Apologies in business communication

The aim of the present paper is to examine the routine of apologizing in spoken business communication. Being face-threatening acts, apologies are of special importance in communication. Since apologies express sincerity and are remedial acts, apologizing helps to enhance mutual respect and to keep...

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Main Authors: Jūratė Ruzaitė, Laura Čubajevaitė
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühing (Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics) 2007-05-01
Series:Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa3.05
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author Jūratė Ruzaitė
Laura Čubajevaitė
author_facet Jūratė Ruzaitė
Laura Čubajevaitė
author_sort Jūratė Ruzaitė
collection DOAJ
description The aim of the present paper is to examine the routine of apologizing in spoken business communication. Being face-threatening acts, apologies are of special importance in communication. Since apologies express sincerity and are remedial acts, apologizing helps to enhance mutual respect and to keep the relationship between colleagues stable, which is especially important in business communication. The present analysis focuses on four main expressions of explicit apologies, i.e. apologies with <em>sorry, I apologise, pardon </em>and <em>excuse me. </em>The data have been obtained from the sub-corpus of the British National Corpus, which includes transcripts of business communication and amounts to 1,321,844 words. The analysis accounts for the general frequency of different forms of apology in business communication as well as their frequency in relation to gender. The paper also focuses on the most typical patterns of apologies and argues that apologies range from neutral to highly emphatic or tentative. Finally, the present analysis investigates what is commonly apologised for in business settings.
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spelling doaj.art-a46a87cbacdd43908e5dca08e921eadf2022-12-21T18:30:31ZengEesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühing (Estonian Association for Applied Linguistics)Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat1736-25632007-05-0103678110.5128/ERYa3.05Apologies in business communicationJūratė RuzaitėLaura ČubajevaitėThe aim of the present paper is to examine the routine of apologizing in spoken business communication. Being face-threatening acts, apologies are of special importance in communication. Since apologies express sincerity and are remedial acts, apologizing helps to enhance mutual respect and to keep the relationship between colleagues stable, which is especially important in business communication. The present analysis focuses on four main expressions of explicit apologies, i.e. apologies with <em>sorry, I apologise, pardon </em>and <em>excuse me. </em>The data have been obtained from the sub-corpus of the British National Corpus, which includes transcripts of business communication and amounts to 1,321,844 words. The analysis accounts for the general frequency of different forms of apology in business communication as well as their frequency in relation to gender. The paper also focuses on the most typical patterns of apologies and argues that apologies range from neutral to highly emphatic or tentative. Finally, the present analysis investigates what is commonly apologised for in business settings.http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa3.05apologiesface-savingpolitenessgendersituational contextEnglish
spellingShingle Jūratė Ruzaitė
Laura Čubajevaitė
Apologies in business communication
Eesti Rakenduslingvistika Ühingu Aastaraamat
apologies
face-saving
politeness
gender
situational context
English
title Apologies in business communication
title_full Apologies in business communication
title_fullStr Apologies in business communication
title_full_unstemmed Apologies in business communication
title_short Apologies in business communication
title_sort apologies in business communication
topic apologies
face-saving
politeness
gender
situational context
English
url http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa3.05
work_keys_str_mv AT jurateruzaite apologiesinbusinesscommunication
AT lauracubajevaite apologiesinbusinesscommunication