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Title THE LANGUAGE OF SUICIDE NOTES: A GENDER-BASED FORENSIC LINGUISTIC STUDY

Author(s) AYESHA MASOOD

Abstract Suicide notes are one of the prominent and intriguing areas of study in Forensic Linguistics which is relatively under explored in Pakistan. The present study has analyzed a total of 70 Pakistani suicide notes from the perspective of Forensic Linguistics. As little research is conducted on the language of Pakistani suicide notes within various disciplines, the study is conducted at grass-root level. This research study has attempted to analyze a total of 70 Pakistani suicide notes, written in English, from the perspective of Forensic Linguistics. Lexical choices, with regards to gender, are analyzed to trace out the linguistic patterns in Pakistani suicide notes using sketch engine. The suicide notes are also analyzed to determine aspects of language in male and female suicide notes that depict the features of the interpersonal theory of suicide. In addition to this, forensic sematic analysis is performed by incorporating relevance theory to extract social issues leading to suicide in Pakistan. It is noted that male suicide notes are more precise and to the point with less use of conjunctions which makes the structure less complex. On the other hand, female suicide notes are merely elaborative with comparatively more conjunctions, adjectives and adverbs. Where male suicide notes usually discuss about ‘money’, ‘job’ and ‘family’, female notes talk about their ‘decisions’, ‘dreams’ and ‘pains’. Characteristics of ‘Perceived Burdensome’ were majorly found in Pakistani suicide notes. It was noted that Males usually suicide over lack of financial opportunities, debt, depression and inability to fulfill the responsibility whereas, females usually suicide due to disapproval of choices, forced approvals, inability to select their own choices and stress. The findings of the study provide a solid foundation to build on for the future researches which could explore other variables with extensive data.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2021-06-10

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