Archive for the ‘Apologies’ Category

From the annals of NAA

October 15, 2025

The most recent Stephan Pastis Pearls Before Swine strip:


A classic NAA (non-apology apology): if you take offence, it’s your problem (in the strip: I’m sorry you were offended; ramped up: I’m sorry you’re an oversensitive ninny) (see Edwin L. Battistella’s Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology (Oxford, 2014))

From Wikipedia:

A non-apology apology, sometimes called a backhanded apology, empty apology, nonpology, or fauxpology, is a statement in the form of an apology that does not express remorse for what was done or said, or assigns fault to those ostensibly receiving the apology. It is common in politics and public relations.

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Posted in Ambiguity, Apologies, Insults, Linguistics in the comics, Pragmatics, Speech acts, Taboo language and slurs | Leave a Comment »

Maple Donuts, coffee shops, and unapologetic identities

December 1, 2017

It starts with a Zippy strip from July 1st, featuring the Maple Donuts shop on Historic Lincoln Highway in York PA (and, incredibly, it will end with singings of the Negro National Anthem; in between, there will be firearms):


(#1) Maple Donuts, featured a number of times in Zippy strips

It might not be an accident that the strip appeared a few days before America’s great patriotic holiday, Independence Day / the Fourth of July. To see why, we need to look at the actual Maple Donuts store.

That will take us, on the one hand, to the adjoining coffee shop; and, on the other hand, to proud, unapologetic assertions of identities.

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Posted in Apologies, Categorization and Labeling, Diners, Flags, Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Language and food, Music, Names, Race and ethnicity, Signs and symbols | Leave a Comment »

Gay slurs in New Zealand

August 16, 2017

… with quotations from a Stanford linguist.

The story: “Garry Mallett’s explanation of the F-word falls short” by Jeremy Olds yesterday in the NZ website Stuff (stuff.co.nz), about fag(got), beginning with events in Hamilton City NZ (south of Auckland on the North Island):

OPINION: It’s unclear why Hamilton City councillor Garry Mallett believes pink is a “homo colour”. Perhaps he thinks it’s effeminate; perhaps he thinks it’s cute.

Whatever the case, when Mallett described a pink piece of paper from an agenda last week as a “homo colour”, before using the word “fags”, his comments were perceived as homophobic by his colleagues, including councillor Angela O’Leary.

While he apologised for his language this morning, Mallett was last night defending his comments, saying gay people are comfortable with the labels, and to think otherwise is to be “sucked into this politically correct vortex,” The Spinoff reported.

“Many homosexuals freely and willingly identify with these words. Indeed, to some extent, homosexuals have ‘commandeered’ these words such that many non-homosexuals feel uncomfortable using them,” he said.

Ah, the right to use fag openly and proudly as a slur, threatened by the pansies, fruits, and fairies who have begun reclaiming fag for their own use.

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Posted in Apologies, Insults, Language and politics, Language and sexuality, Language and the media, Taboo language and slurs | Leave a Comment »

Abs of the week

August 19, 2014

… plus a kilt and an implied (sort of) apology:

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Posted in Apologies, Formulaic language, Gender and sexuality, Language and the body, Pragmatics, Shirtlessness | 2 Comments »

More holidays and anniversaries

July 4, 2014

Here in the U.S., it’s July 4th: Independence Day. So yesterday was, I suppose, Independence Eve. The 2nd was a notable anniversary, of the signing of the (U.S.) Civil Rights Act (of 1964, so that’s a 50th anniversary). And the 1st was Canada Day, to the north of us.

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Posted in Apologies, Gender and sexuality, Holidays, Language in advertising, Language play | Leave a Comment »

London Underground

January 22, 2014

All over Facebook recently, this site, on “Fake Signs in London Underground”. Here are two of some linguistic interest — on visual communication in social space and on apologies:

(#1)

(#2)

Other signs have extra stations: Shepherd’s Pie, Stop Staring, The End, Nightmare on Elm St. And one station offers a submarine to Somalia.

Posted in Apologies, Pragmatics, Social life | Leave a Comment »

Pasta apologies

October 2, 2013

In recent news, Guido Barilla (of the pasta company) offended a great many people by airing his opinions on “homosexual families” (by which he appears to mean same-sex couples, especially male couples). And then issued versions of the classic non-apology apology “I’m sorry you were offended”.

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Posted in Apologies, Gender and sexuality, Language and food | Leave a Comment »