Introduction

In fact, linguistics can be studied without involving any further consequence. However, there are
various areas that linguistic knowledge can be indispensable. One of the areas is Forensic
linguistics. Forensic linguistics is the name given to a number of sub-disciplines with in applied
linguistics, and which relate to the interface between language, the law and crime. Forensic
linguistics takes linguistic knowledge and methods and applies these to the forensic context of
law, investigation, trial, and punishment. The study of the language of the law including the
language of legal documents the language of the courts, the police, and prisons.

Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the application

of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime
investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of applied linguistics.

There are principally three areas of application for linguists working in forensic contexts:

 understanding language of the written law,

 understanding language use in forensic and judicial processes, and
 the provision of linguistic evidence.
What Is Forensic Linguistics?
There is both a broad and a narrow definition of Forensic Linguistics (Coulthard & Johnson,
2010). The broad definition subsumes three sub-areas, a) the Written Language of the Law, b)
Spoken Interaction in Legal Contexts and c) Language as Evidence, while the narrow definition
restricts the discipline to Language as Evidence alone. For the purposes of this assignment, we
will adopt the different definition and concentrate on the work of the forensic linguist as expert
witness.

Forensic Linguistics is, rather, the application of linguistic knowledge to a particular social
setting, namely the legal forum (from which the word forensic is derived). In its broadest sense
we may say that Forensic Linguistics is the interface between language, crime and law, where
law includes law enforcement, judicial matters, legislation, disputes or proceedings in law, and
even disputes which only potentially involve some infraction of the law or some necessity to
seek a legal remedy. Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the
application of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law,
language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. Forensic linguistics, which is
sometimes referred to as forensic stylistics, is a branch of linguistics that focuses on taking the
analytical techniques of that field and applying them to legal and criminal issues as far-ranging
as trial, investigation, rehabilitation and punishment.

As a discipline, forensic linguistics reviews spoken and written materials and, using the scientific
techniques of linguistics, analyzes them. This branch of linguistics is concerned with such things
as determining who authored a written document and identifying speakers of oral material, such
as taped conversations. Forensic linguistics also measures as well as determines both the content
and meaning of both spoken and written material. In deciding authorship, the technique used in
the field of forensic linguistics is to study a written communication and compare its spelling,
grammar, vocabulary, tone and sentence structure to known writings from the suspect to
determine whether he or she wrote it. An example might be a suicide note whose legitimacy is in
question. This type of analysis is particularly useful in threat assessment, where a ransom note or
a menacing email, letter or text message has been received. For example, in the case of
threatened workplace or school violence, specific word usage can give law enforcement officials
insight into how likely it is that action will follow.

Forensic Linguistics is a relative newcomer to the arena, whereas other disciplines, such as
fingerprint identification and shoeprint analysis, are much older, having a well-established
presence in judicial processes. These same forensic linguistic tools are useful in the investigation
of false allegations as well as in analysis of statements and confessions. In those instances,
forensic linguistic analysis is used to establish the truthfulness of the writer's or speaker’s words,
the information that is conveyed by choice of words and the mention of any little-known
information. By studying these things, forensic linguistics can suggest the most effective
approach to take with an individual suspect, witness or victim.

An analysis of oral communications can also be done through the use of forensic linguistics.
Forensic phonetics is a sub-field of forensic linguistics and deals with voice or speaker
identification analysis. The tools used in this type of forensic linguistic analysis are not only the
acoustical sounds of the voice but also special language-use patterns such as vocabulary,
pronunciation and grammar, which can reveal a speaker’s national, regional and social
background. In short, whether in written or oral communications, forensic linguistics develops a
collection of markers that brands a specific speaker or writer as unique and, ultimately,
establishes a kind of linguistic "fingerprint" that can be used to determine guilt or innocence.
In deciding authorship, the technique used in the field of forensic linguistics is to study a written
communication and compare its spelling, grammar, vocabulary, tone and sentence structure to
known writings from the suspect to determine whether he or she wrote it. An example might be a
suicide note whose legitimacy is in question. This type of analysis is particularly useful in threat
assessment, where a ransom note or a menacing email, letter or text message has been received.
For example, in the case of threatened workplace or school violence, specific word usage can
give law enforcement officials’ insight into how likely it is that action will follow.
A brief history of Forensic Linguistics

Like almost all sciences it is not possible to say that Forensic Linguistics began at a specific
moment in time. Although there is evidence of questioning of language use in relation to legal
contexts as far back as the Judgment of Solomon in the Bible, It is only recently that forensic
linguistics has become established as a branch of applied linguistics in its own right. The term,
Forensic Linguistics was first coined by Swedish linguist Jan Svartvik in 1968 in his case
study The Evans Statements: A case for Forensic Linguistics. In this study Svartvik analysed
several statements supposedly made by Timothy John Evans, who was executed in 1950 for the
murders of his wife and baby daughter. Svartvik demonstrated that there were a number of
stylistic differences between the statements and this raised serious questions regarding their
authorship.

For a long period in English law a set of rules had been established regarding the interrogation of
witnesses, in particular how statements were to be taken from them. These prescriptions were
known simply as Judges' Rules which laid down that suspects were to dictate their narrative to
police officers, that police officers were not to interrupt suspects, and that questions were not to
be asked of the suspect at the statement stage except for minor clarifications. In practice this
almost never happened. Typically, a police officer would ask a series of questions, take down
notes and then write or type the suspect's
 Three sub-areas: Forensic
The three sub-areas: Forensic Authorship Analysis, Disputed Meaning and Cybercrime.

Forensic Authorship Analysis occupies an important position within the forensic sciences. It is
an inherently interdisciplinary field situated at the intersection of the disciplines of Linguistics
and Law. Essentially linguists undertake the analysis of written texts in order to discover
distinctive linguistic features of an author’s style.

Disputed Meaning, usually single words or short phrases. Linguists have been involved in
clarifying meanings in legal contracts, in helping courts to decide if particular phrases constitute
libel, slander or defamation or if given stretches of language constitute a threat or are evidence of
a hate crime. There are also cases where suspects are deliberately using non-standard or coded
language to disguise the nature of the crime being discussed and in such cases the linguist draws
on urban dictionaries and in-group communications to elucidate for the court.

Cybercrime, a label used to refer to crimes perpetrated online, using such communication
technologies as computers, smartphones and other wireless devices. It subsumes hate crimes,
threats, slander, libel and defamation as well as fraud, identity theft (especially the creation of
fake profiles in the social media, such as Facebook), electronic vandalism and violation of
intellectual property rights, as part of both organised and unorganised crime. Forensic linguists
work with computer scientists in combatting such crimes.

Conclusion
Legal genres, their styles and modes of interaction and the social practices, roles and participant
relationships that they produce, constitute complex interrelationships between text and context.
Legal genres are the way they are because of the communicative practices that they employ and
the functions that they serve in legal and world contexts. Police statements and courtroom
discourse are rich in spatial and temporal expressions, because of the work they do in situating
the talk. If we want to fully account for what the language is doing or what the speaker is doing
through use of language, we have to take account of the context of use and the linguistic choices
that are made. Holmes discusses the linguistic choices that reflect to a greater or lesser degree
one or more of the following speech situation components.
Reference
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