epistemological/linguistic question

[netmouse]

When someone says something you didn't hear or you weren't sure you heard correctly, and you say "sorry?" or "excuse me?" to get them to repeat or clarify, would you say you are in fact apologizing at that point, or are those words filling some other social or technical purpose?

Also, is there another similarly polite way to tell someone you couldn't hear them that is not an apology?

I suppose "could you repeat that?" comes to mind, but I'd welcome other ideas.

Comments

[shadowriderhope.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for asking this. Being someone with less-than-ideal hearing (esp. in any place with background noise), I *very* often have to ask folks to repeat themselves, and I usually use the "Pardon?" or "You want me to argle murphle bleargh?" variants.

Or sometimes I'll repeat what I thought I heard: "You want me to do *what* with an artichoke?" Indeed, often what I mishear is more amusing than what I misheard.

And it bugs me that often people say "why are you apologizing" when I use the social constructs of "I'm sorry" that *don't* mean "I'm sorry, I did something bad." Like, when someone says their mother died, and I say "Oh, I'm very sorry (to hear)..." or in this case, "I'm sorry (I didn't quite catch what you said)".

Thanks for an interesting discussion. :)