Abstract:

The apology can be seen everywhere in our daily life, and it is one of the politeness strategies which are frequently used in daily communication. We might usually apologize to others in different ways or accept their apologies because of different reasons. Actually, apology is a kind of speech act, but we can not simply think it is equal to these ordinary speech acts, such as “sorry” or “it does not matter”. When the speaker offends his hearer unintentionally or intentionally, the speaker can use apologizing acts to recover their good relationships. Utilizing the apology properly will eliminate contradictions in the interpersonal communication, maintain the interpersonal relations and promote social harmony. The paper elaborates on the definitions of apology, the types of apology, the apologizing strategies and its constraints, and then compares the selection of apologizing strategies between Chinese and English. No matter in English or Chinese, affected by many factors, the way of apologizing and the choice of apologizing strategies are various. However, the application of apology is closely linked with social pragmatic factors. Owing to the different Chinese and western cultures and value orientations, some differences have been found in apology as well as the choice of apologizing strategies.

Keywords: Apology; Apologizing strategies; Social factors; Value orientation

摘  要：

道歉在日常生活中随处可见，是日常交际中使用较多的一种礼貌策略，我们通常用不同的形式给别人道歉或者接受别人的道歉。道歉实际上是一种言语行为，但不能简单的将之理解为“对不起”“没关系”等一般的言语行为。当说话者无意或有意地冒犯了听话者的时候，说话者可以利用道歉行为来恢复他们之间的良好关系。恰当地使用道歉能消除人际交往中的矛盾，维持良好的人际关系，促进社会和谐。本文对道歉的定义、种类、道歉策略及其制约因素进行研究分析，对英汉语中道歉策略的选择进行比较。受多种因素影响，无论在英语还是汉语中，道歉的方式和道歉策略的种类都是多种多样的。然而，道歉的实施方式与社会语用因素是紧密相联的。由于中西方文化以及价值取向的不同，双方在道歉语以及道歉策略上的选择也存在着差异。

关键词：道歉；道歉策略；社会因素；价值取向

1 Introduction
There is no doubt that apology, as a kind of speech act in the daily communication, is widely used in our daily life. We may usually apologize to others in different ways or accept others’ apologies for different reasons. We can also say the apology is a necessary part of our lives.
The unhappiness and conflict are unavoidable during our communication. The apology usually happens when the speaker intentionally or accidentally offends his hearer, for the purpose of restoring the previous harmonious relation. When a person says some offensive words or does something wrong, he can use apology to make up for his mistakes and eliminate the contradictions. Only in this way can he restore the good interpersonal relations and promote the social harmony. Referring to apology, we have to talk about the apologizing strategies. Different ways of apologizing give you different effects. Whether in English or Chinese, choosing the appropriate way of apologizing is extremely important.