From Lying to Perjury: Linguistic and Legal Perspectives on Lies and Other Falsehoods (Foundations in Language and Law, 3)

421 Pages·2022·74.614 MB·

by  Horn, Laurence R.

FromLyingtoPerjury
Foundations in
Language and Law
Editors
Janet Giltrow
Dieter Stein
Volume 3
From Lying to
Perjury
Linguistic and Legal Perspectives on Lies and Other
Falsehoods
Edited by
Laurence R. Horn
ISBN978-3-11-073839-1
e-ISBN(PDF)978-3-11-073373-0
e-ISBN(EPUB)978-3-11-073381-5
ISSN2627-3950
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2022930993
BibliographicinformationpublishedbytheDeutscheNationalbibliothek
TheDeutscheNationalbibliothekliststhispublicationintheDeutscheNationalbibliografie;
detailedbibliographicdataareavailableontheInternetathttp://dnb.dnb.de.
©2022WalterdeGruyterGmbH,Berlin/Boston
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Printingandbinding:CPIbooks,GmbH,Leck
www.degruyter.com
This book is for my grandchildren Jesse, Levi, and Elise, in the hope that they
growupintoaworldoffairness,kindness,and(mostly)truth

Contents
LaurenceHorn
Introduction:Onlyinganddisleading 1
I Liesanddeception:Thelandscapeof falsehood
ThomasL.Carson
Lying,deception,andrelatedconcepts:Aconceptualmapforethics 15
WilliamG.Lycan
Themoralityofdeception 41
RoySorensen
Kanttellanapriorilie 65
II Lying,deception,andspeaker commitment: Empirical
evidence
AlexWiegmann,NeeleEngelmann
Islyingmorallydifferentfrommisleading?Anempirical
investigation 89
RonnyBoogaart,HenrikeJansen,MaartenvanLeeuwen
“Iwasonlyquoting”:Shiftingviewpointandspeakercommitment 113
MartaDynel
Memefyingdeceptionanddeceptivememefication:Multimodal
deceptiononsocialmedia 139
IIIPuffery, bluffery,bullshit:How tonotquite lie
TimKenyon,JenniferSaul
Bald-facedbullshitandauthoritarianpoliticalspeech:Makingsense
ofJohnsonandTrump 165
VIII Contents
LaurenceHorn
Practicetodeceive:Anaturalhistoryofthelegalbluff 195
ElisabethCamp
Justsaying,justkidding:Liabilityforaccountability-avoidingspeech
inordinaryconversation,politicsandlaw 227
IVCrossingthe perjurythreshold:Deceitandfalsehood
inthe courtroom
RogerW.Shuy
Perjurycasesandthelinguist 261
SaulKassin
Trickeryanddeceit:Howthepragmaticsofinterrogationleadsinnocent
peopletoconfess–andfactfinderstobelievetheirconfessions 289
IzabelaSkoczeń,AleksanderSmywiński-Pohl
Thecontextofmistrust:Perjuryascriptionsinthecourtroom 309
BenjaminWeissman
Whatcountsasalieinandoutofthecourtroom?Theeffectofdiscourse
genreonliejudgments 353
LawrenceM.Solan
Lies,deception,andbullshitinlaw 381
Index 409
LaurenceHorn
Introduction: On lying and disleading
Whatistruth? –PontiusPilate,John18:38
Truthistruth –Shakespeare,Love’sLabour’sLost,IV.ii
Truthisn’ttruth –RudyGiuliani,MeetthePress,19August2018
If,liketruth,lieshadbutoneface,wewouldbebetteroff,forwewouldtakeasgiventhe
oppositeofwhattheliarwouldsay.Buttheoppositeoftruthhasahundredthousand
facesandanundefinedplayingfield. . .Thereareathousandwaystomissthemark,
justonetohitit. –Montaigne(1580),mytranslation
To tell the truth or to tell a lie? The truth is singular; there is just one; lies
comeinpacks.Buttellingthetruth–muchlessthewholetruth–isnosimple
matter.Historically,theinjunctiontotellthetruthisparasiticontheinjunction
toavoidthefalse,whichisperhapsaneasiergoaltofulfill,oratleastaneasier
onefromwhichtospotdeviation:
Thefirstandmostnecessaryareaofphilosophyistheonethatdealswiththeapplication
ofprinciplessuchas“Weoughtnottolie.” –Epictetus,Enchiridion§52
Thoushaltnotbearfalsewitnessagainstthyneighbour.
–9thCommandment,Exodus20:16
Donotsaywhatyoubelievetobefalse. –firstmaximofQuality,Grice([1967]1989:27)
But what is it to lie? One persistent challenge in delineating the borderbetween
lying and intentionally misleading (or deceiving) is the status of true statements
withfalseimplicatures.ThetraditionalviewisillustratedbyanexamplefromChis-
holm & Feehan (1977: 155): when I tell you “My leg isn’t bothering me too much
today”whenit’snotbotheringmeatallImaysucceedinmisleadingordeceiving
youbutIdonotlie.Meibauer(2005,2014a),whosubsumestrueassertionsthatin-
ducefalseimplicaturesunderhis“extendeddefinition”oflying,borrowsacouplet
fromBlake’s1803“AuguriesofInnocence”–Atruththat’stoldwithbadintent/Beats
alltheliesyoucaninvent–forthetitleofapaperonthetopic(Meibauer2014b).For
Meibauer(2014a:§4.5.3)thisisaninstanceof “lyingwhilesayingthetruth”.1But
truths told withbad intent remain truths and invented liesare still lies – which
doesn’t render the former automatically superior to the latter on ethical or moral
1 Meibauerisnotaloneinseekingtoassimilateimpliedfalsehoodstolies;seeMahon(2015):§1.5
andtheentriesinMeibauer2019forsurveysofsuchargumentsandWiegmann&Meibauer2019
forareviewofthesomewhatinconclusiveexperimentalresults.
LaurenceHorn,YaleUniversity,e-mail:[email protected]
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110733730-001