On the properties of language use in remedial interchanges (characteristically incorporating apologies). There are chapters on: E. Goffman's approach to the problem; a general discussion of units of conversation; a presentation of empirical data on remedial moves in English; the status of remedial moves as illocutionary acts; the simularities between remedial interchanges and other conversational sequences, and the role of the notion of `preference'; and a model for the cross-cultural study of remedialinterchanges.