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arXiv · 2510.07579

Linguistic Patterns in Pandemic-Related Content: A Comparative Analysis of COVID-19, Constraint, and Monkeypox Datasets

Mkululi Sikosana·Sean Maudsley-Barton·Oluwaseun Ajao
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Abstract

This study conducts a computational linguistic analysis of pandemic-related online discourse to examine how language distinguishes health misinformation from factual communication. Drawing on three corpora: COVID-19 false narratives (n = 7588), general COVID-19 content (n = 10700), and Monkeypox-related posts (n = 5787), we identify significant differences in readability, rhetorical markers, and persuasive language use. COVID-19 misinformation exhibited markedly lower readability scores and contained over twice the frequency of fear-related or persuasive terms compared to the other datasets. It also showed minimal use of exclamation marks, contrasting with the more emotive style of Monkeypox content. These patterns suggest that misinformation employs a deliberately complex rhetorical style embedded with emotional cues, a combination that may enhance its perceived credibility. Our findings contribute to the growing body of work on digital health misinformation by highlighting linguistic indicators that may aid detection efforts. They also inform public health messaging strategies and theoretical models of crisis communication in networked media environments. At the same time, the study acknowledges limitations, including reliance on traditional readability indices, use of a deliberately narrow persuasive lexicon, and reliance on static aggregate analysis. Future research should therefore incorporate longitudinal designs, broader emotion lexicons, and platform-sensitive approaches to strengthen robustness.

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Mkululi Sikosana, Sean Maudsley-Barton, Oluwaseun Ajao. 2025-10-08. Linguistic Patterns in Pandemic-Related Content: A Comparative Analysis of COVID-19, Constraint, and Monkeypox Datasets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.07579

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