Syntactic Distortions and Cohesive devices in the Language of Scam Mails

Abstract

This paper is a contribution to the description and characterization of the language of scam emails. It focuses on syntactic distortions and grammatical cohesion in the mails to reveal the inherent deceit hidden in the language used by scammers. In all, two scam mails were presented and analysed from the perspective of pronominal reference. Twenty-four other excerpts were extracted from other emails and analysed; twelve from the point of view of syntactic distortions; and thirteen from other aspects of syntactic cohesion. At the level of syntactic distortion, the language of these emails contradicts the educational and social status claimed by the creators of the mails while the use of reference focuses much more on the writers to reveal their selfishness in the presumed business. Essentially, it was discovered that people fall victim to these emails partly due to greediness. This is so because there is inherent deceit in the language of the mails.