It is widely known within the field of law that these lexical ambiguities exist, and rules, such as the rule of lenity, have been put in place to help mitigate their impact. For example, " The priest married my sister." This could be interpreted as the priest and the sister getting married or as the priest performing the marriage ceremony for the sister.įorensic linguists or lawyers may look for ambiguities within laws to help prove their cases. Lexical ambiguity: when a piece of language can be interpreted in more than one way. Svartvik conducted a linguistic analysis of Evan's police statements, a man accused of murdering his wife and child, and he found many inconsistencies between the grammatical style and register of the statements and Evan's usual writing style. In 1968, the linguist Jan Svartvik first used the term forensic linguistics in an official capacity in his book The Evans Statements: A Case for Forensic Linguistics. It was found that the police were not presenting suspects or witnesses' statements in a complete or truthful way, and linguistic information that we would now deem to be essential, such as pauses, backtracking, and minor details, was often missing. In the UK, forensic linguistics began growing in popularity due to the mounting distrust in the authenticity of police statements. Today, similar questions are raised when dealing with non-native English speakers. Several concerns were raised about whether people across the country could actually understand the language used within the Miranda warning, and in 1966 the language was standardized in English. Police officers in the USA often relay them to you after they detain you during a criminal investigation. A Miranda warning in the USA reminds you of your legal rights. This linguistic mishap revealed the writer of the ransom note to, in fact, be a member of Duncan's family.įurther calls for linguistic forensics were made in the USA in the mid-1900s due to lexical ambiguities within the Miranda warning. Duncan was the only person in the family to spell his name McLure instead of McClure. A ransom note to a man named Duncan McLure from an apparent stranger spelled Duncan's last name in a way that only a close friend or relative would know how. The history of forensic linguistics can be traced back to a case in the USA in 1927. The term forensics means scientific evidence or testing used in relation to criminology. Let's now look at the history behind forensic linguistics before taking a closer look at each of these areas of study. Linguistic evidence (e.g., comparing writing styles in presented evidence to the writing styles of the accused).The language used in the judicial and forensic process (e.g., the language used by police during questioning, for example, did they use leading questions?).The language used in written law (e.g., the semantics behind a written law can impact someone's verdict).Typically speaking, forensic linguistics covers three main areas of study: Prosecutors and lawyers can use forensic linguistics when compiling evidence to help them prove who is innocent and who is guilty based on idiosyncratic language use (such as in the case of Derek Bentley) however, this isn't the only use of forensic linguistics. As a discipline, forensic linguistics involves analyzing spoken and written language to look for evidence that can be used in a legal case. Forensic Linguistics Definitionīefore we look at the purpose, history, and some example case studies of forensic linguistics, let's look at a basic definition:įorensic linguistics: a branch of applied linguistics that involves the application of linguistic knowledge and methods to legal and criminal issues. Today, forensic linguistics has multiple branches and is used by many different experts for purposes such as criminal investigations, trials, examining the language used within law, and more. This is a perfect example of forensic linguistics. This led prosecutors to rule that the confession had been tampered with by the police. The linguist Malcolm Coulthard studied Bentley's confession and found several instances in which the language within the letter was inconsistent with Bentley's idiolect (personal use of language). Although pardons are not uncommon, this one was unique as it was one of the first times in history forensic linguistics was responsible for the pardon. In 1993, Bently received a posthumous (after death) royal pardon, and his name was cleared. In 1952, a man named Derek Bentley was trialed and ultimately sentenced to death for the murder of a policeman.
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