Sorry Miss, I Completely Forgot about It

The study of the pragmatics of Irish English is a recent endeavour. Since its beginnings, a substantial amount of scholarship has been conducted in a cross-varietal design with the aim of highlighting shared and specific features of Irish English vis-à-vis other varieties of English. A particular focus of such variational pragmatic research has been on speech act realisations. Cross-varietal studies on apologies in Irish English remain, however, limited. The present chapter addresses this research gap in the study of apologies in Irish English. It takes a variational pragmatic approach to the study of remedial apologies, contrasting apologies in Irish English and in English English empirically using comparable data . Specifically, production questionnaire data is investigated and norms of appropriate verbal apologetic behaviour contrasted. The analysis centres on the apology strategies and modification employed across varieties and on their linguistic realisations, and a particular focus is placed on the cross-varietal use of alerters and vocatives in apologising. Findings point to the universality of apology strategies, while also revealing variety-preferential pragmatic differences. Specifically, the Irish English data reveals a higher use of vocatives, many playing a relational function in the data, and thus suggesting higher levels of relational orientation in the Irish English data relative to the English English data. In addition, a higher use of upgrading strategies and explanations, many communicating an active speaker role, is recorded in the Irish English data pointing to a comparatively higher redress of speakers’ loss of positive face.