"So sori my ladies, malo sam se raspisala": A contrastive analysis of pragmatic functions of "sorry" in English and Croatian

master's thesis

• Author: Romina Damijanić
• Mentor: Marina Grubišić (mentor)
• Committee member: Ivana Bašić (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Janja Čulig (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2023-09-20, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

This paper will provide some insight into the use of the word "sorry" in English and Croatian online communication. The paper aims to demonstrate that the use of "sorry" is not limited to apologies, as well as to discuss different patterns of its use in English and Croatian. After introducing the topic, defining the theoretical framework and presenting the research methodology, the syntactic structure of "sorry" will be analyzed in both languages, and instances of the lexeme "sorry" in English and Croatian, as well as the orthographically adapted "sori", will be analyzed and contrasted. Looking into examples in English and Croatian, "sorry" will be primarily analyzed as an apology speech act, a discourse marker, and as a sarcastic or non-apology, and the frequency of each of these uses, combined with syntactic implications and interesting examples, will be used to identify patterns that may be worth exploring in the future. The main findings of the paper include: English speakers use "sorry" primarily to express sympathy or regret in online communication, whereas Croatian speakers use "sorry" to compensate for minor offences, most often accompanying this apologetic expression with an explanation for their actions; the pragmatic meaning of sorry in Croatian is more limited than that in English, but no conclusive evidence of similarities and differences could be established in the scope of this paper; orthographic adaptation of the pragmatic borrowing "sorry" has no significant influence over the range and frequency of its pragmatic functions in Croatian. The patterns in the use of sorry in both languages described in this paper are considered to be valuable insights which invite further research on a larger scale and different corpus.

Abstract (croatian)

Ovaj rad pruža uvid u upotrebu riječi "sorry" u engleskom i hrvatskom jeziku u kontekstu online komunikacije. Cilj rada je dokazati da upotreba “sorry” u oba jezika nije ograničena na govorni čin isprike, kao i ukazati na različite obrasce njegove uporabe u engleskom i hrvatskom jeziku. Nakon uvoda, definiranja teorijskog okvira i opisa metodologije istraživanja, analizirana je sintaktička struktura riječi "sorry", primjeri njezine upotrebe u engleskom i hrvatskom jeziku, kao i primjeri upotrebe ortografski prilagođene inačice "sori" u hrvatskom jeziku. U oba jezika, "sorry" je primarno analiziran kao govorni čin isprike, diskursna oznaka te sarkastična isprika. Učestalost ovih različitih upotreba, zajedno sa sintaktičkim implikacijama i zanimljivim primjerima, pružaju osnovu za prepoznavanje obrazaca u korištenju koji bi potencijalno zahtijevali daljnje istraživanje. Na temelju triju postavljenih istraživačkih pitanja i hipoteza, glavni zaključci ovog rada su sljedeći: govornici engleskog jezika u online komunikaciji koriste "sorry" uglavnom za izražavanje suosjećanja ili žaljenja, dok hrvatski govornici koriste "sorry" uglavnom kako bi kompenzirali manje prijestupe, često uz pružanje objašnjenja za svoje postupke; pragmatično značenje riječi "sorry" u hrvatskom jeziku je ograničenije nego u engleskom jeziku, iako uvjerljivi dokazi o sličnostima i razlikama koje utječu na pragmatičko značenje nisu mogli biti pronađeni u okviru ovog istraživanja; ortografska prilagodba riječi "sorry" nema značajan utjecaj na raspon ili učestalost njezinih pragmatičkih funkcija u hrvatskom jeziku. Otkriveni obrasci u upotrebi riječi "sorry" u oba jezika otvaraju vrata za daljnja istraživanja na većem opsegu i drugačijem korpusu.

• Keywords: pragmatics; politeness; speech acts; apologies; online communication
• Keywords (croatian): pragmatika; uljudnost; govorni činovi; isprike; online komunikacija
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:178854
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2023-09-28 16:13:23