"apology" -- stretched again

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Oct 13 20:03:29 UTC 2010


At 2:53 PM -0400 10/13/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Guest pundit Keli Goff said on CNN Sunday that "absolutely, his apology was
>ridiculous. I'm so sick and tired of these, 'I'm sorry your feelings got
>hurt' apologies, which we keep hearing over and over again when someone says
>something blatantly offensive or stupid."
>http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1010/10/rs.01.html
>

And then there's the conditional version:  "If I have offended anyone
(hurt anyone's feelings, etc.), I am sorry". (With an implied "but
then again it's your own fault for being so hypersensitive".)  These
have been called "unapologies".

LH

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