Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/74390

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the underlying principle governing the use of the two conventional expressions of apology in Japanese, gomen and gomen ne, within the politeness theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987). First, on the basis of Itani's (1998) relevancetheoretic analysis of ne, I claim that ne appended to expressions of apology is a positive politeness strategy. Second, Brown and Levinson's (1987) observation that compounding strategies increases the relative politeness of expressions leads to the prediction that gomen ne, which has two positive politeness strategies, ellipsis and the particle ne, is more positively polite than gomen. This paper argues through an analysis of data from Japanese television drama scenarios that this prediction is correct.