Excuse me vs. (I’m) sorry as two contrasting markers of interlocutive relations

Abstract

Building on the Theory of Interlocutive Relation, we hypothesise that the semantic and pragmatic meaning of excuse me and (I’m) sorry, which are not fundamentally forms of apology, derives from the fact that they establish two different kinds of Interlocutive Relations, guiding towards possible interpretations of a disruptive event. We analyse excuse me as a ‘duophonic marker’, i.e. a form imposing disharmony between an emission and a reception profile. This can be taken as a way to request hearer cooperation for the sake of politeness, in an attempt to remedy a breach of etiquette or, rather to the contrary, as a way to exacerbate the conflicting nature of a situation in non-apologetic contexts. On the other hand, we assume that (I’m) sorry is a ‘monophonic form’ meant to restore interlocutive harmony between the two profiles. Hearer cooperation is then taken for granted and downplays conflict in apologetic and non-apologetic situations.

Keywords

• duophony
• (dis)harmony
• interlocutive relation
• monophony