An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics

250 Pages·2007·1.39 MB·English

by  Malcolm Coulthard

An Introduction to Forensic
Linguistics
‘Seldom do introductions to any fi eld offer such a wealth of information or provide such a useful
array of exercise activities for students in the way that this book does. Coulthard and Johnson not
only provide their readers with extensive examples of the actual evidence used in the many law cases
described here but they also show how the linguist’s “toolkit” was used to address the litigated issues.
In doing this, they give valuable insights about how forensic linguists think, do their analyses and, in
some cases, even testify at trial.’
Roger W. Shuy, Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus,
Georgetown University
‘This is a wonderful textbook for students, providing stimulating examples, lucid accounts of relevant
linguistic theory and excellent further reading and activities. The foreign language of law is also
expertly documented, explained and explored. Language as evidence is cast centre stage; coupled with
expert linguistic analysis, the written and spoken clues uncovered by researchers are foregrounded
in unfolding legal dramas. Coulthard and Johnson have produced a clear and compelling work that
contains its own forensic linguistic puzzle.’
Annabelle Mooney, Roehampton University, UK
From the accusation of plagiarism surrounding 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 fi fteen years. An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics provides a timely and accessible
introduction to this rapidly expanding subject.
Using knowledge and experience gained in legal settings – Coulthard in his work as an
expert witness and Johnson in her work as a West Midlands police offi cer – the two authors
combine an array of perspectives into a distinctly unifi ed textbook, focusing throughout on
evidence from real and often high profi le cases including serial killer Harold Shipman, the
Bridgewater Four and the Birmingham Six.
Divided into two parts, The Language of the Legal Process and Language as Evidence, the
book covers the key topics of the fi eld. The fi rst part 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 part 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 and suggestions for further reading provided at the end of each
chapter, An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics is the essential textbook for courses in
forensic linguistics and the language of the law.
Malcolm Coulthard is Professor of Forensic Linguistics at Aston University, UK and
Alison Johnson is Lecturer in English Language at the University of Leeds, UK.

An Introduction to Forensic
Linguistics
Language in Evidence
Malcolm Coulthard and Alison Johnson
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Malcolm Coulthard and Alison Johnson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Coulthard, Malcolm.
An introduction to forensic linguistics : language in evidence /
Malcolm Coulthard and Alison Johnson.
p. cm.
1. Forensic linguistics. I. Johnson, Alison, 1959– II. Title.
K2287.5.C68 2007
363.25—dc22 2007040179
ISBN 0-203-96971-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 10: 0–415–32024–0 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0–415–32023–2 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0–203–96971–5 (ebk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–32024–5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–415–32023–8 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978–0–203–96971–7 (ebk)
This book is dedicated to our families
Carmen Rosa and David
Simon and Zel, Richard,
Flavio and Bela, Catherine,
Robert and Regina, Rebekah and Chris,
Adam and Jayne, Robert,
Sylvia and Wob, Michael and Geraldine
Josh, Sam, Luc, Zander, Sienna, Max, Joe and Rory

Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
Introduction – falsifi cation, plagiarism, trademarks and hoax 1
A brief history of forensic linguistics 5
On forensic discourse analysis 7
Organisation of the book 8
Reading and research tasks and how they function 9
PART I
The language of the legal process 11
1 Approaching a forensic text 13
Introduction 13
Approaching a forensic text – discourse and text analytic tools for
forensic contexts 14
The texts 17
Text analysis 24
Some contrastive observations on the texts 32
Conclusion 33
Further reading 33
Research tasks 34
2 The language of the law 35
Introduction 35
Legal style and register 37
Ordinary and special meanings 46
On applying the law 48
Conclusion 50
viii Contents
Further reading 51
Research tasks 52
3 Legal genres 54
Introduction 55
Defi ning ‘genre’ – functional hybridity 55
Legal contexts 62
Conclusion 68
Further reading 69
Research tasks 69
4 Collecting evidence: calls to the emergency services and
fi rst encounters with witnesses and suspects 71
Introduction 71
First encounters – calls to the emergency services 72
Policespeak, lawyerspeak and listening 76
Police interviews – from talk to text and text to talk 80
Police interviews and social interaction 82
Vulnerable witnesses – on interviewing children and rape
victims 87
Conclusion 93
Further reading 93
Research tasks 93
5 Order in court 95
Introduction: into the courtroom 95
The trial as a complex genre 96
Two discourse types: narrative and question–answer 97
Witnesses and evidence in trials 111
Conclusion 116
Further reading 117
Research tasks 117
PART II
Language as evidence 119
6 The work of the forensic linguist 121
Introduction 121
Morphological meaning and phonetic similarity 121
Syntactic complexity in a letter 123
Lexico-grammatical ambiguity 124
Contents ix
Lexical meaning 125
Pragmatic meaning 128
The recording of interaction in written form – police interview
notes 132
Narrative analysis of a disputed statement 135
The challenges for non-native speakers 137
Conclusion 142
Further reading 142
Research tasks 142
7 The work of the forensic phonetician and the document
examiner 144
The work of the forensic phonetician 144
Transcription 144
Speaker profi ling 148
Speaker identifi cation by professionals 148
Voice line-ups and Naïve Speaker Recognition 152
The work of the document analyst 156
Conclusion 159
Further reading 160
Research tasks 160
8 Idiolect and uniqueness of encoding 161
Introduction 161
Early interest in authorship attribution 163
Cusum 167
Specifi c analyses 169
A case report 173
Conclusion 180
Further reading 180
Research tasks 180
9 On textual borrowing 184
Introduction 184
The history of plagiarism 185
Universities and plagiarism 186
Do people repeat themselves? 191
The evidential value of single identical strings 196
Coda 198
Further reading 198
Research tasks 198