‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’: Truth negating implications and effects of an epistemic frame trap

Nao, Marion (2020). ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’: Truth negating implications and effects of an epistemic frame trap. Language & Communication, 73 pp. 18–28.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.01.009

Abstract

The paper theoretically examines the epistemic implications of the frame trap cued by the conversational use of the Shakespearean quote ‘The lady doth protest too much, methinks’, in which protestation of innocence is taken as evidence of guilt, as is its absence. The mechanism of frame trap is found to operate by recursive truth negation in the case of ongoing protestation (in keeping with the conversationally expected denial of false attribution) or its pre-emption in anticipation of further striction along with resistance. Problematically, both the implications and paradoxical effects of the expression thereby ‘evidence’ the guilt of its recipient.

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