Apologizing over time

Speech acts—promises, apologies, refusals, orders, threats, compliments—are actions we perform with words. Within speech act theory, it is standardly assumed that speech acts are performed in a moment. A speaker who says, “I apologize,” in saying so, apologizes in that very moment. Drawing on apologies as a central case study, I argue that this Momentary View is ill-equipped to explain important elements of performing an apology which occur after the moment of utterance, such as: (1) the addressee’s acceptance or rejection of an apology, and (2) the speaker’s follow-through on their commitments to forbearance and making amends. As examples, I consider Joseph Biden’s attempted apology to Anita Hill and the Australian “national apology” to the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal children. As an alternative, I propose a novel theory of speech acts as a kind of temporally extended process. Apologies, I argue, are best understood as actions which unfold over time, like building a house or baking bread.