Corpus linguistics and deception detection

Archer, Dawn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4547-6518 (2024) Corpus linguistics and deception detection. In: International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Elsevier. (In Press)

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Abstract

Much of the early work within deception detection focused upon behavioural features like facial expressions, body language, and gestures. More recently, though, researchers have either begun to focus upon combinations of verbal and behavioural indicators simultaneously or made the linguistic realisation of lies their sole focus. This entry pertains to the latter and explains how corpus linguistics (henceforth CL) has been used to in/validate certain language features as deception indicators. CL is the name given to a series of computer-assisted methods that rely on (semi) automatic techniques to retrieve and analyse machine-readable data at various levels (i.e., word, part-of-speech, semantic field, etc.). Given our focus on deception and its detection, the entry briefly explores what deception is, the beliefs that underpin it, and the linguistic features associated with it, before highlighting three CL studies.