Applying the Science of Linguistics to Issues of the Law Robert A
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Ehrensperger Report
American Name Society 51st Annual Ehrensperger Report 2005 A Publication of the American Name Society Michael F. McGoff, Editor PREFACE After a year’s hiatus the Ehrensperger Report returns to its place as a major publication of the American Name Society (ANS). This document marks the 51st year since its introduction to the membership by Edward C. Ehrensperger. For over twenty-five years, from 1955 to 1982, he compiled and published this annual review of scholarship. Edward C. Ehrensperger 1895-1984 As usual, it is a partial view of the research and other activity going on in the world of onomastics, or name study. In a report of this kind, the editor must make use of what comes in, often resulting in unevenness. Some of the entries are very short; some extensive, especially from those who are reporting not just for themselves but also for the activity of a group of people. In all cases, I have assumed the prerogative of an editor and have abridged, clarified, and changed the voice of many of the submissions. I have encouraged the submission of reports by email or electronically, since it is much more efficient to edit text already typed than to type the text myself. For those not using email, I strongly encourage sending me written copy. There is some danger, however, in depending on electronic copy: sometimes diacritical marks or other formatting matters may not have come through correctly. In keeping with the spirit of onomastics and the original Ehrensperger Report, I have attempted where possible to report on research and publication under a person’s name. -
Preprint Corpus Analysis in Forensic Linguistics
Nini, A. (2020). Corpus analysis in forensic linguistics. In Carol A. Chapelle (ed), The Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, 313-320, Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell Corpus Analysis in Forensic Linguistics Andrea Nini Abstract This entry is an overview of the applications of corpus linguistics to forensic linguistics, in particular to the analysis of language as evidence. Three main areas are described, following the influence that corpus linguistics has had on them in recent times: the analysis of texts of disputed authorship, the provision of evidence in cases of trademark disputes, and the analysis of disputed meanings in criminal or civil cases. In all of these areas considerable advances have been made that revolve around the use of corpus data, for example, to study forensically realistic corpora for authorship analysis, or to provide naturally occurring evidence in cases of trademark disputes or determination of meaning. Using examples from real-life cases, the entry explains how corpus analysis is therefore gradually establishing itself as the norm for solving certain forensic problems and how it is becoming the main methodological approach for forensic linguistics. Keywords Authorship Analysis; Idiolect; Language as Evidence; Ordinary Meaning; Trademark This entry focuses on the use of corpus linguistics methods and techniques for the analysis of forensic data. “Forensic linguistics” is a very general term that broadly refers to two areas of investigation: the analysis of the language of the law and the analysis of language evidence in criminal or civil cases. The former, which often takes advantage of corpus methods, includes areas as wide as the study of the language of the judicial process and courtroom interaction (e.g., Tkačuková, 2015), the study of written legal documents (e.g., Finegan, 2010), and the investigation of interactions in police interviews (e.g., Carter, 2011). -
CURRICULUM VITAE Roger W. Shuy, Ph.D. 2014 DEGREES
CURRICULUM VITAE Roger W. Shuy, Ph.D. 2014 Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus Georgetown University, Washington, DC Current Office: Roger W. Shuy, Inc. 629 Beverly Avenue Missoula, Montana 59801-5919 Tel: 406-721-5559 [email protected] www.rogershuy.com DEGREES Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, 1962, English and Linguistics M.A., Kent State University, 1954, English B.A., Wheaton College (Illinois), 1952, English ACADEMIC POSITIONS Georgetown University, Washington, DC • Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, 1998-Present • Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, 1996-98 • Professor of Linguistics, 1968-1996 • Head of Sociolinguistics Program, 1968-1987 • Linguistics Department Chair, 1987-1990 • Center for Applied Linguistics o Head, Sociolinguistics Program, 1967-70 o Associate Director, 1971-80 (part time) o Senior Linguist, 1980-85 (part time) Michigan State University, Associate Professor of Linguistics, 1964-67 Wheaton College, Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics, 1958-64 Secondary School English Teacher, Akron, Ohio, 1956-58 PUBLICATIONS – BOOKS LANGUAGE AND LAW BOOKS Language Crimes. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993 (reprinted 1996). The Language of Confession, Interrogation and Deception. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1998. Bureaucratic Language in Government and Business. Washington DC: Georgetown Univ. Press, 1998. Linguistic Battles in Trademark Disputes. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. Creating Language Crimes. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2005. Linguistics in the Courtroom: A Practical Guide. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006. Fighting Over Words. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2007. The Language of Defamation Cases. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2010. The Language of Perjury Cases. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2011. The Language of Sexual Misconduct Cases. -
Uncorrected Proof
L N C O 002 Operator: Simon Wang Dispatch: 05.01.07 PE: Andrew Humphries Journal Name Manuscript No. Proofreader: Wu YM No. of Page: 15 Editor: Mandy Tang Language and Linguistics Compass 1 (2007): 10.1111/j.1749-818x.2007.00002.x 1Language in the American Courtroom Roger W. Shuy* Georgetown University Abstract One of the most promising connections that linguistics can make to other fields is to the legal arena, primarily because much of the work in law is done in language and it is often largely about language, either spoken or written. For example, lawsuits, indictments, pleadings, briefs, legal opinions, and, of course, laws and statutes are all revealed and preserved in written language. Courtroom appearances and testimony, although presented orally, end up in written form and even oral evidence gets transformed into written transcripts. We begin with the observation that language and law are close bedfellows. 1. The beginnings. The development of any new area of any discipline usually begins when practitioners of that field get involved with it in a noticeable way.In forensic linguistics,this development started when various linguists made appearances in the courtroom setting. But even ªcourtroom settingº has different implications and meanings. For example, in Europe, it is often judges who call upon experts to analyze evidence. Expert reports are read by judges, who may, but usually do not, ask the experts to testify about their reports at trial. This contrasts with the common procedure in the United States, where experts are called by one side of the case and give testimony on behalf of that side. -
Identifying Idiolect in Forensic Authorship Attribution: an N-Gram Textbite Approach Alison Johnson & David Wright University of Leeds
Identifying idiolect in forensic authorship attribution: an n-gram textbite approach Alison Johnson & David Wright University of Leeds Abstract. Forensic authorship attribution is concerned with identifying authors of disputed or anonymous documents, which are potentially evidential in legal cases, through the analysis of linguistic clues left behind by writers. The forensic linguist “approaches this problem of questioned authorship from the theoretical position that every native speaker has their own distinct and individual version of the language [. ], their own idiolect” (Coulthard, 2004: 31). However, given the diXculty in empirically substantiating a theory of idiolect, there is growing con- cern in the Veld that it remains too abstract to be of practical use (Kredens, 2002; Grant, 2010; Turell, 2010). Stylistic, corpus, and computational approaches to text, however, are able to identify repeated collocational patterns, or n-grams, two to six word chunks of language, similar to the popular notion of soundbites: small segments of no more than a few seconds of speech that journalists are able to recognise as having news value and which characterise the important moments of talk. The soundbite oUers an intriguing parallel for authorship attribution studies, with the following question arising: looking at any set of texts by any author, is it possible to identify ‘n-gram textbites’, small textual segments that characterise that author’s writing, providing DNA-like chunks of identifying ma- terial? Drawing on a corpus of 63,000 emails and 2.5 million words written by 176 employees of the former American energy corporation Enron, a case study approach is adopted, Vrst showing through stylistic analysis that one Enron em- ployee repeatedly produces the same stylistic patterns of politely encoded direc- tives in a way that may be considered habitual. -
Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics 20Th Annual Round Table
Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics lumber 22, 1969 edited by James E. Alatis 20th Annual Round Table Linguistics and the Teaching of Standard English To Speakers of Other Languages or Dialects Georgetown University School of Languages and Linguistics REPORT OF THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL ROUND TABLE MEETING ON LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE STUDIES JAMES E. ALATIS EDITOR GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington, D.C. 20007 © Copyright 1970 GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 58-31607 Lithographed in U.S.A. by EDWARDS BROTHERS, INC. Ann Arbor, Michigan CONTENTS Introduction vii WELCOMING REMARKS Reverend Frank Fadner, S. J. Regent, School of Languages and Linguistics xi Dean Robert Lado Dean, School of Languages and Linguistics xiii FIRST SESSION Theoretical Linguistics and Its Implications for Teaching SESOLD Chairman: Charles W. Kreidler, Georgetown University William Labov The Logic of Nonstandard English 1 Raven I. McDavid, Jr. A Theory of Dialect 45 Rudolph C. Troike Receptive Competence, Productive Competence, and Performance 63 Charles T. Scott Transformational Theory and English as a Second Language/Dialect 75 David W. Reed Linguistics and Literacy 93 FIRST LUNCHEON ADDRESS Harold B. Allen The Basic Ingredient 105 iv / CONTENTS SECOND SESSION Applied Linguistics and the Teaching of SESOLD: Materials, Methods, and Techniques Chairman: David P. Harris, Georgetown University Peter S. Rosenbaum Language Instruction and the Schools 111 Betty W. Robinett Teacher Training for English as a Second Dialect and English as a Second Language: The Same or Different? 121 Eugene J. Briere Testing ESL Skills among American Indian Children 133 Bernard Spolsky Linguistics and Language Pedagogy—Applications or Implications ? 143 THIRD SESSION Sociolinguistics: Sociocultural Factors in Teaching SESOLD Chairman: A. -
An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence
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. -
Being Pragmatic About Forensic Linguistics Edward K
Journal of Law and Policy Volume 21 Issue 2 SYMPOSIUM: Article 12 Authorship Attribution Workshop 2013 Being Pragmatic About Forensic Linguistics Edward K. Cheng, J.D. Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp Recommended Citation Edward K. Cheng, J.D., Being Pragmatic About Forensic Linguistics, 21 J. L. & Pol'y (2013). Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol21/iss2/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Law and Policy by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. BEING PRAGMATIC ABOUT FORENSIC LINGUISTICS Edward K. Cheng* If my late colleague Margaret Berger taught me anything about evidence, it was that the field seldom yields easy answers. After all, law is necessarily a pragmatic discipline, especially when it comes to matters of proof. Courts must make their best decisions given the available evidence. They have neither the luxury of waiting for better, nor the ability to conjure up, evidence (or new technologies) that they wished they had. Scholars, by contrast, are naturally attracted to the ideal, sometimes like moths to a flame. Ideals reflect the values and commitments of our society, and they provide the goals that inspire and guide research. But when assessing a new field like forensic linguistics as a legal academic, one needs to carefully separate the ideal from the pragmatic. For when it comes to real cases, evidence law can ill afford to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Bearing this admonition firmly in mind, this article aims to provide some legal context to the Authorship Attribution Workshop (“conference”). -
About the AAFS
American Academy of Forensic Sciences 410 North 21st Street Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904 Phone: (719) 636-1100 Email: [email protected] Website: www.aafs.org @ AAFS Publication 20-2 Copyright © 2020 American Academy of Forensic Sciences Printed in the United States of America Publication Printers, Inc., Denver, CO Typography by Kathy Howard Cover Art by My Creative Condition, Colorado Springs, CO WELCOME LETTER Dear Attendees, It is my high honor and distinct privilege to welcome you to the 72nd AAFS Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim, California. I would like to thank the AAFS staff, the many volunteers, and everyone else who have worked together to create an excellent program for this meeting with the theme Crossing Borders. You will have many opportunities to meet your colleagues and discuss new challenges in the field. There are many workshops and special sessions that will be presented. The Interdisciplinary and Plenary Sessions will provide different views in forensic science—past, present, and future. The Young Forensic Scientists Forum will celebrate its 25th Anniversary and is conducting a workshop related to the meeting theme. More than 1,000 presentations are scheduled that will provide you with more insight into the developments in forensic science. The exhibit hall, always interesting to explore, is where you will see the latest forensic science equipment, technology, and literature. The theme Crossing Borders was chosen by me and my colleagues at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI). We see many definitions of crossing borders in forensic science today. For the 2020 meeting, six words starting with the letters “IN” are included in the theme. -
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas Page 1 1/9/2009
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas Page 1 1/9/2009 Bibliography on multilingualism, multilingual and Indigenous/minority education, linguistic human rights, language and power, the subtractive spread of English, the relationship between linguistic diversity and biodiversity, etc.. Last updated in January 2009. This private bibliography (around 946,000 bytes, over 127,00 words, around 5.350 entries, 313 pages in Times Roman 12) contains all the references I (Tove Skutnabb-Kangas) have used in what I have published since 1988. There may be errors (and certainly moving to Mac has garbled references in Kurdish, Greek, etc). I have not been able to delete all the doubles (and there are several) but am doing it when I see them. If an article says “In XX (ed)” and page numbers, the book itself will be found under the editor’s name. I have not checked the bibliography - still I hope it may be useful for some people. My own publications are also here in alphabetical order, but for more recent ones check my old web page http://akira.ruc.dk/~tovesk/ which is updated more often. Or, from December 2008 onwards, the new one, www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org which is under construction. For (my husband) Robert Phillipson's publications, check his webpage, www.cbs.dk/staff/phillipson (I do not have all his publications here). All websites here were up-to-date when I put them in but I do not check them regularly. – Comments and additions are very welcome! Abadzi, Helen (2006). Efficient Learning for the Poor. Insights from the Fontier of Cognitive Neuroscience. -
Towards an Index of Idiolectal Similitude (Or Distance) in Forensic Authorship Analysis M
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Brooklyn Law School: BrooklynWorks Journal of Law and Policy Volume 21 Issue 2 SYMPOSIUM: Article 10 Authorship Attribution Workshop 2013 Towards an Index of Idiolectal Similitude (Or Distance) In Forensic Authorship Analysis M. Teresa Turell, Ph.D. Nuria Gavalda Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp Recommended Citation M. Teresa Turell, Ph.D. & Nuria Gavalda, Towards an Index of Idiolectal Similitude (Or Distance) In Forensic Authorship Analysis, 21 J. L. & Pol'y (2013). Available at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/jlp/vol21/iss2/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Law and Policy by an authorized editor of BrooklynWorks. TOWARDS AN INDEX OF IDIOLECTAL SIMILITUDE (OR DISTANCE) IN FORENSIC AUTHORSHIP ANALYSIS M. Teresa Turell* and Núria Gavaldà* I. INTRODUCTION Forensic linguistics is a discipline concerned with the study of language in any judicial context. The framework for the present article is the area of forensic linguistics known as Language as Evidence, where a sample or several samples of oral or written linguistic productions of one or more individuals may constitute evidence in a judicial process. In these cases, linguists acting as expert witnesses in court must compare two (sets of) samples, i.e., the nondisputed sample, the authorship of which cannot be questioned, and the disputed sample, the authorship of which is questioned, to determine the linguistic differences and similarities that the samples show and to try to reach a conclusion regarding the possibility that they have been produced by the same individual. -
Language and Persuasion BOA V1
Influence, Manipulation & Seduction Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Persuasive Language Basel / Online, Nov 20-21, 2020 Book of Abstracts About the Conference How can we get someone to behave in a way that they initially did not intend? And how can we change what our interlocutor thinks about a certain issue? We use language to ‘convince’, ‘persuade’, ‘cajole’, or ‘coax’ our counterpart into a certain behavior or state of mind. These are activities we engage in constantly, usually even without conscious thought. It is words that have the power to mold and influence opinions, attitudes, and behavior. This persuasive power of language is at the center of this symposium. Linguists have traditionally examined the workings of persuasive language in institutionalized discourses. As genres inherently characterized by persuasion, it is not surprising then that advertising and politics have enjoyed the limelight of scholarly attention here; investigations of the features of persuasive language in TV, radio, and print advertisements as well as political speeches, interviews, and press conferences abound. Persuasion has also been studied extensively in the fields of rhetoric and critical discourse analysis (CDA). The aim of this symposium is to expand the research of persuasive language to other genres and domains (like advice-giving, dating, or sales encounters) and to engage with language and persuasion from other perspectives which have opened up due to technological advances (computer-mediated communication), social changes (globalized and networked publics), and methodological progress (big data and digital humanities, sophisticated statistical and phonetic tools for data analysis). The symposium on persuasive language brings linguists together with scholars from the fields of psychology, sociology, and media, information, cultural, and internet studies to examine persuasion from new perspectives.