Exploring Speech Acts in Suicide Notes from the Forensic Linguistics Approach: A Comparative Study of Chinese and American Cases

Abstract

Suicide notes are the information left by people who commit suicide. In these notes, people employ various speech strategies to express their emotion and will. The strategies and content in suicide note vary with culture. Using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and Chinese LIWC (CLIWC) programs, this study looks at the speech actions in suicide notes as well as the linguistic and affective traits of suicide notes from Chinese and American individuals. The results show that while expressive acts and social words are more prevalent in American notes, suggesting stronger social connectivity, forceful acts predominate in all countries. Chinese suicide notes, on the other hand, show more directed actions and a greater frequency of both good and negative feelings in these actions. Despite the study’s limitations due to the small sample size, it provides valuable insights into the cultural differences in the language of suicide and suggests directions for future research, including larger-scale analyses and the development of AI-driven tools for suicide prevention.