blog post 8

Why do we say ‘sorry’ so much?

I have recently read a article on the conversation about 'why do we say sorry so much? The article brings up the idea that apologizing far often than needed, may be a sign of weakness. It also zooms in on apologetic language and which gender is most prone to use it.

The word sorry has been used since the earliest stages of English language and is Anglo-Saxon, it is used to express remorse, sorrow and regret for an inconvenience. The phrase 'I am sorry' has shifted to a simple 'sorry' this makes it less personal, this is now passive as we don't know who the apology is too or from, creating much more distance and little meaning. The article also states that sorry could be used in a context like 'i was sorry to hear about your loss', but nowadays we tend to use with an intensifying adverb for example 'extremely sorry' or 'truly sorry'. I think this is because we over use sorry so much, on its own there is no impact as the word holds relatively no power or empathy to whom you're talking to. Normally people will say sorry when they don't  mean it, just because its what the other person wants to hear or they feel like they have to.

Other than an apology sorry can be used as a positive politeness strategy, for example if someone is walking slowly and you bump into them. It could be approached quite rudely, for example 'move out of my way' or it can be said politely which makes people more inclined to do what you are asking them 'sorry,excuse me'. It can also be used to'soften the blow', in a situation where someone gets sacked from their job, sorry will soon follow after which makes you feel like it couldn't of been avoided.

There is a claim that women are more likely to say sorry compared to men. This is related to myths that women are more chatty and co-operative than men. Although this information is based on gender stereotypes and no scientific evidence although research shows that there are many similarities in the way in which men and women apologise. 

 The article says that women imitate men to gain equality in the workplace. And in my personal opinion I agree with statement that women apologise more than men because I feel like females are more understanding than males. I would like to know why the exact reason men don't apologise as much as women. it may be because they feel like they already have a lot of power and don't feel the need to because they're dominant.

blog post 7

The f word

The article I found most interesting was about taboo language. I found this article on the conversation.com and it was written by Annabelle Lukin. The article is focusing on 'the f word' and in what context people use it.
This article interested me because I feel 'the f word' has become a part of our everyday vocab, hearing it, if not saying it far more frequently than needed. I feel as though in today's society we no longer see 'the f word' as a swear word.
In my opinion I think we over use these words and use them when we don't actually need to. For example, when we use it for emphasis, when there are plenty of other words to use for that which aren't swear words. I feel like I have a relaxed use of language and taboo isn't offensive to me and it doesn't bother me the way people speak around me, but I know not everyone feels the same as me about this topic.The article shows statistics of how often 'the f word' is used. They show 'the f word' is used more commonly by the younger generation compared to the elderly. This suggests people of a more mature age get offended by the use of this word or taboo language in general.
 As the article states, men use 'the f word' more often than women.But after researching how often both genders used other swear words there was virtually no difference.'The f word' features more frequent in natural conversation than in forms of institutional talk or in genres of writing. I think this is because when we talk it is spontaneous and we use taboo instead of a filler like 'um' under pressure. 'The f word' is used mostly as an emphatic intensifier rather than the use of taboo e.g 'for fucks sake'.
We have learnt about taboo language in class and why people use it. Knowing some of the terminology used in the article i found it an easier read and it made it much easier to understand.
I don't think there is a resolution to this problem because so many people use the word 'fuck' on a daily basis. Therefore, it would be impossible to eliminate it out of peoples language. But i do think if everyone used this word frequently people would get used to it and it would loose its meaning and people wouldn't find it so offensive. I think the only other think I want to know about this article is why men use the f word more often than women and why any other swear word is used just as frequent by both genders.