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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 16:3 (2025) ► pp.333–356

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Saying “sorry” in online language

A pragmatic analysis of apologies posted on a Chinese online shopping website

ORCiD logo with link | University of Dayton
Published online: 21 June 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.22041.yan
Abstract
This study conducts a pragmatic analysis of 192 apologies that were made by retailers in response to customer complaints posted on a leading Chinese online shopping website. Each collected apology is coded for the components of the apology and the strategies used to build rapport. The choice of the apology components and the exhibited rapport-building strategies are interpreted in the light of wider work in the field of politeness in Chinese. Results of this study extend the pragmatic analyses of public apologies by identifying the distinctive features of apologies occurring on Chinese online shopping websites, i.e., relatively infrequent use of the statement of responsibility and the greater use of offers of repair. Although the language on Chinese online shopping websites is often considered informal, the study found that a number of linguistic components are used by the online sellers as forms of politeness to repair the relationship with the complainers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1The speech act of apology
    • 2.2Apologies made in a public context
    • 2.3Apologies in Chinese
  • 3.Data collection and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Strategies of apology
      • 4.1.1IFID
      • 4.1.2Responsibility expression
      • 4.1.3Account or explanation
      • 4.1.4Offer of repair
      • 4.1.5Promise of forbearance
      • 4.1.6Evasive strategy
    • 4.2Rapport-building strategies
      • 4.2.1Terms of address
      • 4.2.2Opening and closing moves
      • 4.2.3Interjections and exclamatory particles
      • 4.2.4Analogical and poetic language
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Zhang, Cun, Pingping Ye & Xinyue Li
2025. A corpus-based analysis of corporate apologies and public responses on Chinese social media. Journal of Pragmatics 240 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

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