Complications in discourses on near-death experiences
Shima Solati, Ali Izanloo, Azam Estaji
نشریه پژوهشهای زبانشناسی September 17, 2024 DOI: 10.22108/jrl.2023.139623.1815 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Comparative discourse analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 100 |
| Population | 50 people claiming near-death experiences and 50 people asked to fabricate a near-death experience story, all from the TV program "Life After Life" |
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Keywords | Complications Lie Details |
| Key points | The authors argue that complications in Farsi NDE discourse fall into three categories: exemplifying, potentializing, and emphasis and scrutinizing. Comparing 50 self-described near-death experiencers with 50 people asked to fabricate stories, they report statistical differences between the groups in producing complications for all categories except potentializing and synonyms; liars produced fewer complications, while near-death experiencers produced more. |
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to find complications in Farsi discourse of Near-Death Experiences (NDE). We first examined the main categories of complications and then compared them in the stories of those who claimed to have near-death experience and those who were asked to fabricate a story about it. Through studying the stories of both groups, we found that complications in the discourses on near-death experience can be divided into three main categories: exemplifying, which is a secondary topic mentioned to make the main topic clear; potentializing, which is a secondary topic with a potential to turn into a main topic and, emphasis and scrutinizing; the former includes synonyms and repetitions, and the latter includes antonyms and words with overlapping meaning. Each of these categories were coded in the stories of 50 liars and 50 near-death experiencers from the TV program life after life. Except for the potentializing category and synonyms, statistics showed that there is a statistical difference between the two groups in terms of producing complications. We realized that liars produced fewer complications but near-death experiencers from the TV program produced more complications.