Apology strategies in Persian

The present study is a research into the frequency, combination, and sequential position of apology strategies in Persian. The investigation is based on a corpus of 500 naturally-occurring apology exchanges, collected through an ethnographic method of observation. The results revealed that (1) explicit expression of apology with a request for forgiveness (bebaxšid) was the most common apology strategy in Persian. (2) The aforementioned strategy together with acknowledgement of responsibility formed the most frequent combination of apology strategies in this language. (3) The same set of apology strategies used in other investigated languages was common in Persian; however, preferences for using these strategies appeared to be culture-specific.