In:Local Grammar Approaches to Speech Act Studies: Apology in contemporary spoken British English
Hang Su
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 123] 2025
► pp. xiii–xviii
List of tables
Table 2.1Local grammar analyses of evaluation (adapted from Hunston & Su, 2019)19
Table 2.2Local grammar analyses of apology (adapted from Su & Lu, 2023)19
Table 2.3The general grammar analysis20
Table 2.4The alternative local grammar analyses21
Table 2.5Bednarek’s (2008) local grammar analyses of Affect: Verb patterns23
Table 2.6Mental process analysis (Hunston & Francis, 2000, p. 128)34
Table 2.7Material process analysis (Hunston & Francis, 2000, p. 128)34
Table 2.8The alternative local grammar analyses35
Table 2.9Transitivity analysis35
Table 2.10Local grammar analysis35
Table 2.11Transitivity analysis of intensive: Attributive clause37
Table 2.12Local grammar analysis of intensive: Attributive clause37
Table 3.1Local grammar annotation of request-information57
Table 3.2Functional labels for annotating apology (adapted from Su & Wei, 2018)61
Table 3.3Local grammar annotation of apology62
Table 3.4Functional labels for annotating request (adapted from Su, 2017)63
Table 3.5Local grammar annotation of request63
Table 3.6Annotating syntactic fragments realising apology and request64
Table 3.7Annotating indirect request (adapted from Su, 2017)67
Table 4.1Quantitative information of apology markers in contemporary spoken British English76
Table 4.2Apology realised as ‘Apologising’78
Table 4.3Apology realised as ‘Forgiveness-seeking’78
Table 4.4Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Apologising’79
Table 4.5Apology realised as ‘Apologising — Specification’79
Table 4.6Apology realised as ‘Forgiveness-seeking — Specification’79
Table 4.7Apology realised as ‘Apologising — Apologisee’79
Table 4.8Apology realised as ‘Forgiveness-seeking — Apologisee’79
Table 4.9Apology realised as ‘Intensifier — Forgiveness-seeking (– Intensifier)’80
Table 4.10Apology realised as ‘Intensifier — Apologising’80
Table 4.11Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising’80
Table 4.12Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Forgiveness-seeking’80
Table 4.13Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Apologising — Specification’81
Table 4.14Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Apologising — Apologisee’81
Table 4.15Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Intensifier — Apologising’81
Table 4.16Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Specification — Apologisee’81
Table 4.17Apology realised as ‘Apologisee — Apologising — Specification’81
Table 4.18Apology realised as ‘Intensifier — Apologiser — Specification’81
Table 4.19Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising — Apologisee’82
Table 4.20Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising — Specification’82
Table 4.21Apology realised as ‘Specification — Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising’82
Table 4.22Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Intensifier — Apologising’82
Table 4.23Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Intensifier — Apologising — Specification’83
Table 4.24Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Intensifier — Apologising — Apologisee’83
Table 4.25Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Intensifier — Hinge — Forgiveness-seeking’83
Table 4.26Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Intensifier — Apologising — Specification’83
Table 4.27Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Intensifier — Apologising — Apologisee’83
Table 4.28An overview of the local grammar of apology in contemporary spoken British English84
Table 4.29Exemplificatory markers and their frequency in DiSCUSS (Su & Fu, 2023,
p. 47)88
Table 4.30Terminologies for local grammar analyses of exemplification (Su & Fu, 2023,
p. 48)89
Table 4.31An overview of the local grammar of exemplification in the DiSCUSS corpus (adapted from Su
& Fu, 2023)90
Table 4.32Terminologies for local grammar analyses of apology in Italian (Yu etal., 2024a,
p. 6)93
Table 4.33An overview of the local grammar of apology in the KIPTO corpus (Yu et al., 2024a,
p. 12)93
Table 5.1Apology realised as ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising — Specification’104
Table 5.2Thanking realised as ‘Beneficiary — Hinge — Thanking — Specifier’104
Table 5.3Base constructions of ‘request’ in English (Pérez-Hernández, 2021, p. 113)109
Table 5.4Apology markers and their frequency in the Spoken BNC2014114
Table 5.5Local grammar patterns of apology in the Spoken BNC2014114
Table 5.6The ‘Apologising’ construction117
Table 5.7The ‘Forgiveness-seeking’ construction118
Table 5.8The ‘Apologiser-apologising’ construction118
Table 5.9The ‘Specifying-the-offense’ construction119
Table 5.10The ‘Specifying-the-addressee’ construction119
Table 6.1Local grammar annotation of apology136
Table 6.2Local grammar analyses of apology realised by apologize/se and regret137
Table 6.3Local grammar analyses of apology realised by excuse, pardon, and forgive137
Table 6.4Local grammar analyses of apologies realised by sorry138
Table 6.5Local grammar analyses of thanking realised by thanks (adapted from Su,
2018)139
Table 6.6Frequency of each item in the Spoken BNC1994 and Spoken BNC2014142
Table 6.7Examples of local grammar analyses of apology143
Table 6.8An overview of the apology patterns identified in the Spoken BNC1994 and Spoken BNC2014144
Table 6.9Statistical analyses of the apology patterns across the Spoken BNC1994 and Spoken BNC2014146
Table 7.1Meta-information of the four sub-corpora157
Table 7.2Meta-information of each item in each sub-corpus158
Table 7.3Utterances realising the pattern ‘Apology’159
Table 7.4Utterances realising the pattern ‘Forgiveness-seeking’159
Table 7.5Utterances realising the pattern ‘Apologiser — Apology — Specification’159
Table 7.6Utterances realising the pattern ‘Apologiser — Hinge — Apologising — Specification’159
Table 7.7Utterances realising the pattern ‘Apologiser — Intensifier — Apology — Specification’160
Table 7.8An overview of the local grammar patterns of apology identified in the four corpora160
Table 7.9Distribution of apology patterns across sexes and corpora162
Table 7.10Statistical analyses of the apology patterns across sexes and corpora163
Table 7.11Meta-information of the four corpora (Su & Lu, 2023, p. 388)170
Table 7.12Apology markers across the four corpora (Su & Lu, 2023, p. 389)170
Table 7.13Comparisons of apology markers across the four corpora (Su & Lu, 2023,
p. 389)170
Table 7.14An overview of the local grammar patterns of apology identified in the four corpora (Su
& Lu, 2023, p. 391)172
Table 7.15Distribution of local grammar patterns of apology across the four corpora (Su & Lu,
2023, p. 392)174
Table 7.16Comparisons of local grammar patterns of apology across the four corpora (Su & Lu,
2023, p. 393)174
