114: The Language of Lying

Questions about the Video File:

1. How many lies do people say a day on average?
2. What devices are there to detect lie? To what extent can they be trusted?
3. Why do we tell lies?
4. What does linguistic text analysis point out?
5. What are the telltale clues that help you identify a lie?

General Questions:

1. How many lies do you tell a day? (Take your time to think it through and count all those you consider harmless)
2. What physical changes do you notice in your body when you tell a lie? What are some of the common physical reactions of lying?
3. Is it possible to tell if people are lying by analyzing their body language?
4. How do you feel when you tell a lie? Excited? Guilty? Cool?
5. Can you tell when someone is lying to you? How?
6. To what extent do you trust people? Do you always consider the possibility that they are lying?
7. Is there anyone you would never lie to? Why?
8. Who do you lie to most? Why?
9. Have you ever told a big lie? Could you hide it perfectly?
10. How would you react if the person you were lying to finds out about it?
11. How would you react if your best friend lied to you?

Related Quotes:

• "If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."  Mark Twain
• "I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you."  Friedrich Nietzsche
• "I can take any truth; just don't lie to me." Barbra Streisand

Related Idioms and Expressions:

• Lie through your teeth: to say something which you are totally aware that it’s not true.
  • He asked for my car keys and I lied through my teeth that I had just lost them.
• be a pack of lies: to be totally untrue.
  • She said she was stuck in traffic and that was why she was late and everybody knew it was a pack of lies.
• Live a lie: to pretend something which is not true, especially for a long time.
  • You have to tell her you are not a doctor and it was just a misunderstanding. You can’t live a lie long.

Related Words and Phrases:

• Allegation (n) a statement that says someone has done something wrong or unlawful but there is no evidence for that yet
  • She heard all allegations about her son and smiled because she was sure they couldn’t verify any of them.
• Unfounded (adj) characteristic of a piece of information that is not based on truth
  • My courtroom is no place for unfounded allegations.
• Wrongdoing (n) an illegal action
  • All the wrongdoings were approved by her boss.
• Torture (n) tremendous physical or mental distress caused in order to force someone to do something or give away information
  • During the cold war many spies were tortured to death to reveal intelligence.
• Polygraph (n) lie detector: an equipment used to say if someone is telling lie or the truth
  • She was such a professional liar that even a polygraph couldn’t detect her lies.
• Fool (v) to deceive or trick someone
  • She could even fool the police about her whereabouts at the night of the murder. They never found out she was not home that night.
• Admissible (adj) acceptable by law
  • The evidence was announced admissible by the judge. They accepted his alibi.
• Slip by (v) to get past without being noticed
  • She suppressed her feelings for him. She didn’t want to busy her mind with her feelings.
• Conscious mind (n) part of your mine which you are aware of its activities as opposed to unconscious mind
  • When you are talking in a language rather than your mother tongue your conscious mind is actively choosing words and structures.
• Cognitive (adj) related to the process of thinking and conscious mind
  • You need to focus on your cognitive functions to improve the quality of your decisions.
• Qualitatively (adv) how good or bad something is.
  • The way you write your essays is qualitatively different from mine.
• Subconscious (n) part of your mind where remembers thing while you are not trying to and you are unaware of that
  • She was frightened to talk to him as if her subconscious mind was protecting her.
• Deceptive (adj) deceiving, making you believe something which is not true
  • Everyone believed her deceptive anecdotes. She is such a good liar.
• Disassociate (v) to think of something as separate or not connected
  • She totally disassociated herself from her job when she was at home.
• Pad out (phv) to add unnecessary detail to a writing or speech in order to hide the truth
  • She padded out the fact that he was not there by giving too many details about the party he claimed he spent tome there.
• Hypothetical (adj) imagined but not necessarily true
  • He enjoys discussing hypothetical situations.
• Apparent (adj) seems to be true.
  • His apparent innocence was just a trick. A closer test could say he was lying.
• Convoluted (adj) very complex and twisted
  • Her convoluted excuses sound suspicious.

Related Collocations:

• My phone died: my phone went out of charge
  • I wanted to call you but my phone died. I called you as soon as could recharge my phone.
• Underlying assumption: a basic assumption
  • It was an underlying assumption that as a judge he wouldn’t take sides.
• To paint a picture of oneself: to create an image of oneself in the minds of the others
  • She painted a great picture of himself in the mind of his colleagues and made them believe that he was an honest man.
• Beyond one’s awareness: without being aware of something consciously
  • She knew she was not capable of lying but the reasons were beyond her awareness and she didn’t know why it was so.
• Take work: needs lots of efforts
  • It takes work to master painting.

Please leave a response to the following question as a comment: 

Can you trust people when you find out someone has lied to you? Do you expect people you have lied to trust you?