University of Gondar

College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Department of English Language and Literature
Postgraduate Program (PhD in Applied Linguistics)

Course Title: Philosophy of Language and Linguistics (APLI-711)

Article (PhD Dissertation) Review on:

Forensic Linguistic in Analysis of Suspects' and Witnesses' Expression

in Selected Criminal Cases: The Case of Federal Courts in Addis Ababa

By
Destaw Wagnew

February, 2023
Presentation outline

 Introduction
 Summary of the article/Dissertation
 Critical Review on the Research
 Organization, arguments and evidences in each part:

Abstract and Introduction

Literature review
Methodology
Results
 Grammar and mechanics
 Conclusion
Why critical review?

Once a research has been done may need further

review to:
 evaluate existing methodological approaches and
unique insights.
 Identify inconsistencies in prior results and
potential explanations ;show critical limitations
 learn more from its strengths and limitations.
 Summary of the Research

 Topic: "Forensic Linguistic in Analysis of

Suspects’ and Witnesses’ Expressions in Selected
Criminal Cases" is a PhD dissertation conducted
in the Federal Courts in Addis Ababa by Zinawork
Assefa, condcucted in 2021
 Focus of investigation: bribery, sexual misconduct
and murder cases
 The study has attempted to forward appropriate flow of ideas
in the introduction about:
 the concept of crime, its causes, mitigation strategies
 how crime investigation evolved over time in different
reigns from the perspective of various multi disciplinary
subjects in the background part.
 B/c of man's civilization:
The nature and number of violations of rules complicated
This resulted in the diversification of approaches to crime
investigation.
 multidisciplinary approach to crime investigations, and
 Cont’d

 The study has indicated, there is no previous work on

issue of forensic linguistics in the Ethiopian context
except very few related works.
 It raised issues of:
 exploring patterns of linguistic features employed in
language of bribery, murder and sexual misconduct cases.
 examining the role of direct and cross- examination
questions in court room investigations and the linguistic
tools and procedures used to detect language threats in
courtrooms.
 cont’d
Data:
 Primary data gathered from recordings and

observation tools backed up with documents and

literatures.
Participants
 purposefully selected suspects and witnesses of

bribery, murder and sexual misconduct cases.

Design:
 exploratory design to describe events under the

court-room investigations and

 explanatory design to look for the causes and effects

of ambiguity, falsified or inaccurate statements of

suspects and witnesses.
 Qualitative approach is used to organize and
 Con’t

Findings are presented thematically in four

chapters:
 linguistic features of suspects in bribery case,

murder case, sexual misconduct case and

linguistic features in Eyewitnesses.

 The result explains the speech event, schema and

linguistic cues in courtroom interaction in each
case.
 It has presented issues of linguistic features in

each cases from the communities' common

practice to the court room interaction.
 The linguistic expressions in the cases are
transcribed phonetically.
Based on the analysis, the study has
identified linguistic cues of bribery, murder,
and sexual misconduct cases.
These include avoiding liabilities,
contradictions, use of the pronoun,
 Cont’d
social introduction, change in reference, temporal
lacuna, passive voice, false supportive evidence,
and fabricated time or date.

Besides, direct examination question was

employed to give the witness a humble answer, and
the cross-examination was an attempt to dismiss or
substantiate the witness's claim by using different
prompting methods.
 Con’d
 Finally, the study has recommended that legal and
judicial bodies should be trained in forensic
linguistic analysis to assist in the investigation and
decision-making on crime and civil cases b/c the
cases require skills of many professions.

 Besides, list of references and appendices are

included in the ending parts of the study.
 Critical Review of the Study:

Evaluating the organization, arguments and evidences in

each part

 In the topic "Forensic Linguistic in Analysis of Suspects' and

Witnesses' Expression in Selected Criminal Cases: The Case of
Federal Courts in Addis Ababa”
 Some parts are not necessary:eg Forensic Linguistic in

 Relevance- the topic is important and related with

the issue indicated

 Novelty - shows quality of being new and

original . So, the issue raised seems new and
original.
 Feasibility ;It seems difficult to be researchable

considering available resources and research

environment
1. Abstract and Introduction parts of the
study

Although the abstract part pinpointed the most basic

points in brief, it did not show the conclusions and
recommendations of the study.

A soundly prepared abstract should have a

statement of the problem under study, the methods
used, the findings and the conclusion reached by
the researcher and recommendations (Gray, 2004).
 Cont’d
 The background of the study tried to present coherent
ideas concerning the issues(crime causes, alleviation
strategies, perspective of multi disciplinary subjects and
philosophical assumptions, investigation evolved over
time)

However,
the introduction part lacks linking with theories of
crime;
for example it has not said anything how crime is
connected with Manipulation Theory, Mental Model
Theory or Speech Act Theory which usually have basic
points to do with discourses analysis and criminal cases.

Not sufficiently stated how language works in crime

investigation
Cont’d
 In the introduction there should be statement
of the problem, theoretical and practical
implication of the study, the link with theory
and relation with literature (APA Manual,
2007).
 The introduction was not appropriately

organized b/c:
 Some missing parts:Limitation &

definitions of operational key terms

 The chapter and the headings are written in

different lines(it should have been like:

Chapter one: Introduction)
 cont’d

 The paper is arranged in eight chapters which seem odd

in common dissertation structures

 The fourth chapter should have been written in sub parts

thematically to include the next three chapters.

 Basic research questions and the specific objectives of

the study repeated the same ideas;
 Either of them should be omitted.

Some of the questions or objectives seem deviating from

the main focus or topic of the study.
 Eg. To examine the role of direct and cross- examination

questions in court room investigations.

 CON’T

 The main focus of study is on the discourse of the suspects

and the witnesses, not on the prosecutors'/attorneys'
questioning discourse.
OR:
The topic should have been written as "Forensic Linguistic
Analysis of expressions used in courtroom interaction in
Selected Criminal Cases.“

Gaps should be identified by informal observation or

experience, not from data collection
Eg. During data collection, the researcher remarked that
police officers and lawyers do not have advanced
linguistic knowledge because, in Ethiopia, police officers
and lawyers do not take supportive linguistics courses
(Zinawork, 2021:8) .
 Con’t
2 Literature Review Parts
 Consulted sufficient literatures concerning the conceptual

and theoretical framework of forensic linguistics and related

issues;
 Reviewed related empirical studies done in different

contexts.

 main limitations:
 Most sources are not recent; they were written in the

nineteenth century.
The world is on track of change; now is 21st c.
 Mainly dependent on one source( Shuy )

"The researcher must demonstrate an understanding of the

existing literature pertinent to his or her study "Best and
Kahn (2003:57).
Cont’d
3 Methodology Parts of the Study
 primary and secondary data from records,
observations, documents, literature and empirical
study reviewed.
 size of participants(suspects and witnesses) is not

mentioned; only cases mentioned

 Purposive sampling exposes to sample bias; distorts

the validity of the study.
 Research ethics
 the consent of the main participants (the suspects and

witnesses) was not considered.

 Eg. The study states”..the research gets the recordings

with the permission from the legal bodies or staff”