My first major research project is my Master's dissertation titled "The structures of the apologies arising from the #MeToo movement".
This study examines the structures, namely the obligatory and optional elements, of the apologies arising from the #MeToo movement, and the semantic resources used to realize each element. The analysis of such linguistic features serves as the cue to discuss the relationship between these apologies and the goals of the #MeToo movement.
Although they share the same purpose of apologizing to victims of sexual harassment, the apologies vary greatly in terms of their length, which indicates the possible different elements utilized in each apology.
The analytical framework of this study is Hasan’s (1984) Generic Structure Potential. Based on the analysis, to begin with, there are a total of thirteen elements appearing in the chosen apologies, which are composed of only one obligatory element called “Quote of apology” and twelve optional elements. Each element is realized by various lexical resources, such as saying sorry without mentioning the victim(s). Additionally, each apologizer utilizes the elements in their unique way, which results in the different structures of the apologies. Moreover, these apologies largely fail to meet the goals of the #MeToo movement.
Full text of my dissertation is available upon request through my email.
Update November 2023: I presented this work (peer-reviewed) at the 2nd International Online Systemic Functional Linguistics Interest Group Conference at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
💫 Thrilled that I have managed to publish internationally!
Update December 2023: My presentation can be found on YouTube as follows: