An Impression Management Study Of Public Apology

Apology is the speech act in daily life inevitably used to acknowledge one's fault and express one's regret for his or her improper or hazardous (non-)verbal behavior. The previous studies are not uncommon about the topic of apology, but just lingered about on the focus of theoretical dimension and then transferred to the empirical research depending on the collected data. Notwithstanding involving in broaden fields, the research perspective hardly broke away from those factors contributing to apologetic strategies such as social distance, social power, offence degree, gender or cultural variables. The present study attempts to break through the scope of the study object and methods in the past literatures. Instead, differing from the mundane apology, the public apologies are analyzed in order to discover the public figures'apologetic motivations and the manipulated tactics constructed under the given motivation. In particular, how to undermine or evade responsibilities to maintain their face or restore their long-standing public image is the focus to reflect the impression management model.The two-component impression management (IM) model proposed by Leary and Kowalski in 1990 provides a general theoretical framework for the present study. In view of analyzing the language phenomenon in the pragmatics approach, the present study deals with the language phenomenon without considering the measures of IM components and testing of relevant variables. That is to say, impression motivation studies which factors can drive the public figures to make an apology; impression construction concerns what utterance tactics can be imposed to repair or maintain the established and desired impressions. Moreover, some public figures'strategies of undermining the transgressions for their offence are reflected in the present study in detail.The present study is a qualitative research with the data coming from the genuine public apologetic discourse recorded in video, audio clips and their personal microblogs. The research result demonstrates in Chinese contexts public apologies display lots of apparent differences from the mundane apologies. Taking the impression motivation into account, public apologies involve in setting positive models for the public, evading responsibilities as much as possible, maintaining self-esteem and saving face. In consideration of impression construction, the present study proposes the detailed strategies in serving assertive tactics for genuine apology and defensive tactics for ostensible apology. As to genuine apology, public figures may apply the tactics such as direct apology, admitting responsibility, explanation, promise, providing compensation, showing care. In terms of ostensible apology, they may prefer to use the tactics such as excuses, justification, sympathy, sermon, hint and complaint. Furthermore, these ostensible apologetic tactics can be reflected through the following styles:(1) The apology verb and the discourse of responsibility; (2) Blurring the identity of the offender; (3) Blurring the nature of the offence; (4) Blurring the identity of the victim. All these are the most typical characteristics distinguishing from the ones of mundane apology.