A Lexicogrammar Approach to Analyze Response Strategies to Apology in English Conversations

Abstract

The acts of apologizing and responding to apology are common activities in communication since using only either of these two crucial speech acts cannot itself establish fully effective communication. This article aims to examine response strategies to apology that are used in English romance and family films and find out the lexico-grammatical realizations of response utterances in English conversations. This article was qualitatively designed with the support of the researchers’ observation of the films' scripts extracted from English films, subsequently the researchers’ description of the data collection into separate categories. The results of this study revealed that English film characters were more likely to accept than reject apologies. Direct positive comments were favoured by the English, with indirect positive responses coming in second.