A Pragmatic Study of Apology Strategies in Akan (Twi)

Job    Anane

doi:10.48165/sajssh.2022.3604

Authors

Job Anane Department Of Languages, Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya College of Education, Wa, Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.48165/sajssh.2022.3604

Keywords:

Apology, Strategy, Non-occurrence, Justification, Blaming others

Abstract

As human interact with each other there is propensity of stepping on the toes of one another, when this happens it is incumbent on the parties involved to try as much as possible to sort out their differences. One of the most effective ways of breaking this barrier is apologizing. The person apologizing creates the impression that he is remorseful for the harm caused. The purpose of the study is to examine the realization of apology speech act, which inclines to be more situation-dependent and less frequently occurring than other speech acts. It also examines how the patterns of apology strategies are varied in relation to contextual factors (social status, social distance, and severity of offence) as used by the Akan (Twi) speakers. Discourse completion Task (DCT) in a form of interview and role play was chosen for the current study. The researcher created scenes for the DCT that required apologies based on situations occurring in real life. The researcher explained the DCT thoroughly to the participants and told them to put themselves in the situation and render an apology. The findings revealed that some Akan (Twi) speakers acknowledge responsibility, some tried to justify their actions whilst others shift the blame on others. It was revealed that some people also combine different strategies when apologizing.

References

Austin, J. L. (1975). How to do things with words (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Awedyk, W. (2011). On Apologizing in Norwegian. Folia Scandinavica Posnaniensia 13, 50- 62

Banikalef, A., Maros, M., & Aladdin, A., & Al-natour, M. (2015). Apology Strategies in Jordanian Arabic. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies. 15 (2), 83-99.

Bergman, M. and Kasper, G. (1993) Perception and Performance in Native and Non-Native Apology. In: Gabrielle, K. and Shohona, B., Eds., Interlanguage Pragmatics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 82-117.

Demeter, G. (2006). A Pragmatic Study of Apology Strategies in Romanian. M.A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University.

Dolphyne, F. A. (2006). The Akan (Twi-Fante) language: Its sound systems and tonal structure. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.

Dolphyne, F., & M. Kropp Dakubu. (1988). The Volta-Comoe Languages. In M. Kropp Dakubu (Ed), The languages of Ghana. London: KPI.

Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hershey H Friedman (2006) The Power of Remorse and Apology, Journal of College and Character, 7(1), DOI: 10.2202/1940-1639.1510

Fraser, B. (1981). On apologizing. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), Conversational routine: explorations in standardized communication situations and prepatterned speech (pp. 259-271). New York: Mouton.

Fraser, B. (1990). Perspectives on politeness. Journal of Pragmatics, 14(2), 219-236.

Kasper, G., & Dahl, M. (1991). Research methods in interlanguage pragmatics (Report - Descriptive). Manoa: Hawaii University, Second Language Teaching and Curriculum Center.

Murphy, J. (2015). Revisiting the apology as a speech Act: The case of parliamentary apologies. Journal of Language and Politics, 14 (2), 175-204.

Obeng, G. S. (1999). Apologies in Akan discourse. Journal of Pragmatics, 3(1) 709—734. Trosborg, A. (1995). Interlanguage pragmatics: Requests, complaints and apologies. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Trosborg, A. (1987). Apology strategies in natives/non-natives. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 147-167.

Ugla, R.L & Mohamad, J., Z., A. (2016). A Study of Apology Strategies Used by Iraqi EFL University Students. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education (IJERE) 5, (1), 32 ~ 38.