Abstract:
To investigate apologizing strategies in Thai and the relationship between these strategies and offense weightiness. The data on which the analysis is based are collected from 50 Thai speakers of various occupational backgrounds, using discourse completion test. It is found that there are five apologizing strategies in Thai, namely using explicit expression of apology, accepting blames, giving excuses, offering repairs, and effots to please the addressee. The strategy with highest frequency is the use of explicit expression of apology, whoreas giving excuses, especially the blaming of others, is found least. The speech act of apologizing clearly illustrates an important aspect of Thai culture. Thai people give more significance to the addressee's feeling than paying attention to the speaker's own face. Contrary to expectation, speakers use similar strategies, no matter how serious offenses are. In other words, apologizing strategies do not correlate with offense weightiness, which is a sum of distance between speaker and addressee, power (in this case, social status) of the speaker and addressee, and ranking of imposition. Distance and power are found to play a greater role on the type of strategy than ranking of imposition. It is also found that although offenses carry more weight, it does not necessarily mean that the speaker has to choose more complex strategies consisting of several strategies combined. The analysis is confirmed statistically. There are no significant differences which support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between types or complexity of strategies and offense weightiness