THE PRAGMATICS OF APOLOGY IN SELECTED PLAYS OF WOLE SOYINKA AND OLA ROTIMI

Abstract

Apology, a face-supporting act that maintains harmony between interactants in discourses, also occurs in drama texts, including those of Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi. Extant linguistic studies on apology largely focused on the functions and strategies for realising apologies in different languages and cultures, with scant attention paid to the use of apologies in drama texts. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate the deployment of apology in selected plays of Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi, with a view to determining their types, contexts and pragmatic acts. John Gumperz’s Theory of Interactional Sociolinguistics, complemented by M. A. K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and Jacob Mey’s Pragmatic Acts Theory, was adopted as the framework. The descriptive design was used. Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi were purposively selected because of their literary versatility and prominent deployment of apology in their plays. Four texts (two from each playwright) were purposively selected because of their thematic relevance. The ones from Wole Soyinka were Alapata Apata (AA) and Kongi’s Harvest (KH), while those from Ola Rotimi were The Gods Are Not to Blame (TG) and Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again (OH). The data were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Four types of apology were identified: review apology, constraint apology, offence- reducing apology and routine apology. These apology types captured the rationale for apology performance in the texts. Review and constraint apology types are motivated by self-realisation of mistakes committed and prevention of imminent problems. Offence-reducing apology downplays the seriousness of an offence committed, while routine apology reveals the role of power in apology performance. Four context types were found: cultural, political, elitist and cognitive. Cultural context captures apologies that are employed when cultural issues are discussed, and it is found in all the apology types (OH, TG and AA and KH). Political context embraces the discourse of politics- related issues and features in routine and offence-reducing apology types (OH). Elitist context captures apology performance influenced by educational and intellectual superiority, and it manifests in offence-reducing apology (OH). Cognitive context projects apologies influenced by mental realisation of offence committed; this manifests in review apology (TG, AA and OH). Four categories of practs characterise the apologies, namely wrong-admitting, relationship-mending, favour-seeking and wrong-ascribing. The practs indicate the implications of the apologies for enhancing individual self-assessment and ensuring social cohesion. Wrong-admitting practs indicate admittance of offence; they manifest the allopracts of pleading, regretting, soothing, disdaining and repairing (AA, TG, KH and OH). The relationship-mending practs capture relationship-restoring capacity of apologies; they display the allopracts of pleading, regretting, soothing, disdaining and repairing (AA, OH, TG and KH). Favour-seeking practs have pleading allopracts (AA and TG). Wrong-ascribing practs demonstrate opposing and ignoring allopracts (OH). The apology types in the selected plays of Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi and practs in different contexts reflect the harmony-restoration orientation of apologies.