Forensic Linguistics: Can Words Help Solve A Crime?

Forensic Linguistics: Can
Words Help Solve

a Crime?
Margaret van Naerssen, Ph.D.

Smithsonian Institution
September 21, 2005
Forensic Sciences
September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 2

What I’ll Cover
• What Forensic Linguistics is /is Not

• How several types of cases might be
approached and
• Provide examples from various areas

Stereotypes
Not Study of Dead Languages Not Speaker of Many Languages
www.un.org

An International Leader in
Forensic Linguistics
Analyzed
• Taped conversations
• Taped speeches
• Taped interviews
• Written documents
Consulted on 500+ cases
Testified as expert witness
• 52 times Roger Shuy, Ph.D
• criminal & civil cases Prof Emeritus, retired
• 26 states Georgetown Univ.
• Impeachment trials in US Now in Montana
Senate & House of Repres. Sociolinguistics
• International Criminal Tribunal http://www.rogershuy.com
trials
An International Leader in
• International Association
of Forensic Linguists,
founding president
• Forensic Linguistics: The

International Journal of
Language and Law,
founding editor
• Expert witness reports on

-150 cases
-3 terrorist trials, Northern Ire. Malcolm Coulthard
-academic plagiarism, Hong Kong Prof. of English Language
-twice in Court of Appeal & Linguistics
1998 Derek Bentley Appeal University of Birmingham, UK
guilty verdict overturned Discourse Analysis
after 46 years (written, spoken)

Linguistics?
Scientific study of
human language
from various perspectives

Language As a Product of
Human Evolution
• Evolution of relevant anatomical parts

• Survival & social needs
• Long-term language changes, language death
• Long-term impact of environment & culture
Rudolph Zallinger, ASCENT OF MAN from “Early Man” (1965). Courtesy of TimeLife books.
http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/biology/archive/images/1678.html

Language as a Window
into the Mind
Structured system of mental representations

• Cognitive development, language & thought
• Language development: first & additional languages
• Study of meaning (semantics)

Language as a Means of
Communication &
Social Interaction
written
oral
non-verbal

Applied Linguistics
Application of
theories & knowledge from linguistics
to help solve problems
in the real world
Draws from other academic

disciplines including anthropology,
psychology, sociology, education,
testing & statistics, etc.
can be broadly defined as the interface
between
language & the law
in judicial & law enforcement settings
language law

Ballistics Forensic Entomology
• types of insects
• time/ life cycle
• targets
• quantity
• projectiles
http://folk.uio.no/mostarke/forens_ent/forensic_en
• residue tomology.html

Looking for Patterns
Like experts in other Forensic
Sciences---
Linguists look for patterns and

inconsistencies in patterns

Linguistic Resources
Analysis of recorded Conversation analysis Language testing Other analyses

speech using transcripts and analysis
1. What tools are available?

2. Am I the right person to do this?
3. Do I need more language samples & related
information?
Is it appropriate for me to collect this?

Conversation Analysis
• Examine the turns in a conversation
• Who? says what? when?
• Who introduces a new topic? How frequently is
new topic re-introduced by same person?
• How does the other person respond?
• Do the speakers appear understand each other?
• Do speakers overlap?
• What is the speaker doing with language?
and so on….
THE LEGAL QUESTION
Did the Russian immigrant,
Mr. K,
lie in his insurance claim interview &
in his claim application
in order to collect money

for roof damage repairs resulting
from a snow storm
on February 5?
Perjury?
Insurance Fraud?
4 Grounds for Perjury
1. Did the person understand the
questions?
2. Did the person intend to
deceive?
3. Did the person actually try to
deceive?
4. Was the deception related to
another charge in the case?
Direct Linguistic Evidence Needed
of oral interactions? Available?
Transcript of insurance
No direct evidence Interview ***
Handwritten police
reports of 2 home visits

Matching Patterns
oral interaction : Written records
insurance interview
transcript of
language testing interview insurance interview

Findings
1. No significant differences in patterns of
English use across testing & insurance
interviews.
2. Limited control of the past tense

(understanding & speaking) –only simple past
3. If specific time not mentioned, he seemed

to guess the time was Feb. 5, the day of
the snowstorm damage.
Have you ever…?
While you were living in the house…?

Common Q-ing Strategy
Earlier FEB 5 Later + Future
? OK ?
• Q1
• Q2
• Q3
• Q4
• Q5
• Q6
• Q7
• Q8
First Condition for Perjury
FAILS
Did the person understand the
question(s)?
Highly unlikely Mr. K

accurately understood
many of the relevant questions

No Evidence of Fraud

General Knowledge
vs
Expert Knowlege
Expert can’t testify on

what is considered
common or general knowledge

General Knowledge Expert Knowledge
Native-speaker judges, jury, lawyers

• Identify main bone structures • Speak language naturally
• Diagnose medical condition? • Have feel for meaning of a word
• No!
Linguistic experts should add more

Help in Investigations
or in Trials
• Provide investigative tools
• Assist in a legal case (investigation
or trial)
• Linguistic analysis, ALONE, frequently

doesn’t solve a case or win the argument
in court
• Can’t get inside of head

can be broadly defined as the interface between
language & the law in judicial & law enforcement settings
language law
*Research-based*
*“Live” Cases*
Handwriting & Document
Analysis
NOT Forensic Linguistics

Some Areas of
• Communication between law enforcement
officers and witnesses, suspects, etc.
• Comprehensibility of the police caution issued
to suspects
• Use of linguistic evidence in court
• Courtroom discourse
• Court & law enforcement interpreting &
translating

Aboriginal Justice
&
Asylum Issues
• Analyzes Australian Aboriginal
English in legal settings,
especially the courtroom &
educates law enforcement
• With team of linguists Diana Eades

worldwide, developed Australia and USA
Guidelines for the Use • Ph.D. The University of
of Language Analysis Queensland
in Relation to Questions Linguistic Anthropology
• Currently
of National Origin
Dept of Second Language Studies
in Refugee Cases University of Hawai'i at Manoa

also includes
• Phonological variation in identity
• Readability/comprehensibility of legal
documents
• Trademark disputes
• Authorship attribution, for both written &
spoken language, incl.
threatening communications
• Interviews with children in the legal
system
Phonological Variation:
Individual and Geographic
http://alt-usage-english.org/plosive_question.html

Help Identify Type of
“person of interest”

Phonology: Individual and
Geographic Variation
• Bomb threats to
Pan Am counter, LA
airport
• Disgruntled
employee (New Yorker)
sounded like
recordings of threats
William Labov, Ph.D.
Dept of Linguistics
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Papers/How
Igot.html University of Pennsylvania

Comprehensibility
• Comprehensibility of the police
caution issued to suspects
• Readability/comprehensibility of
legal documents
– Jury Instructions
– Contracts

Jury Instructions
• CALIFORNIA Supreme Court
Rulings & Penal code, Jury
instructions made simple,
August 26, 2005
Previous: Peter Tiersma, JD, Ph.D.

Linguist and Law Prof.
"Innocent misrecollection is not Loyola University,
uncommon.'‘ Los Angeles, CA
New:
"People sometimes honestly
forget things or make
mistakes about what they
remember.''
Bethany Dumas,
JD, Ph.D.
Dept. of English
University of Tennessee

Plain English?
• Notwithstanding anything to the contrary set
forth herein, in the event Buyer orders in writing
changes which are approved by Seller or selects
extras as provided in this Paragraph, any
required payments by Buyer made with respect
thereto are not refundable to Buyer under any
circumstances (including but not limited to the
provisions of Paragraph 7 hereof regarding
Buyer's inability to obtain a mortgage
commitment), unless settlement does not occur
because of Seller's default hereunder or unless
this Agreement is terminated pursuant to
Paragraph 25 hereof. (86 words) (housing contract case)
Pennsylvania Statutes
Trade and Commerce (Title 73)
Plain Language Consumer Contract Act
§ 2505. Test of readability.
• All consumer contracts shall be written, organized and

designed so that they are easy to read & understand.
• Guidelines were established covering 8 language categories

& visual/ graphic features

Violations of Plain
Language Guidelines
35
30
25
20
15 Sec. 6
10
5
0
a b c d e f

Trademarks
When does
Imagine the
a trademark “Golden Arches”
become generic? here
-Kleenex, Xerox-
Due to trademark
regulations,
• McDonalds v. Quality
Inns I can’t show the
McDonalds
• McSleep Inns trademark!
Mc=low cost,
standardized, fast,
convenient?
(Shuy)

Authorship
Attribution/ Identity
• Bomb threats
• Ransom notes
• Other threats of
violence
• Verification of suicide
notes
• Hoax emergency calls,
other hoaxes
• Scandalous or libelous
communications
• Claims or denials of
authorship of texts in
evidence [wills, reports, etc.]

Where to start?
Questioned Document
???? ????
Who created it?

Did X write the Q-Document?
Questioned Known
Document ? Document(s)

What kind of person might
have written the Q-Document?
Questioned No Known
Document(s) ? Documents
?

Not all analyses of
language evidence is
forensic linguistics

--A Task--
NOT a Single Technique
• Linguistics
• Content Analysis
• Risk Analysis
• Style
• Statistics
“Bugged” Communications
• Multiple speakers
• Confidential informant
• Overlapping discussions
• Poor transcripts
• Visual context missing
US v John Z. DeLorean
(narcotics)
Conversation analysis
• Ambiguous references
“interim deal” “we” “that”
• Wrong assumptions
• Evidence of distancing self
(Shuy)

Love Triangle
Case Summary

Love Triangle-1
Juan Arturo
Luisa

Love Triangle-2
Juan
Luisa

Love Triangle-3
Luisa

Police
Interview
-No English skills

-3: 1
-Police interpreter
-No attorney
-No audio recording
-Misleading Qs
Missing Voices
• Interviewer
asks in -Interpreter asks
English Suspect in Sp.
-Suspect replies in
Sp.
-Interpreter transl.
to Eng.
• Reporter 
records in Eng.
Conversation Analysis
It’s ALL there in the text!

Questioning Patterns
Police interviewing similar to trial?
Direct questioning Cross-examination

Attorney questions own Opposing attorney questions
witness witness, trying to limit what
witness can say
• Asks leading questions,

• Asks many open-ended • Controls response—yes/no
questions • Builds in assumptions
• Lets witness tell own story

Shifting Responsibility
• Closed questions  yes/no
• Leading questions & statements

suggesting she was jointly involved in
planning the murder
• Fronting Luisa, putting her in the

beginnings of comments about planning
the murder

Luisa’s Responses
Q: While you and Juan were talking about killing Arturo, did
he tell you what he was going to do with the body?
A: No.
1. Luisa appears to
answer information part of questions but
doesn’t react to shift in responsibility – except 1x
A yes/no response makes it look like she agrees with the

whole Q, incl. the shift in responsibility,
2. Content in some assumptions NOT consistent with content

of her earlier responses.
Where did content come from? If not from Luisa?

Creating a Confession
Leading & complex questions +

Luisa’s interpreted short responses=>confession
that Luisa planned (with Juan) to murder Arturo
But we don’t know how much Luisa actually

understood in the questions & what was translated
• no audio of interpreter asking in Spanish

• no audio of Luisa’s actual responses in Spanish

Death Penalty?
Luisa

Can Help Serve Justice
Email: mvannaerssen@immaculata.edu
or margaret.vannaerssen@gmail.com
• Smithsonian Associates support staff
• Amanda Albright, Instructional Design Specialist,

Immaculata University
• Hans van Naerssen
• MacKenzie Gray, junior, Immaculata University
• Sociology, criminology, and sciences classes

of Judge John Anthony, Frank Hartleroad, & Sister Rose
Mulligan, IHM, & AV staff, Immaculata University
• Roger Shuy, Malcolm Coulthard, John Olsson, & other

forensic linguists who brainstormed with me Summer
2005

The International
Association of Forensic
Linguists
IAFL
http://www.iafl.org/
Full References in Presentation
http://alt-usage-english.org/plosive_question.html
http://www.english.bham.ac.uk/who/coulthard.htm
http://folk.uio.no/mostarke/forens_ent/forensic_entomology.html
http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/eades
http://www.iafl.org
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/wlabov/Papers/HowIgot.html
http://www.rogershuy.com
http://www.un.org
Butters, Ron. 9/30/05. Personal communications: posting on Forensic Linguists List – discussion list,
referencing collected volume of Raven McDavid.
Pennsylvania Statutes Trade and Commerce (Title 73) Plain Language Consumer Contract Act § 2505.
Test of readability
Shuy, Roger. nd. Using a Linguist in Tape Cases. Unpublished paper, pp. 11-12, and personal
communication, 9/8/05.
Case is also discussed in Shuy’s 1993 book, Language Crimes.
Shuy, Roger. 2002. Linguistic Battles in Trademark Disputes. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan.
Zallinger, Rudolph. 1965. Ascent of Man from “Early Man”. Listed on
http://www.learner.org/channel/courses/biology/archive/images/1678.html
Courtesy of TimeLife books
Extensive references for forensic linguistics can be found on the website of International Association of
Forensic Linguists, www.iafl.org as well as on websites of several members, including Blackwell, Dumas,
and Tiersma.

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Forensic Linguistics: Can

Words Help Solve

Margaret van Naerssen, Ph.D.

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 2

• What Forensic Linguistics is /is Not

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 3

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 4

• Forensic Linguistics: The

• Expert witness reports on

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 6

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 7

• Evolution of relevant anatomical parts

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 8

Structured system of mental representations

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 9

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 10

Draws from other academic

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 12

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 13

Linguists look for patterns and

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 14

Analysis of recorded Conversation analysis Language testing Other analyses

1. What tools are available?

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 15

in order to collect money

of oral interactions? Available?

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 20

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 21

2. Limited control of the past tense

3. If specific time not mentioned, he seemed

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 22

Highly unlikely Mr. K

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 24

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 25

Expert can’t testify on

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 26

Native-speaker judges, jury, lawyers

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 27

• Linguistic analysis, ALONE, frequently

• Can’t get inside of head

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 28

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 30

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 31

• With team of linguists Diana Eades

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 32

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 34

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 35

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 36

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 37

Previous: Peter Tiersma, JD, Ph.D.

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 38

• All consumer contracts shall be written, organized and

• Guidelines were established covering 8 language categories

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 40

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 41

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 42

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 43

Who created it?

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 45

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 46

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 47

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 50

September 21, 2005 © van Naerssen 2005 51