Strategy Use In Apologies Of The Han And Uygur College Students In Xinjiang: A Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the apology strategy use by the Han and Uygur college students. There are two focuses in the present study. One is the difference in the frequency of apology strategy use between the Han and Uygur college students. The other is the influence of social power and social distance variables on apology strategy use by the Han and Uygur college students.Questionnaire method in the form of discourse completion task (DCT) is adopted to collect the data for apologetic responses from the Han and Uygur college students. Chi-square test is applied to test the frequency of apology strategies employed by the Han and Uygur groups. Means are used to describe the data according to three power types and three distance types. The results are summarized as follows:There is significant difference between the Han and Uygur groups investigated in the use of five strategies-IFIDs, intensifies, offer of repair, minimizing responsibility and concern for the hearer.There is difference among the three power types in terms of the use of the above five strategies for both the Han and Uygur groups investigated. Both groups tend to use most of these strategies to higher power interlocutors. Most notably, the Han group use much more of the five strategies to higher power interlocutors than do the Uygur group.There is difference among the three distance types in terms of the same five strategies for both the Han and Uygur groups investigated. For the Han group, acquaintances receive most of the five strategies, while for the Uygur group, acquaintances receive almost as few of the five strategies as do friends.It is implied from the results that the Han and Ugyur subjects might have different understandings of the power and distance relationships.The fact that both the Han and Uygur groups employ more of the five apology strategies to interlocutors of higher power might reflect the tendencies of social norms in the Han and Uygur societies.As for the difference between the Han and Uygur college students in strategy use to acquaintances, it is implied that the Uygur college students investigated seem to hold that the bonds established among Uygur people are rather strong. However, more data from other groups of Uygur people are needed to decide whether such a view reflects the true reality in the Uygur society.