Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Multiple meanings of 'sorry'
Credits: Getty Imagessor⋅ry
/ˈsɒri, ˈsɔri/ [sor-ee, sawr-ee]
–adjective, -ri⋅er, -ri⋅est.
1. feeling regret, compunction, sympathy, pity, etc.: to be sorry to leave one's friends; to be sorry for a remark; to be sorry for someone in trouble.
2. regrettable or deplorable; unfortunate; tragic: a sorry situation; to come to a sorry end.
3. sorrowful, grieved, or sad: Was she sorry when her brother died?
4. associated with sorrow; suggestive of grief or suffering; melancholy; dismal.
5. wretched, poor, useless, or pitiful: a sorry horse.
6. (used interjectionally as a conventional apology or expression of regret): Sorry, you're misinformed. Did I bump you? Sorry.
When someone says 'sorry' to you, are they really apologising, or are they expressing their sympathy, or maybe just for the sake of mocking you?
I remembered when I took Advanced Translation last semester, there was a discussion on the meaning of 'sorry' in a particular incident involving the Americans and the Chinese. It was the incident where a Chinese pilot Wang Wei who was killed at the Chinese airbase when an American aircraft made emergency landing into the airbase and collided with Wang Wei's aircraft. The Chinese required the America authourities to apologise for their mistakes, but instead of apologising directly, there was a clear play of the word 'sorry' in the American report and the Chinese translation of the content.
Below are extracted from the 2 articles that the prof shared:
American paper reporting the words of the American authority:
"Please convey to the Chinese people and to the family of pilot Wang Wei that we are very sorry for their loss..."
Chinese paper reporting on American response:
"我们对飞行员与飞行员王伟的失踪和那架飞机坠毁深感歉意..."
For readers who have sufficient command of both languages who have noticed that their is an obvious difference in the meaning of 'sorry' expressed. People who translated the American newspaper article should obviously know enough English to understand the meaning of 'sorry' accurately. So why that mistake on purpose?
From that lesson, I learnt that sometimes, making use of the ambiguity of certain words to create a perception of the real intention of the writer could reduce if not resolve a dispute. Whatever the real intention of the writer, only matters to those who agree with the real intention.
From today's Famous Quotes:
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anais Nin
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