• Maillat Didier

• Maillat Didier

In this seminar, we will investigate how the current debate on misinformation and fake news touches on key aspects of human communication. Using linguistics, and pragmatics in particular, we will look at how we can provide a systematic and theoretically grounded account of a) why misinformation and fake news have a tendency to occur; b) how they are constructed and what are their distinctive features in English; c) how they spread through social networks; d) what means – if any – we have at our disposal to counter their effects.

In doing so, we will be touching on issues regarding the criteria that determine the truth of a given piece of information. We will also evaluate which aspects of human cognition tend to facilitate the occurrence of misinformation, trying to understand how certain mechanisms in the construction of meaning will be vulnerable to misinformation. Another interesting dimension in our discussion will explore the processes which allow us to evaluate the quality of the information communicated to us.

Finally, we will study how ill-intentioned communicators can actively exploit the mechanisms behind misinformation to intentionally deceive people – a phenomenon known as disinformation.   

Throughout the course, students will become acquainted with experimental investigations of meaning comprehension, acquiring the necessary skills to use experimental data in order to assess a theoretical hypothesis.

-        methodological and practical approach to carrying empirical research with linguistic data in English

-        theoretical and methodological tools used to investigate the relation between cognition and communication

-        understanding of fundamental processes governing the interpretation of meaning

-        knowledge of the current relevant issues in the field

-        critical evaluation of scientific papers

A bibliography and a list of assigned readings will be made available in the first week of the semester. Introductory textbooks to pragmatics would give students a head start on these questions: Birner, Introduction to Pragmatics, Wiley, 2012; Clark, Relevance Theory, CUP, 2013.