English Language Teaching Educational Journal (ELTEJ) Vol. 1, No. 1, August 2018, pp. 1-12 E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Apology Strategies in Harry Potter Movie Series 1 Intan Khoirun Nisa, 2 Adi Sutrisno Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia 1 intan.khoirun.n@mail.ugm.ac.id Abstract Apology is an inevitable part of human communication as an act of face-saving strategy. It is necessarily uttered if an offence is made. This research is an attempt to reveal the apology strategies used as well as to analyse the influence of social distance and relative power to the realization of apology strategies, as seen in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2. In total, there are 125 data found and those are classified according the apology strategy employed. The result shows that the majority of the speakers employ indirect apology strategy „Explanation or Account of Cause‟ to apologize. Furthermore, this research also found that social distance and relative power are taken into account during the apology process and they affect the linguistic realization of apology strategies in the movies. Keywords: apology strategies, social distance, relative power, harry potter. How to Cite: Nisa, I. K., Sutrisno, A. (2018). Apology Strategies in Harry Potter Movie Series. English Language Teaching Educational Journal, 1(1), 1-12. INTRODUCTION Uttering an apology is often inevitable. People may be in a situation where they need to apologize due to some offences they have committed to the one spoken to. Apology is, hence, considered an important part of human communication, owing to its role as a face-saving strategy. To apologize, people are entitled to choose their ways of apologizing which is commonly called apology strategies. As it has various types of strategies, apology might appear in different linguistic realization for different situation. The situation influencing the speaker‟s choice of apology strategy is called social variables. Social variables which influence the realization of apology strategies include social distance and relative power. Distance is determined as the familiarity between the speaker and the hearer, while power is defined as the gap of authority between them, seen from the hearer‟s point of view. These variables, which distinctively surround each situation, influence the linguistic realization of apology strategy. For instance, a person would choose different method of apologizing to someone whom he is familiar with compared to apologizing to someone whom he is unfamiliar with. Besides, he would also use different apology strategy if he apologizes to his employer or to his colleague. mailto:intan.khoirun.n@mail.ugm.ac.id 2  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 The more varied the social variables found, the more varied the realization of apology strategies there are. Therefore, Harry Potter Movie Series are chosen because it has various characters involved, which do not comprise only the students and the teacher, but also the minister, the enemy of the main character, and even the creatures in magic world such as goblin and centaurs. However, the investigated Harry Potter Movie Series are only referred to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2. This is because in those parts, the majority of the characters have entered their adolescent period, which is assumed that they would have better linguistic realization compared to the moment they were still in their childhood. Theoretical Framework This research adopted a theory proposed by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984), who divide apology strategies into direct and indirect apology strategies. Direct apology strategy is defined as the explicit utterance of apology, which consists of Explicit Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) strategy. Meanwhile, the remaining strategies are classified as indirect apology strategies. Those are Explanation or Account of Cause, Taking of Responsibility, Offer of Repair, and Promise of Forbearance. Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) convey that the linguistic realization of the act of apologizing can take one of two basic forms, or a combination of both. This means the apology strategy expressed by a speaker can be compiled by ranges of apology strategies (Blum-Kulka and Olshtain, 1984). According to them, there are some factors which may influence the reason why the speaker finally decides to apologize by means of bringing back the hearer‟s face even though it risks the speaker‟s face. Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) reveal that social variables including distance and power contribute to the intensification of the apology. Briefly, social distance represents the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the hearer. Meanwhile relative power represents the level of social gap between the speaker and the hearer. METHODS The primary data of this research covered the apology utterances taken from the movies. Utterance is defined as any stretch of talk, by one person, before and after in which there is silence on the part of that person (Hurford, Heasley, and Smith, 2007). It refers to the use by a particular speaker, on a particular occasion, of a piece of language, including a sequence of sentences, a single phrase, or even a single word (Hurford, Heasley, and Smith, 2007). This is what differs utterance to sentence. Utterances include a word, a phrase, a clause, or a sentence, while sentences focus on its grammatical completion consisting of a string of words expressing a complete thought (Hurford, Heasley, and Smith, 2007). Hence, apology utterance, as the data in this research, is determined as any utterance containing the strategies of apology. It may consist of only a word, a phrase, a clause, or also a sentence. The data 3 ELTEJ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Nisa, Sutrisno were taken from Harry Potter Movie Series, namely Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2. Those parts were selected because in those movies, the majority of the characters have entered their adolescent age, which is assumed that they have better linguistic realization to apologize. Besides, the movies have covered more than half of the series which means it is quite representative for a research on Harry Potter. Therefore, only those parts amongst all series of Harry Potter were chosen. There were several steps conducted in collecting the data: 1. Downloaded the English subtitles of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 from yifysubtitles.com. 2. Watched all the movies which were obtained from the original VCDs distributed in Indonesia by PT. Vision Interprima Pictures. 3. Noted down every utterance containing an apology strategy and described the situational context as a method to understand the cause the speaker uttered the apology. 4. Examined and rechecked the rough data to see whether it suited the felicity condition for apology proposed by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) or Murphy (2015). 5. Omitted some data which did not suit at least one of the preconditions. 6. Grouped the final data according to the movies to make it easier to find. Meanwhile, in analysing the data, some step also had been conducted; those are: 1. Classified the data according the apology strategies proposed by Blum- Kulka and Olshtain (1984) 2. Examined the social distance and relative power influencing each apology utterances in the data. 3. Counted the result to find out the most frequently used apology strategy. 4. Recapitulated the data in table. 5. Analysed the table descriptively by also providing the example for each strategy to see how apology strategies were applied in the movies as well as how the social distance and relative power influenced the linguistic realization of apology strategies in the movies. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION According to the research data, there are 5 types of apology strategies found in the movies. Those are Explicit Illocutionary Force Indicating Device, Explanation or Account of Cause, Taking of Responsibility, Offer of Repair, and Combination strategy. Mostly, the speaker prefers to employ indirect apology strategy which reaches up to 69.6%, while direct apology strategy is only used in 30.4% of the total data. To be exact, the most frequently used indirect strategy is Explanation or Account of Cause by attaining 44% data in the movies. Furthermore, the social distance and relative power also influence 4  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 the linguistic realization of apology strategies in the movies. Below are some examples of the data in each strategy obtained from the movies. Explicit Illocutionary Force Indicating Device (IFID) This strategy is signalled by the existence of a performative verbs in IFID such as “I‟m sorry.”, “Pardon me.”, “Forgive me.”, “Excuse me”, “I beg your pardon.”, and “I apologize”. Presented below is an example of this strategy found in the movies. (1) HP.7.1. EoA + IFID + EoA. D- P= 00:24:30,460  00:24:59,956 Context: In this scene, Harry invites Ron to go together with him and leave the Burrows but Ron refuses. He tells Harry that his plan is insane because they still have many things to consider such as the Trace that still lies within Harry, as well as her brother’s wedding. Ron also does not want to leave Hermione. Hearing Ron’s refusal, Harry utters that he apparently does not care about the wedding Ron mentioned because the more he postpones to find those Horcruxes the stronger Voldemort gets. Harry Potter : Come with me. Ron Weasley : What, and leave Hermione? You mad? We wouldn't last two days without her. Don't tell her I said that. Besides, you've still got the Trace on you. We've still got the wedding... Harry Potter : I don't care about a wedding. I'm sorry. No matter whose it is. I have to start finding these Horcruxes. They're our only chance to beat him... and the longer we stay here, the stronger he gets. Number (1) is an example of IFID strategy using three strategy combinations namely EoA + IFID + EoA below the influence of D- P=. In this situation, the offence is committed by Harry for insisting to leave The Burrow. For his apology, he employs three strategy combinations, EoA + IFID + EoA. The first explanation is when he says “I don't care about a wedding”. Harry explains that he insists to leave because Ron brother‟s wedding is apparently not quite necessary for him. His apology is followed by a direct apology “I‟m sorry. No matter whose it is”. He seems to realize that he has offended Ron by saying that he does not care about the wedding, therefore, he spontaneously says “I‟m sorry”. Following this strategy, Harry creates another explanation “I have to start finding these Horcruxes. They're our only chance to beat him... and the longer we stay here, the stronger he gets.”. This explanation is aimed to make Ron understand that if he stays longer in The Burrow, even for the 5 ELTEJ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Nisa, Sutrisno wedding, it would postpone his searching for Horcruxes, which can make Voldemort stronger. In example (1), D- is seen through Harry and Ron‟s close relationship, because they have become friends even at Harry‟s first arrival in the magic world. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is no distance between them. While P= is caused by their similar status as student at the same level, which makes them has no more or less power towards each other. However, even though the social variable of this situation is D- P=, Harry as the speaker in example (11) employs longer strategy, unlike other data which typically use shorter strategy. One of the reasons is because Harry‟s offence in this situation is quite serious. Actually, the cause of the offence in all of the provided examples is quite similar, which is the speaker is leaving the hearer. However, in example (1), Harry is not just about to leave the hearer, but also other occupants of The Burrow. Besides, Harry‟s abandonment in this situation is not temporary, he is planning to leave permanently, and there is no indication to return. Therefore, even though Harry and Ron have close distance and equal power, Harry uses longer strategies with longer explanation as well. Explanation or Account of Cause (EoA) This strategy contains the reason of the offence committed by the speaker, without providing additional strategies. Analysed below is an example of how it is used in the movies. (2) HP.5. EoA. D- P- 01:40:51,586  01:41:12,472 Context: Umbridge finds Harry sneaking into her room to use the floo network. She insists him to tell where he wants to go but Harry does not want to tell her anything. Umbridge thinks that Harry’s escape trial becomes Ministry security’s issue and since Harry does not want to tell anything, Umbridge plans to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse to Harry so that he will open his mouth. Cruciatus Curse causes the victim to feel pain and physically tortured. Dolores Umbridge : Very well. You give me no choice, Potter. As this is an issue of Ministry security... you leave me with... no alternative. The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue. Harry Potter : (staring at Umbridge) Hermione Granger : That‟s illegal. Dolores Umbridge : What Cornelius doesn‟t know won‟t hurt him. 6  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Number (2) is an example of EoA strategy influenced by D- P- variable. In this situation, Umbridge‟s cruel intention for using Cruciatus Curse becomes the offence of example (2). As seen in above dialogue, for this offence, Umbridge explains that Cruciatus Curse is needed to be done because Harry‟s reason for room breaking is suspected to be related to the Ministry security. Through this utterance, Umbridge has indirectly uttered an apology using EoA strategy. Influenced by D- P- variable, D- is shown by Harry and Umbridge‟s familiarity towards each other because Umbridge has become Harry‟s teacher in throughout this year and P- is caused by Harry‟s lower authority as student. Due to these social variables, Umbridge uses an idiom „loosen your tongue‟, which means „to speak‟, to Harry. This idiom would be less used to hearer with higher authority because the chosen diction is quite brave. However, despite the social variables, Umbridge creates a longer explanation. The possible cause is that she is about to make a serious violation, which is breaking the law. Besides, by using Cruciatus Curse means she is going to torture Harry physically. Taking of Responsibility (ToR) This strategy is used when the speaker takes the blame for the offence he has committed to the hearer. See example (3) to find out how this strategy is applied. (3) HP.5. ToR. D- P= 00:13:30,783  00:13:37,181 Context: In this scene, Harry is disappointed because during the holiday Harry did not receive any letters from his best friends and that makes him know nothing regarding to what happened in the magic world. Harry is rather pissed and Ron explains that he and Hermione actually wanted to write but Dumbledore did not allow them to. Harry Potter : Couldn't have put any of this in a letter, I suppose? I've gone all summer without a scrap of news. Ron Weasley : We wanted to write, mate. Really, we did. Only... Harry Potter : Only what? Hermione Granger : Only Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you anything. Number (3) is an example of ToR strategy influenced by D- P= social variables. As explained in theoretical framework, there are three sub-categories of ToR strategy. One of them is denial of fault. Number (3) is an example of this sub category. In this situation, the offence is committed by Ron and Hermione for not writing any letters to Harry during holiday. Realizing his fault, he says “We wanted to write, mate. Really, we did.” As seen in this 7 ELTEJ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Nisa, Sutrisno utterance, actually Ron admits that he is mistaken for not writing letters to Harry, but he refuses to be accused that it is because he did not want to write it. In fact, he is forbidden by Dumbledore. Example (3) is influenced by D- P= social variable. The negative distance (D-) is caused by Harry‟s close friendship with Ron Weasley, and the equal power (P=) is caused by their similar status as students in Hogwarts. Due to these variables, Ron‟s choice of language in his denial remains casual. He uses a call name such as “mate” which indicates his familiarity and closeness to Harry. Ron also adds “Really, we did.” in his apology as a method to minimize his offence and to show his sincerity. Even though they have equal power, this intensification is added because Ron‟s offence is quite serious because it has triggered Harry‟s anger. Offer of Repair (OoR) This strategy is employed in order to offer the compensation to the hearer for the violation the speaker has committed. Discussed in example (4) below is how OoR is used in the movies. (4) HP.5. OoR. D- P+ 00:48:06,884  00:48:30,635 Context: In this scene, Umbridge is inquiring Professor Trelawney when she is teaching. In the middle of the scene, Umbridge wants Professor Trelawney to predict her. At first, Professor Trelawney looks doubtful because the prediction for Umbridge will not be positive. However, looking at Umbridge’s disappointment, Professor Trelawney then expresses what she sees, which unfortunately is not a good prediction. Dolores Umbridge : One teensy little prophecy? Pity. Professor Trelawney : No, wait. Wait, no. I think I do see something. Yes, I do. Something dark. You are in grave danger. Dolores Umbridge : Lovely. In above situation, Umbridge now has not just become a teacher but also an inquisitor in Hogwarts. In this example, the offence is created by Professor Trelawney for disappointing Umbridge by refusing to tell her the prophecy she wanted. Due to this offence, she expresses an indirect apology by uttering her prediction to Umbridge. “No, wait. Wait, no. I think I do see something. Yes, I do. Something dark. You are in grave danger.”. In that utterance, it can be seen how she tries to repair Umbdrige‟s disappointment by conveying her prediction. 8  E-ISSN: 2621-6485 This example is influenced by D- P+ social variables. D- is caused by Umbridge and Professor Trelawney‟s familiarity towards each other because both are teachers in Hogwarts. Meanwhile, P+ is influenced by Umbridge‟s position as an inquisitor which in this situation has higher authority towards the speaker, Professor Trelawney. Due to the variables, as seen through Professor Trelawney‟s words, it looks that she really wants to repair Umbridge‟s disappointment. She even mentioned „no‟ for several times which indicates her „fear‟ towards Umbridge as an inquisitor. Combination Strategy This strategy is newly created in accordance to Blum-Kulka and Olshtain‟s theory (1984) that the linguistic realization of the act of apologizing can take one of two basic forms, or a combination of both. That means an utterance of apology may consist of a combination between the strategies in direct and indirect apology or a combination between strategies in indirect apology. However, combination is only referred to an apology utterance consisting of more than one indirect apology strategies. For any strategy combination consisting of a performative verb in IFID, it remains categorized as IFID. Discussed below is the analysis of Combination strategy found in the movies. (5) HP.7.2. EoA + OoR. D+ P+ 00:13:48,293  00:14:07,443 Context: Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in Gringotts. To make sure that Bellatrix Lestrange he sees is not an impostor; the staff wants to check her wand. But the fake Bellatrix Lestrange (Hermione) refuses. The staff explains that it is the bank’s policy. And like it or not, he must insist to do so. Goblin : Madam Lestrange, would you mind presenting your wand? Bellatrix Lestrange : And why should I do that? Goblin : It's the bank's policy. I'm sure you understand given the current climate. Bellatrix Lestrange : No. I most certainly do not understand. Goblin : I'm afraid I must insist. This example is influenced by D+ P+ variable. D+ is caused by the presence of distance between Bellatrix and the goblin. Even though the goblin knows who Madam Lestrange is, nevertheless, there is no interaction which happened between them outside the bank. P+ is affected by Bellatrix Lestrange‟s greater power as the Death Eater. In this situation, the offence is committed by the goblin for insisting Bellatrix Lestrange to confirm her identity. Influenced by this variable, the goblin uses two combinations of indirect apology strategy EoA + OoR. EoA is used to explain that he must insist 9 ELTEJ E-ISSN: 2621-6485 Nisa, Sutrisno due to the bank policy and OoR is shown by the second utterance “I'm sure you understand given the current climate.” This OoR is identified as unspecified OoR because the goblin only impliedly offers his certainty towards Bellatrix. By using OoR he shows how Madam Lestrange is much respected that he „offers‟ his certainty of her understanding to make his utterance as polite as possible. CONCLUSION Referring to the result and the analysis, indirect apology strategy becomes the most commonly used strategy in this research. To be exact, the speakers prefer to use an indirect strategy by explaining the cause of the offence rather than to utilize either direct or other indirect apology strategies. In accordance to the influence of the social variables, this research finds that social distance and relative power are taken into account during the process of apologizing. The analysis reveals that these variables affect the linguistic realization of apology strategies used by the characters. The realization seen in the data is the length of the strategy the speaker employs. To a situation in which the social distance between the interlocutors is negative and the relative power is equal or negative, the speakers tend to create shorter explanation by adding a call name such as “dear”, “mate”, or the first name of the hearer. However, to a situation in which the social distance between the interlocutors is positive or negative and the relative power is positive, the speakers more likely create a longer explanation by adding a more formal call name such as “sir”, “ma‟am”, “professor”, or the last name of the hearer. REFERENCES Austin, J. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Aydin, M. (2013). Cross Cultural Pragmatics: A Study of Apology Speech Acts by Turkish speakers, American English Speakers and Advance Nonnative Speakers of English in Turkey (Unpublished master's thesis). Minnesota State University - Mankato. Retrieved from https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/269 Bagherinejad, I., & Jadidoleslam, M. R. (2015). On the Use of Apology Strategies by Iranian EFL Learners: Do Gender and Proficiency Level Matter? Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 5(6), 1263-1274. doi:10.17507/tpls.0506.20 Baldwin, J. R. (2009, March 14). Communication 370 – Psychology of Language. 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Combination 18 14.4% Total Direct 38 30.4% Indirect 87 69.6% Table 2. The general distribution of social distance and relative power on apology strategy used in the movies No Social Variables Apology Strategies Total IFID EoA ToR OoR PoF Combination N % N % N % N % N % N % N % 1. D- P= 13 10.4 23 18.4 6 4.8 4 3.2 0 0 7 5.6 53 42.4 2. D- P- 10 8 16 12.8 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 3.2 30 24 3. D- P+ 12 9.6 12 9.6 2 1.6 1 0.8 0 0 3 2.4 30 24 4. D+ P= 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5. D+ P- 2 1.6 2 1.6 1 0.8 0 0 0 0 3 2.4 8 6.4 6. D+ P+ 1 0.8 2 1.6 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.8 4 3.2 Total 38 30.4 55 44 9 7.2 5 4 0 0 18 14.4 125 100