Holmes, J. (1989). Sex differences and apologies: One aspect of communicative competence. Applied Linguistics, 10 (2), 194-221.

Discusses how apologies are illuminating sources of information on the sociocultural values of a speech community, including differences between male and female values. These sex differences are examined in the distribution of apologies in order to shed light on the complexities encountered by language learners in acquiring communicative competence. (Author/CB)