Apologizing, refusing, and thanking in Hungarian and Japanese: Different languages and different strategies

Abstract

Every language has a certain set of strategies for performing a given speech act, such as apologizing, refusing requests, or thanking invitations. The expressions used for performing a certain speech act may differ from language to language, since they are determined by the structure of social or cultural situations. This paper shows how the speech acts of apology, refusal and thanking are realized in Japanese and Hungarian. Although the speakers of both languages share similar strategies, there are also differences depending on the social and cultural structure. This means that for foreign language learners it is significant and necessary to be acquainted with the interactive and sociocultural rules underlying language usage in the target society and culture.