An Analysis of Linguistic Strategies in Personal Public Apologies of Pakistani Media Figures

Abstract

This paper intends to analyze the image repair strategies implied by the Pakistani media figures in their personal public apologies, from the perspective of the speech act(Austin,1962). This study looks at how public personalities use creative kinds of apologetic speech to lessen their responsibility for wrongdoings. However, many linguists believe that such public apologies are not real apologies in the sense that Speech Act theory defines them, but rather serve a different social function, such as helping as a tool for restoring their image. The current work builds on the work of Olshtain & Cohen (1983) within a framework of Austin’s speech act theory, to analyze texts from the three public apologies in which each alleged speaker is a known Pakistani media figure. For a better understanding and interpretation of public apologies, Murphy's(2015) revised set of felicity conditions that can fully incorporate public apology as a performative speech act, is also employed. Despite their employment of face-saving techniques, the evidence shows that a public apology by celebrities is a performative speech act that meets, though varying in degree, the linguistic criteria or felicity conditions laid by several researchers.