Lying between English and Chinese: An intercultural comparative study

Rong Chen; Chunmei Hu; Lin He

doi:10.1515/ip-2013-0017

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Lying between English and Chinese: An intercultural comparative study

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Published/Copyright: August 10, 2013

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From the journal Intercultural Pragmatics Volume 10 Issue 3

Abstract

In this study, we propose a preliminary pragmatic definition for the speech act of lying and test it via a questionnaire survey among a group of American English speakers and a comparable group of Chinese speakers. This definition contains a necessary condition of untruth followed by three elements cast as continuums: the concealment continuum (the degree to which the untruth of the assertion is intended to be concealed), the self-benefit continuum (the degree to which the untrue assertion benefits self), and the other-benefit continuum (the degree to which the untruth benefits other). As a result, lying is understood as a scalar, rather than a bivalent, notion. While we do not claim that our definition will have universal applicability, we believe that it offers a point of departure for further research on a topic that seems to have fascinated philosophers and pragmaticists alike for decades.

Keywords: lying; deception; truth; politeness; benefit

Published Online: 2013-08-10

Published in Print: 2013-08-14

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2013-0017

Keywords for this article

lying; deception; truth; politeness; benefit