Leiden University Student Repository

Disseldorp, A. (2015)

Repetition, hedges, intensifiers and conditionals: An assessment of the linguistic-stylistic features in Lance Armstrong’s 2005 deposition

Master thesis | Linguistics (MA)

After Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his innocence for many years. This thesis examines the linguist-stylistic features that Armstrong uses to persuade the interviewer in his 2005 deposition. Additionally, it investigates to what extent assumed linguistic signs of lying are present in Armstrong’s language use. By identifying the stylistic choices through inductive and deductive stylistic analysis, this thesis attempts to determine how these choices contribute to Armstrong’s persuasiveness. The results show that Armstrong uses different stylistic choices that can be placed in the overarching categories of repetition, hedges, intensifiers and conditionals. Determining the presence of linguistics signs of lying in his language use proves to be rather difficult. In the end, there appears to be a certain a balance in Armstrong’s stylistic...Show moreAfter Lance Armstrong, seven time Tour de France winner, confessed to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his wins, one might wonder why people kept believing in his innocence for many years. This thesis examines the linguist-stylistic features that Armstrong uses to persuade the interviewer in his 2005 deposition. Additionally, it investigates to what extent assumed linguistic signs of lying are present in Armstrong’s language use. By identifying the stylistic choices through inductive and deductive stylistic analysis, this thesis attempts to determine how these choices contribute to Armstrong’s persuasiveness. The results show that Armstrong uses different stylistic choices that can be placed in the overarching categories of repetition, hedges, intensifiers and conditionals. Determining the presence of linguistics signs of lying in his language use proves to be rather difficult. In the end, there appears to be a certain a balance in Armstrong’s stylistic choices that possibly contributes to his persuasiveness.Show less

linguistics

stylistics

lying

Author

Disseldorp, A.

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Supervisors

Jansen, H.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en