"apology" -- stretched again

[Jonathan Lighter]

CAPT. NATHAN BRITTLES (John Wayne): Never apologize. It's a sign of
weakness.

>From _She Wore a Yellow Ribbon _ (1949).

JL

On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 12:27 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "apology" -- stretched again
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  Whether we call it "unapology", "non-apology" or "non-apology
> apology", there appears to be a new one this morning:
>
> > This morning, Kilmeade told viewers <http://bit.ly/b5I3cJ>, "On the
> > show on Friday, I was talking about Bill O'Reilly's appearance on 'The
> > View,' and I said this: 'Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all
> > terrorists are Muslims.' Well, I misspoke. I don't believe all
> > terrorists are Muslims. I'm sorry about that, if I offended or
> > offended or hurt anybody's feelings. But that's it."
>
>     VS-)
>
> On 10/13/2010 6:27 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > At 4:37 PM -0400 10/13/10, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> >> On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:27 PM, Joel S. Berson<Berson at att.net>  wrote:
> >>>   At 10/13/2010 04:03 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> >>>   >These have been called "unapologies".
> >>>
> >>>   Aha!  The NYTimes reporters and headline writers should be
> instructed.
> >> On Language Log we've used "non-apologies":
> >>
> >> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003320.html
> >>
> >> --bgz
> >>
> > My first sighting of "unapology" was in Robin Lakoff's _The Language
> > War_ (U. of California, 2000).  She defines the "un-apology" (with
> > hyphen) more specifically as "the now fashionable practice of "high
> > public officials in this and other countries to make public
> > 'apologies', almost always for behavior occurring prior to their term
> > of office, usually before they (or those to whom the apology is made)
> > were born." (pp. 29-30)  Examples include George Bush 41's apology to
> > Japanese-Americans for the internment camps, Clinton's to
> > African-Americans for the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, Japan's to
> > Korea for its use of Korean "comfort women" during WWII, the Pope's
> > expression of "regret" for the Church's inaction during the
> > Holocaust, Britain's apology to Ireland for the potato famine,
> > Australia's to the aborigines for past mistreatment, Switzerland's to
> > Jews for appropriating Jewish holdings during the Holocaust, etc.
> > etc.  Lakoff notes that "the patent insincerity, smarminess, and
> > inappropriateness of such apologies make them irresistible targets
> > for ridicule." (p. 31)
> >
> > Note that she uses "un-apology", "'apologies'" [with scare quotes],
> > and "apologies" [without scare quotes in a context that makes the
> > reference clear] to refer to the same phenomenon. I find the term
> > appropriate for more general use, as in the conditional apology
> > mentioned in my earlier post.  One nice one, foreshadowing Mr.
> > Paladino's and Jose Guillen's in the 2006 Language Log post in Ben's
> > link, occurred in December 2003 following the Detroit Lions being
> > edged out by the Kansas City Chiefs 17-45, when Matt Millen--the
> > spectularly unsuccessful president of the Lions--engaged in a heated
> > post-game exchange with receiver Johnnie Morton (an ex-Lion who at
> > the time was playing for the Chiefs) and called Morton a faggot, as
> > various reporters witnessing the exchange observed. Millen later said
> > that if he offended anyone with his remark, he apologized.  An
> > unapology if there ever was one; can't recall if he was reported to
> > have used air quotes around "offended", but it does seem clear that
> > politicians and sports personalities find it easier, or more
> > tempting, to try to get away with homophobia than with other forms of
> > prejudice, although anti-Islamic sentiments may be overtaking it.
> >
> > LH
> >
> > P.S.  Just noticed I posted almost the same (first half of this)
> > message three years ago here in response to a query from Geoff
> > Nunberg on the "non-apology apology", as in "Now [then VA Gov.
> > Douglas] Wilder has given the standard non-apology apology: 'If I
> > have offended anybody,
> > I'm sorry.'"  Oh well, nothing new under the sun.  If I've offended
> > anyone with the redundancy, I "apologize".
>
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