Does speaker B sound offensive? Speaker A: How are you? Speaker B: So so. My cat was dead yesterday. I was really devastated. Speaker A: I'm sorry for your cat's death. My friend, Dr Smith is great veterinary. If I had knew your cat was ill, and had informed him, he would probably have cured her. Speaker B: No need to apologize for not informing Dr Smith. Speaker A: … Because of limited linguistic capacity, speaker B misunderstood Speaker A’s idea and thought speaker B was apologizing to him. Worse still, speaker A misinterpreted speaker B’s logic, saying speaker B really did something wrong by failing to help. In your culture, does speaker B sound offensive? Sorry. A major mistake: speaker B misunderstood Speaker A’s idea and thought speaker B was apologizing to him. => speaker B misunderstood Speaker A’s idea and thought SPEAKER A WAS apologizing to him. Worse still, speaker A misinterpreted speaker B’s logic, saying speaker B really did something wrong by failing to help. => Worse still, speaker B misinterpreted speaker A’s logic, saying speaker A really did something wrong by failing to help