Authors:
Nuria Haristiani
and
Ari Arifin Danuwijaya
Affiliation:
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia
Keyword(s):
Cross-cultural, Sociopragmatic, Apology, Speech Act.
Abstract:
In everyday life, when a person has performed an action of utterance which has offended another person, and for which he can be held responsible, the person needs to apologize. However, in the cross-cultural context, different rules and customs may apply according to its language and cultural background. This study examined the differences and similarities of apology speech acts and strategies used in different cross-cultural contexts, i.e., in Indonesian, Sundanese, and Japanese. The data on this research were collected using Discourse Completion Test (DCT), which investigated four apology situations focused on the relations with the interlocutors. The subjects of this study were 60 Japanese native speakers, 60 Indonesian native speakers, and 54 Sundanese native speakers. The collected data were then classified using Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Pattern (CCSARP) coding scheme. The study findings revealed that Indonesian, Sundanese, and Japanese native speakers used four sim
ilar strategies overall, but used different main strategies depending on the relation with the interlocutor. Moreover, Indonesian and Japanese native speakers tend to express apology in the highest frequency, whereas Sundanese native speakers tend to express their responsibility in the highest frequency. Furthermore, the difference of apology speech act also showed in utterance level which indicates the characteristics of each language. This study is expected to give a reference in speech act study, and help understanding apology in cross-cultural context.
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