DIGITAL POLITENESS: AN ANALYSIS OF APOLOGY STRATEGIES IN TEXT-BASED INTERNET DISCOURSE
Keywords:
digital politeness, apology strategies, speech act theory, face theory, computer-mediated communication, netiquette.Abstract
This paper studies apology strategies in text-based internet discourse through the viewpoint of digital politeness. Applying the apology speech-act-set framework - an illocutionary force indicating device (IFID), explanation, acknowledgement of responsibility, offer of repair, and promise of forbearance - the study synthesizes recent research to show how the absence of paralinguistic cues online is compensated by emojis, orthographic variation, and platform-specific actions such as tagging and liking. Findings indicate that accceptance of responsibility, rather than the explicit IFID preferred in face-to-face research, dominates internet apologies, and that markers of power and position are being redefined within online hierarchies. The paper finds that digital politeness reflects an continuous tension between globalizing platform norms and persisting local sociocultural values.
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