Linguistic strategies in misinformation: a semantic-pragmatic approach for detecting manipulation in media discourse
- V. 25, N. 2 (2026)
- Submitted: Aug 28, 2025
- Published: Sep 18, 2026
- DOI 10.25189/rabralin.v25i2.2341
Abstract
This article identifies recurrent patterns of linguistic behaviour characteristic of misinformation and proposes a semantic-pragmatic approach to analysing manipulation in media texts. Through the application of five mechanisms – implicature (GRICE, 1975; HORN, 2011; SPERBER; WILSON, 1995), presupposition (SCHLENKER, 2011; SIMONS, 2005; STALNAKER, 1973), modality (VON FINTEL, 2006), genericity (CARLSON, 2011; MÜLLER, 2003), and deverbal nominalisation (GRIMSHAW, 1990, 2011) – it demonstrates how these resources are exploited to constrain inferential paths and generate interpretive distortions. Although other mechanisms are available, the study focuses on these five because they are most frequently exploited in misinformation discourse. The analysis identifies five main manipulative strategies: (1) the suggestion of misleading meanings through implicatures, which allow the speaker to maintain plausible deniability by keeping manipulative content outside the truth-conditional level of the utterance; (2) the naturalisation of controversial content as established fact; (3) the exploitation of modal asymmetry to obscure the boundary between speculative possibility and normative necessity; (4) the promotion of essentialist universalisations through generic and vague reference; and (5) the suppression of information about agents and responsibilities. These strategies are exemplified by a 2023 news story on inclusive terminology in healthcare, which serves as a paradigmatic case for revealing the linguistic architecture of misinformation. The results contribute to the semantics-pragmatics interface by operationalising the distinction between what is said and what is implicated, and by revealing the recurrent patterns through which ordinary pragmatic mechanisms are strategically exploited to produce manipulative effects in media discourse.
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