"Excuse me"

One particular speech act we use almost daily is "excuse me", "pardon me", or something similar. "Excuse me" is deeply ingrained in our minds through years of etiquette training from our parents, teachers, and relatives. We use it all the time, but in terms of performative utterances, what does it really do? "Excuse me" is an apology, a request, and a conveyance of good intent all at the same time: an apology for some misdoing or inconvenience, a request for someone else to accept the apology, and a demonstration of good will toward those being inconvenienced. "Excuse me" is, in effect, a proper etiquette tool - it allows someone to cause a brief disturbance without fear of angering someone else. The proper circumstances of saying "excuse me" are somewhat limited to a few situations, however. Let's look at a few such situations, starting with:

Excuse me, could you pass the salt?

Here, the act of saying "excuse me" is an apology for interrupting whatever was going on, be it a conversation or the act of eating. It is also a request for two things: accepting the apology, and actually passing the salt to you. It would be odd for someone to refuse either request because your are demonstrating good will, but it would be equally odd for you to say "excuse me, could you pass the salt" if the salt was nowhere near the person you are speaking to, or if the salt is within your own reach.

Let's take another situation: imagine you are at a crowded train station trying to catch your train, but there is someone in your way. You politely say "excuse me", and the person moves out of your way. The minor inconvenience your "excuse me" apologizes for is also what it requests - for the other person to move a feet out of your way. Saying such a thing would be unfitting if the person did not completely obstruct your path, or if you did not intend to move at all.

So, the phrase "Excuse me" combines a handful of actions in only two words but is also subject to some guidelines for proper use