A Political Linguistics Analysis of President Tsai Ing-wen’s Apology to Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples
Author: Morgan Chih-tung Huang, Rong-xuan Chu
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
The 2016 national apology by the Taiwanese President starts a new chapter in historical justice and transitional justice for Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. In this political linguistics analysis of Tsai Ing-wen’s apology, we explore the language of the apology in light of recent investigations on national apologies as a generic type of political discourse. We examine how the authenticity and sincerity of the apology were accomplished through the use of illocutionary force indicating devices and first-person pronouns. In addition, we demonstrate how the concept of the apology was revisited by using the Atayal term ‘Sbalay’ and how such a redefined concept shifted the focus of the apology from compensation to reconciliation. Differing from previous political science research on national apologies and compensation arrangements, we reveal how the linguistic features and patterns embedded in the apology – the said, implied and unsaid – were used as a rhetorical strategy for eliciting support from the apology recipients.