Location
University of Windsor
Document Type
Paper
Keywords
Apology, Brian Williams, evaluation, image repair theory, modality, Paula Deen, positioning, Tiger Woods, representation, stance
Start Date
2016 9:00 AM
End Date
2016 5:00 PM
Abstract
Personal apology can be understood as self-defense—a response to an actual, implied, or anticipated accusation against one’s character. Within argumentation studies, scholars have investigated how public apologies are constructed to repair a speaker’s image and/or repair the speaker’s relationship with others through specific strategies. This paper broadens the study of apology by employing the sociolinguistic concept of stance, understood as the ways in which a speaker orients herself in relation to sociocultural values, other persons, actions, events, and, especially in the case of apology, another version of herself. In addition to explicit claims, stance can also be interpreted through subtle linguistic options such as metadiscourse, modality, representations, and evaluative moves.
This paper investigates apologetic stance through an analysis of three U.S. celebrity apologies: Tiger Woods's apology for extra-marital affairs, chef and TV personality Paula Deen's apology for using a racial epithet, and news anchor Brian Williams's apology for repeatedly telling a false story. The analysis suggests a definition of apologetic stance based upon alignments between speaker and audience with regard to the objects of stance: the transgression, the speaker's prior self, and the victim. The paper also discusses successful apology as expressing appropriate bias while unsuccessful apologies fail due to inappropriate bias.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Reader's Reactions
G Thomas Goodnight, Commentary on “The Stance of Personal Public Apology”: Transgression & Apologia: Disjoining Standpoints of Justice, Publicity and Drama (May 2016)
Included in
The Stance of Personal Public Apology
University of Windsor
Personal apology can be understood as self-defense—a response to an actual, implied, or anticipated accusation against one’s character. Within argumentation studies, scholars have investigated how public apologies are constructed to repair a speaker’s image and/or repair the speaker’s relationship with others through specific strategies. This paper broadens the study of apology by employing the sociolinguistic concept of stance, understood as the ways in which a speaker orients herself in relation to sociocultural values, other persons, actions, events, and, especially in the case of apology, another version of herself. In addition to explicit claims, stance can also be interpreted through subtle linguistic options such as metadiscourse, modality, representations, and evaluative moves.
This paper investigates apologetic stance through an analysis of three U.S. celebrity apologies: Tiger Woods's apology for extra-marital affairs, chef and TV personality Paula Deen's apology for using a racial epithet, and news anchor Brian Williams's apology for repeatedly telling a false story. The analysis suggests a definition of apologetic stance based upon alignments between speaker and audience with regard to the objects of stance: the transgression, the speaker's prior self, and the victim. The paper also discusses successful apology as expressing appropriate bias while unsuccessful apologies fail due to inappropriate bias.
