What’s mad about that? The sorry was for interrupting and engaging you and having a favour to ask. The sorry itself wasn’t a command, it was an apology for the implied command.
What’s mad about that? The sorry was for interrupting and engaging you and having a favour to ask. The sorry itself wasn’t a command, it was an apology for the implied command.
Yes, he said "Sorry [to trouble you, but would you move your bag so I could sit there?]"
Highly abbreviated exchange combined with a gesture.
> The sorry was for interrupting and engaging you and having a favour to ask.
Sorry (heh), but it could easily be a sarcastic use (#4), not apologetic (#3) and not softening (#5). Not even tone can always differentiate between the apologetic "I'm sorry to bother you" and the non-apologetic "I'm sorry that your parents failed in raising you". They could be asking you for a favour, but they could just as easily be calling you inconsiderate of others because seats are for people not bags.
I’d argue tone is often useful. But you’re right - as someone who habitually employs subtle sarcasm I’ve found a large portion of the population are not really in tune to that subtlety. For me it’s a good quick differentiator to identify strangers I might actually get along with. That’s an aside though… in our case the meaning & intent might be opaque, but the result is the same. In my case, I either make someone laugh, or weird them out.