Intentionality and body language

AMCrenshaw

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What happens when our body language betrays our spoken word? If Derrida were watching, would we really be saying what we mean and what we don't in one fell swoop?

I.e., When i tell my girlfriend i love her and want a forever future with her and she throws up a little but then says "luv u 2".
 

frimble3

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What happens when our body language betrays our spoken word? If Derrida were watching, would we really be saying what we mean and what we don't in one fell swoop?

I.e., When i tell my girlfriend i love her and want a forever future with her and she throws up a little but then says "luv u 2".
It might not be a betrayal.

She might not be throwing up at the thought of being married to you, but because of the release of tension, at hearing the words she's wanted to hear. Or because you'd finally committed, and it caught her off guard, and it took a minute to wrap her head around it.

Hard to say without knowing more about her and the relationship, but it might not be as simple as 'body language betraying the spoken word'.
 

MaeZe

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I'm not sure what your example represents but I don't believe many people throw up a little when they are lying or disgusted. I hear this meme on occasion from Stephanie Miller (comedian, political commentary) but to me, that simply doesn't make sense physiologically.

You might burp a bit of bile into your throat for many varied reasons, I'm not sure lying is one of them.

So back to real tells someone is lying. There are a number of disproven myths that when lying, people do certain repeatable things like put their hand to their hair. It's fine to create something like that in fiction, your character always does X when lying and the other character knows that. But research has debunked it.

On the other hand, I hear people dismiss being able to detect lies but there is some research on micro-inconsistencies being a reliable indicator of untruths. For example the person saying, "Love you too" might have a brief opposite emotion cross their face just before they smile.

5 Signs of Lying That Aren’t as Foolproof as You’d Think Discusses the myths but goes on to describe micro-expressions.

How to Detect Lies: Micro Expressions

Of course, none of this is fool-proof enough to use in a court; like lie detectors, there is an error rate. And some people believe their lies so there is always that.
 

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I'm puzzled regarding the OP's purpose. Locking this until the Mod is available.
 

AMCrenshaw

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More on the lines that deconstruction is something we do with texts.

A text at once communicates its theme but also its opposite.

Body language while not a text goes thru some of the same processes of communication. We "read into" body language.

Is it possible to actually say what one means and the opposite, both in figurative and literal ways?