How lies can help us understand: The role of deception in discourse modelling

Abstract

This thesis considers multiple definitions of deception and tests Gricean pragmatics and Austin’s Speech Act Theory on their ability to account for other forms of deception besides false assertion, namely false implicature and presupposition faking. It also analyses the ability of several representations of the common ground to account for deception. It shows that Grice’s maxim of quality and Searle’s sincerity condition are not adequately defined, and that multiple representations of the common ground do not make explicit which belief sets can enter the common ground when one interlocutor deceives another.