Is the apology truthful or not?

Question

In the sentence

そのアリスの謝罪は、 あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた、 本当にアリスらしい、偽悪の言葉だったけど。

Is her apology false? My understanding is that her apology (unilaterally interpreted) were words of falsehood

Answer 1

From the sentence only, I understand that the apology was

• Too focused on "アリス"'s own point of view only, disregarding others
• Very アリス-like
• pretense of evil (not falsehood)

So depending on what "アリス" usually means when she says bad things, this is probably an instance of that.

Answer 2

そのアリスの謝罪は、 あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた、本当にアリスらしい、偽悪の言葉だったけど。

Grammatically, そのアリスの謝罪 is the subject (marked with は) and 偽悪の言葉だった is the predicate. あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた and 本当にアリスらしい are modifiers that modify 偽悪の言葉. So basically the sentence says アリスの謝罪は偽悪の言葉だった, "Alice's apology was (comprised of) false-and-evil words."

Answer 3

(1) そのアリスの謝罪は、 あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた、 本当にアリスらしい、偽悪の言葉だったけど。
Is her apology false?

My answer is No, in other word Alice's intention of apology was true.

If I parse the given sentence (1), it will become like:

(2) [そのアリスの謝罪は]【the apology of Alice】、 + (3) [あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた]【seized with too one-sided interpretation】 + (4) [本当にアリスらしい]【seemed to be really of Alice】 + (5) [｜　偽悪の言葉だった　｜]【a phrase of pretending to be bad】 + (6) [ けど ]【though】。

Phrase (3) and (4) are modifiers, so sentence (1) becomes essentially (2) + (5) + (6) as:

(2) [そのアリスの謝罪は]【the apology of Alice】、+ (5) [｜　偽悪の言葉だった　｜]【a phrase of pretending to be bad】 + (6) [ けど ]【though】。
(7) [そのアリスの謝罪は]【the apology of Alice】、[｜　偽悪の言葉だった　｜]【a phrase of pretending to be bad】 [ けど ]【though】。

Essentially, sentence (1) and (7) have a same meaning, except for the case the omitted modifier (3) and (4) would change the essential meaning; which I tell you later on.

Sentence (7) could imply the sentence "the intention of her apology was true" syntactically and also semantically.

I'll tell you why:
Syntactically "(6) けど though" at the end of the sentence apparently reverses the whole meaning of sentence (1) and (7), which could possibly give the answer to the question.

And,

(8) [アリスの謝罪の言葉は]【The phrase of Alice's apology is】 [偽悪の言葉だった]【that of pretending to be bad】　[けど]【though】　[彼女の謝罪の心は本当だった]【the intention of her apology is true】。
(8)' [彼女の謝罪の心は本当だった]【The intention of her apology is true】。 [アリスの謝罪の言葉は]【The phrase of Alice's apology is】 [偽悪の言葉だった]【that of pretending to be bad】　[けど]【though】。
(9) [アリスの謝罪の言葉は]【The phrase of Alice's apology is】 [偽悪の言葉だった]【that of pretending to be bad】　[けど]【though】　[彼女の謝罪の心は嘘だった]【the intention of her apology is false】。

Semantically, sentence (8) is far more effective in the sense of a drama or a novel than sentence (9).
Of course a rhetorical technique of anastrophe (syntactically correct order of subject, verb and object is changed) is used to express (8) as (8)'.

By the way, I don't think sentence (9) make sense.

Let's consider whether the omitted modifier (3) and (4) would change the essential meaning of (1) or not.

★ As for the modifier (3) [あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた]【seized with too one-sided interpretation】, it has two possible interpretations from a standpoint of the way of modifying.

Case 1: Modifier (3) modifies アリスらしい in the other modifier (4) [本当にアリスらしい]【seemed to be really of Alice】. In this case the relating phrases make a new modifier as:

(10) 本当に、あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われたアイスらしい （偽善の言葉だった）

Modifier (10) doesn't seem to change the meaning of sentence (1).

Case 2: Modifier (3) simply modifies (5) 偽悪の言葉だった as:

(11) あまりにも一方的な解釈に囚われた （偽善の言葉だった）　

This case also doesn't seem to change the meaning of sentence (1).

★ As for the modifier (4) [本当にアリスらしい]【seemed to be really of Alice】, it modifies and makes a phrase as:

[本当にアリスらしい]【seemed to be really of Alice】[｜　　偽悪の言葉だった　　｜]【a phrase of pretending to be bad】

This seems nothing to do with changing the meaning of (1).

With these consideration, the answer of the question is No or Alice's intention of apology was true; that is said at the beginning of the answer.