Politeness as a participants’ matter: the interactive construction of apologies in Mandarin Chinese conversation

Abstract

The present study aims to expand our understanding of apologies in Mandarin Chinese by taking a conversation analytic (CA) approach to their use in naturally occurring discourse. In the context of debates about “Eastern” vs. “Western” worldviews and conceptualizations of politeness, and where Chinese politeness has arguably been transformed into a “testing ground” for Western politeness theories, CA offers an alternative path forward that is based in the demonstrated perspectives of the participants. Drawing on a collection of over 100 apology turns in natural interaction, we exemplify CA’s data-driven approach, first by describing our process of building a collection of apology actions from naturally occurring Chinese conversational corpora, and then through detailed examination of empirical examples. We bring together a range of sorts of evidence in support of a ‘principle of proportionality’ with regard to the construction of apology actions. The paper overall seeks to present a sort of methodological ‘primer’, exemplifying the use of CA methods to explore politeness-related phenomena in Chinese, with apology actions (and the sequences they engender) offering a concrete case-in-point for methodological reflection and illustration.