Speech Acts

Title: Sarcastic apologies

Source: This happens all the time, specifically between two people who are not on good circumstances.

Relation: Shows the speech act of apologizing, but how it can be skewed to mean something extremely different, simply by utterance and tone.

Commentary: Typically, apologies are meant to be sincere. It is a way for someone to recognize that they have done something wrong, and looking for either some kind of forgiveness or understanding. If I spilled soda on someone's shirt, I would say "Oh, I'm so sorry." And hopefully they would be understanding.

But for this blog, I wanted to focus on a different aspect of the apology. The sarcastic apology. Sometimes, we actually intend to do something wrong, and we apologize almost as a way to spite that person. To show them, "Yea, I'm aware I just spilled something on you. Oops..." Its displayed by the tone. Without the right tone of voice, the apology could perhaps be mistaken for a sincere apology. Usually, the intentions are very clear, for the tone of voice almost comes naturally when somebody means to be sarcastic. For this reason, sarcasm via TEXT doesn't always work out as planned! You could say something sarcastically, and the person reads it in their head a completely different way. We have ALL done this, and sometimes its funny, sometimes its just awful.