Six American films and one TV series are chosen to observe their strategies for making an apology: "The Devil Wears Prada", "Perfect Picture", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Wild Hogs", "Shallow Hal", "Jerry Maguire" and "Friends". In these films and the TV series, this book selects excerpts of conversations which clearly show how American English-speakers use the five strategies (the expression of an apology, the acknowledgement of responsibility, the explanation or account, the offer of repair, and the promise of non-recurrence) to produce a speech act of apology.
According to the analysis in part 5 of this book, American English-speakers are ready to apologize, whenever or whoever they offense and whether it is intentional or not. They use the five possible strategies (above) to make the speech act of apology. They apologize for different reasons: to be polite, to respect others, to take the responsibility, to give an explanation for the behavior or situation, to assuage the addressee’s wrath, to be honest to themselves and to others, to maintain the relationship, or to show their sincerity and their love. Some apologies are based on circumstances beyond the control of the person who is required to make the apology and some are directly stated because it is the most convenient way to keep the peace. The speech act of apology often occurs following an offensive act, but sometimes people apologize for the offensive act which is going to occur. Although apology is a speech act which may involve loss of face, according to my study of the six American movies and three episodes of one TV series, it appears to happen very often in daily conversations. In order to apologize effectively, people tend to use different strategies in different situations, such as refusing an invitation, reducing any bad effect to others, trying to be fair to the offended party, expressing their regret, maintaining a good reputation, getting the offended party’s trust and support, expressing their love and so on.
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