Apologizing In Chinese And English: Different Languages, Different Strategies

This paper is an attempt at a detailed analysis of a small portion of data from a corpus of American English and Chinese responses to a discourse completion test (DCT), with the goal of exploring both the differences and similarities in the realizations of apologetic responses that can be found in the choice of strategies. Three research questions are proposed.1. What are the typical realization patterns of the speech act of apologizing in American English and Chinese?2. To what extent do the strategies used by the subjects from the two different languages differ from each other?3. Does level of education exert influence upon the speech act of apologizing? Four groups are enrolled in the study—Chinese university students (70),American university students (70), Chinese workers (34) and American workers (34). A 5-item questionnaire is distributed to the 208 participants. Comparisons are conducted in two ways, namely, the Chinese (students and workers) are compared with the Americans (students and workers) to elicit the differences across the two cultures, then the second comparison is made between the students (Chinese and American) and the workers (Chinese and American) for examining whether the level of education has impacts upon the speech act of apologizing both culrure-freely and culture-dependently. Related findings are listed as following.1. The Chinese realization of apologizing follows certain patterns in terms of strategy use, to be specific, IFIDs (Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices), Offer of repair, Concern for the hearer are the most typical strategies, then comes Taking on responsibility and Explanation or account, finally Promise of forbearance and Refusal to acknowledge guilt being used least of all. But in the American patterns, the whole patterns stay the same as in the Chinese with the exception of the exchange of order between Taking on responsibility and Concern for the hearer. 2. All the seven strategies are covered by both the Chinese and the Americans, which leads to the similarity of strategy distribution. However, the Chinese compared to the Americans are more apt to select complex strategies to realize the speech act of apologizing.3. In the present study, the level of education is found to be an effective factor to apologetic strategy application, that is, both the Chinese and the American university students are more likely to apologize or adopt relatively more complex strategies to show their apologies.