Keywords
suicide notes
linguistic oddness
cognitive process markers
authorship analysis
How to Cite
Abstract
This study identifies the linguistic features distinguishing genuine Turkish suicide notes from fictional ones. The theoretical framework integrates Shneidman's (1985) Cognitive Constriction theory with Shapero's (2011) Linguistic Oddity approach. A corpus of 20 texts was analyzed: genuine notes from verified news sources and fictional notes from Turkish literature and television dramas. A multi-layered analytical model was applied. The first layer adapted LIWC cognitive process categories (insight, causation, certainty, uncertainty) to Turkish. The second layer examined Turkish-specific morphosyntactic parameters: the temporal threshold marker artık, the forgiveness formula, the -DI/-mIş evidentiality contrast, and pro-drop violations. The third layer applied Shapero's oddity criteria (melodrama, mundane details, instructions). Fictional notes showed higher frequencies of insight words, causation expressions, melodramatic elements, and overt pronoun use. Genuine notes exhibited markedly higher rates of artık, mundane details, and concrete instructions. Gender distribution revealed notable asymmetry: genuine note writers were predominantly male, consistent with Turkey's suicide statistics, whereas female characters predominated in fictional notes. The results demonstrate that Turkish-specific parameters—particularly artık as a lexical manifestation of cognitive constriction and the forgiveness formula as a cultural death ritual—offer salient forensic indicators. The study proposes a preliminary checklist for assessing text authenticity in suspicious death cases.
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