An Analysis Of The Cognitive Mechanism Of Lying With DE Model Based On The Dialogues Of Lying From Prison Break

It is already realized that lying is a double-edged sword in that we can sometimes benefit a lot from lying or being lied,though we are always hurt by it.Thus,it has become a strategy frequently applied in the daily life.Serban(2001)even claims that lying is the second nature of Man.As a kind of speech act,many scholars have conducted researches of lying from the perspectives of semantics,pragmatics,psycholinguistics,and cognitive linguistics.These studies are mainly concerned about the static analysis of lying only from the perspective of the liar on the linear syntactic basis,but placing no emphasis on the elaboration of the cognitive mechanism of lying in a dynamic conversation with both the liar and victim taken into consideration on the dialogic basis.In this thesis,it is attempted to integrate dialogic syntax and event-domain cognitive model(ECM)into a DE model,which is to be applied to analyze the cognitive mechanism of lying: how a liar constructs deceitful utterances on the structural basis of a victim’s utterances and leads him to construct utterances in a reciprocal way to achieve what is intended.Additionally,90 dialogues of lying,in which liars deliberately deceive victims by telling them deceitful utterances related to Michael’s prison-breaking plan,are excerpted from the American TV series Prison Break.And these dialogues are to be analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to probe into the cognitive mechanism of lying.The main contributions of this thesis are as follows:Firstly,from the view of cognitive linguistics,it is not the objective world that is manifested in languages but the ways of construing the objective world do.Based on DE model that is established on the integration of ECM and dialogic syntax,the thesis is designed to elucidate the conceptual construct and syntactic structure of lying,and to explore the semantic connections across the juxtaposed utterances in the dialogue of lying from the perspective of dialogic resonance,with the purpose toexplain the cognitive mechanism of lying.Secondly,it is found in the analysis that there exists a cognitive mechanism of lying.Namely,when faced with different victims,the liar chooses various cognitive strategies to concoct deceitful utterances,whose linguistic forms and structures are designed to somewhat resonate with those in the victim’s utterances at a syntactic level,which means that the liar constructs deceitful utterances on the structural basis of the different components of the concocted untrue event,which are as follows:Event;Being;Action;the condition or quality of Being;the result or mode of Action.In addition,the different degrees of dialogic resonance are the linguistic strategies applied by the liar,which can be categorized into the following four types: complete resonance;partial resonance;redundant resonance;zero resonance.The frequencies of the two strategies are schematized as follows:As shown in the tables,for authorities,the liar tends to apply Being,C or D toconstruct utterances,which are designed to cause redundant resonance with the victim’s utterances;for acquaintances or strangers,the liar is inclined to use Being to build utterances,which are attempted to cause partial resonance with the victim’s utterances;for family members or intimates,the liar prefers to utilize Event to devise utterances,which are intended to cause zero resonance with the victim’s utterances.