An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence

Front Cover
Routledge, Nov 28, 2007 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 256 pages

From the accusation of plagiarism in The Da Vinci Code, to the infamous hoaxer in the Yorkshire Ripper case, the use of linguistic evidence in court and the number of linguists called to act as expert witnesses in court trials has increased rapidly in the past fifteen years. An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence provides a timely and accessible introduction to this rapidly expanding subject.

Using knowledge and experience gained in legal settings – Malcolm Coulthard in his work as an expert witness and Alison Johnson in her work as a West Midlands police officer – the two authors combine an array of perspectives into a distinctly unified textbook, focusing throughout on evidence from real and often high profile cases including serial killer Harold Shipman, the Bridgewater Four and the Birmingham Six.

Divided into two sections, 'The Language of the Legal Process' and 'Language as Evidence', the book covers the key topics of the field. The first section looks at legal language, the structures of legal genres and the collection and testing of evidence from the initial police interview through to examination and cross-examination in the courtroom. The second section focuses on the role of the forensic linguist, the forensic phonetician and the document examiner, as well as examining in detail the linguistic investigation of authorship and plagiarism.

With research tasks, suggested reading and website references provided at the end of each chapter, An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence is the essential textbook for courses in forensic linguistics and language of the law.

 

Contents

Acknowledgements
function 9
The language of the law 35
On applying the law 48
Legal genres 54
calls tothe emergency services and first encounters with witnesses
72
talk 80
The work of the forensic linguist 121
The recording of interaction in written form
Conclusion 142
The work of the forensic phonetician and
Further reading 160
Research tasks 180 9 On textual borrowing 184
The evidential value ofsingle identical strings
The linguist as expert witness 200

and rape victims87
Further reading 93
Order in court 95
task215
Index 232
Copyright

Other editions - View all

An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence
Malcolm Coulthard,Alison Johnson
Limited preview - 2007
An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence
Malcolm Coulthard,Alison Johnson
No preview available - 2007
An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence
Malcolm Coulthard,Alison Johnson
No preview available - 2007

Common terms and phrases

accused ambulance analysis andthe answer asked atthe authorship Bank of English Bentley’s Blair bythe canbe chapter claim complex context conversation corpus Cotterill Coulthard court courtroom cross­examination defence discourse document dossier English evidence examination example expert extracts 1.2 Forensic Linguistics frequent fromthe genres Gibbons grammatical Gricean maxims happened Harold Shipman Heffer Hutton Inquiry identify idiolect institutional interaction interpretation inthe involved irritable bowel syndrome isan judge jury lawyer legal language lexical Little Britain McDonald’s McMenamin meaning murder narrative notes ofthe onthe particular phonetic phonetician phrase plagiarism police interview police officers policeman present produced prosecution questions reading record relevant reports response sentence sequence Shipman Trial Solan speakers speech statement story suchas suspect talk tape­recorded texts thatis thatthe Theft Act 1968 thesame Tiersma tobe Tony Blair tothe transcript turn utterances verbs Vicky Pollard vocabulary voice what’s withthe witness words written Yeah

Bibliographic information

TitleAn Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence
AuthorsMalcolm Coulthard, Alison Johnson
PublisherRoutledge, 2007
ISBN1134361513, 9781134361519
Length256 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Language Arts & Disciplines / General
Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan