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Part of
The Pragmatics of Hypocrisy
Edited by Sandrine Sorlin and Tuija Virtanen
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 343] 2024
► pp. 124–160

Chapter 6
Apology as hypocrisy

Examples from Bill Clinton and Donald Trump

| Sam Houston State University

Apologies have been a rewarding target for research in the pragmatics tradition; however, few studies connect apologies to hypocrisy. This chapter is an attempt to do so. I approach the pragmalinguistic aspects of hypocrisy by examining two notorious apologies: Clinton’s 1998 apology for his Monica Lewinsky affair and Trump’s 2016 apology for his vulgar comments about women. I argue that hypocritical apologies can be identified via an analysis of felicity conditions (including the speakers’ motivations and intentions) and move structures. Clinton’s and Trump’s apologies share most features with non-hypocritical apologies, but they also include self-promotional and accusatory moves toward the end of the speech event which are absent from genuine apologies. These extra moves turn their apologies into hypocritical ones.

Keywords: hypocritical apologies, felicity conditions, move structure, self-promotional moves/ethos, accusatory moves, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Conceptual clarifications and some words on methodology
    • 1.2Can hypocritical apologies be identified – beyond intuition?
  • 2.A second-order approach to allegedly hypocritical apologies
    • 2.1Felicity conditions
      • 2.1.1Prototypical apologies and their felicity conditions
      • 2.1.2In search of felicity conditions for hypocritical apologies
      • 2.1.3Felicity conditions and Clinton’s and Trump’s apologies
    • 2.2Move structure
    • 2.3Linguistic material that is not included in genuine apologies
  • 3.Discussion
    • 3.1Moves serving purposes other than apologizing
    • 3.2Lexical content as an indicator of hypocrisy
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 March 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.343.06hal
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