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Title Cultural Sensitization in Linguistics of Deception Detection: A Pragmatic Analysis

Author(s) Saima Mubashra

Abstract Thesis Title: Cultural Sensitization in Linguistics of Deception Detection: A Pragmatic Analysis Deception is a ubiquitous phenomenon and deception scholarship is an exponentially large field. One prime focus of this field is to study the linguistic correlates of deception to detect a liar successfully. Nevertheless, there is an ever-growing realization that there is no universal way of lying that enjoys pan-cultural vitality. Lying as a mendacious statement depends on the corresponding language system and cultural norms and values. However, until very recently, the lingo-cultural nature of deception has remained underplayed in mainstream deception scholarship. The situation calls for the need of sensitizing linguistics of deception detection to cross-cultural variance introduced by language and culture. Working within the paradigm of Ethnopragmatics, a relatively recent off-shoot of the linguistic pragmatics, the study developed an integrated approach to generate metapragmatic awareness about the meaning, perception and production of deceptive speech acts in Pakistani culture and compare it with analogous findings located in the North American context. The study integrated the theoretical and methodological guidelines of the Cultural Scripts approach proposed by Anna Wierzbicka and Cliff Goddard (Goddard & Wierzbicka, 2002, 2004,2016; Wierzbicka, 1997, 2002,2021) with the Information Manipulation Theory propounded by Steve McCornack (McCornack, 1992; McCornack et al., 2014). The study was conducted in two phases. As cultural knowledge sediments in the form of emic labels and culturally salient key terms, Phase I investigated the Urdu lexical and phrasal items used to denote lying and deception and other cultural keywords to generate a semantic understanding of deception in Pakistani culture. The results were explicated in the form of cultural scripts formulated in the culturally neutral mini-language called Natural Semantic Metalanguage. These earlier semantic explications were further tested in Phase II study using the experimental design proposed by Information Manipulation theory to explore the production, perceived honesty and moral turpitude associated with various forms of deception in Pakistani culture. The results of both phases cumulatively revealed that the Pakistani concept of truth and lying is very categorical, dichotomous and black and white as compared with the scalar and kaleidoscopic view of truth and lying found in the AngloAmerican culture. It was also found that avoidance of lying is an absolute, non-negotiable moral imperative in Pakistani culture, while the Anglo-American attitude towards lying is more pragmatic in nature. Though lying is considered invariably wrong in Pakistani culture, Pakistani data demonstrated a greater acceptance threshold than the US counterparts for other subtle forms of deception that did not involve any blatant disregard for reality. It can be concluded that in Pakistani culture, speech acts are assigned very parsimoniously to the category of lying and locus of sincerity is primarily placed on the literal level. These nuanced differences in the cultural understanding of deception have clear implications for deception scholarship to make its theorization and methods free from ethnolinguistic bias. Keywords: Deception, Lying, Deception Detection, Ethnopragmatics, Natural Semantic Metalanguage

Type Thesis/Dissertation PhD

Faculty Languages

Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2022-12-14

Subject PhD English Linguistics

Publisher PhD

Contributor(s) Dr. Ghazala Kausar

Format PDF

Identifier PhD

Source PhD

Relation PhD

Coverage PhD

Rights PhD

Category PhD English Linguistics Thesis

Description PhD English Linguistics Thesis