion an action compacte.


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,P/T%TAL ' 8.9K

Tal1

IFI4 +) '(.+K

$ombination of strategies '; =.'K

,P/T%TAL 92 26.;K

Ti+e

IFI4 += ').)K

$ombination of strategies ) ;.8K

,P/T%TAL ;9 22.)K

Possession

IFI4 + '.9K

$ombination of strategies 2 '.8K,P/T%TAL 9 2.9K

So&ial

IFI4 ) ;.'K

,P/T%TAL ) ;.'K

T%TAL '(= '88K

&;=*

4%EEA: 7rin! this hereGs Fran1


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more than men i instea! men even apologi"e more than women.

Table 6: @ener ifferences in apologies

%ffener Eumber K

Female#Female 2+ ''.=K

Female#


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film &288'*. The observation mae in this stuy might be preliminary however! it is

hope that such stuy is a point of eparture to investigate how fre5uent an

significant phenomenon in film parallel our aily interaction.

2;


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$eferences

Allan! hat remains to be learne. International Fournal of the So#iology of ?anguage, G=! 9'#=;.

Fraser! /. &'()'*. %n apologi"ing. In F. $oulmas &7.*! -onersational routine &pp.

29(#2='*. The ague: ! '99#

'((.

olmes! . &'((9*. 3omen, men an$ politeness. Lonon: Longman.

0asper! @.! 3 4ahl! E&2*! 2'9#2;=.

Lonergan! . &'();*. Vi$eo in language tea#hing . $ambrige: $ambrige Pniversity

ress.

olfson! E. &'()'*. The compliment formula. In F. $oulmas &7.*!

-onersational outineB xplorations in stan$ar$ize$ #ommuni#ation

situations an$ prepatterne$ spee#h. Eew Jor1:


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%beng! ,. @. &'(((*. Apologies in A1an iscourse. Fournal of Pragmati#s, E>! =8(#

=+;.

%lshtain! 7. &'()+*. ,ociocultural competence an language transfer: The case of

apology. In ,. @ass 3 L. ,elin1er &7s.*! ?anguage transfer in language

learning &pp. 2+2#2;(*. Eew Jor1: Eewburry ouse.

%lshtain! 7. &'()(*. Apologies across languages. In ,. /lum#0ul1a 3 . ouse 3 @.

0asper &7s.*! -ross7#ultual pragmati#sB eCuests an$ apologies &pp. '99#

'=+*. Eorwoo! E: Ablex.

%lshtain! 7.! 3 $ohen! A. 4. &'()+*. Apology: A speech#act set. In E. >olfson 3 7.

u &7s.*! So#iolinguisti#s an$ language a#Cuisition &pp. '(#+9*. -owley!


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Appendi3 A: List of films

Science fiction

'. AI &288'*

2. /ac1 to the future &'((2*

+.


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Appendi3 9: Sample apologies

'. 4avi: I?m sorry


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the potO. All that magic suenly isappears

An then you have left is bowel trouble

immy：IGm sorry. I inGt thin1 youG get upset. &/achelor*

'+. L%TT7: ,orry! hon. I inGt 1now %rrin atch was out of his pen. @oo

morning.

$-AI@:


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4%%L7-: ,orry I yelle. Jou have ex5uisite taste. &erry ho sai anything about OloserO >here o you get this wor

OloserO

AH7-J: IGm sorry. I was on a roll. I meant something else. >hen o you

want to leave &erry


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,PJ: IGm sorry. &,leepless in ,eattle*

+). ,am: >hat if something happene to you >hat if I coulnGt get to you

onah: ,orry. IZm sorry .

+(. LP07: Jou canGt o any more goo bac1 thereM

>74@7: ,orryM &,tar>ars*

;8. Pars*

;'.


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Appendi3 (

Learning nglish Through Moies

/y osephine uang Doehuang[mail.sDsmit.eu.tw

http:www.sDsmit.eu.twDo

I. Introduction:

Films have been use wiely as a resource in 7FL classes. owever! oftentimes it is

use mainly for listening an spea1ing s1ills. owever! films have potentials for

eveloping stuents? pragmatic awareness. In this activity! we are going to loo1 at

how people apologi"e in ifferent contexts in the films chosen by you.

II. 7arm up

4o you 1now how to apologi"e appropriately accoring to the situation you are in

There are five strategies! two of which are general an three of which are situation#

specific.1"2 The first one is to use formulaic expressions containing explicit

performative verbs! such as I’m sorr; 3cuse me; I regret; I

apologi6e to explicitly express an apology.

1)2 To express responsibility! which reflects the spea1er?s egree of

willingness to amit to fault for the offense. 7@: It’s all m fault. I

hae made a mista4e. I shouldn’t hae done that.

1,2 To give an explanation which inirectly cause the apologi"er to commit

the offense. For example! the stuents may say! B The !us is late.C Toaccount for the reason being late for class.

1/2 To give an offer of repair. The apologi"er may see1 ways to ma1e up

the loss or provie some 1in of payment which results from the

offense. 7@. >hen you faile to return the boo1 to someone you

borrowe! you may say! BI’ll !u ou a ne5 oneI’ll treat ou a

lunch.=

102 To promise non#occurrence. The apologi"er promise not to allow the

offense to happen again. 7@. >hen you split mil1 over the carpet! you

may promise you mom that! >I 5on’t do that again.=

III. Setting

Eow! it?s your turn to select all of the apology scenes in the movie you choose. Jou

can choose to wor1 in a group of two or even better! wor1 alone. $hoose any tile you

li1e. >rite at least FI? scenes relating to apology for each movie. If you fail to fin

that many! you can see another movie. -7


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$LA,,: EA

apologies in film implications for language teaching hsin-chou huang

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