Forensic linguistics

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The forensic linguistics is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics , dealing with issues at the interface of language , law and crime is concerned. Forensic linguistics issues include the identification of speakers through voice analyzes (forensic phonetics ) and the assignment of authors to texts in investigative proceedings, be it ransom letters, letters of confession , confessions, wills or plagiarism . In a broader sense, forensic linguistics also examines topics such as the intelligibility of legal texts and the language in court.

Forensic linguistics and legal linguistics

In German-speaking countries, a distinction is made between forensic linguistics and legal linguistics . While forensic linguistics is primarily concerned with linguistic phenomena as the subject of criminal investigations, legal linguists analyze the language of law as an element of legal specialist communication (e.g. legal language, judge communication, language in administrative authorities). In the Anglo-American region there is no such separation between legal linguistics and forensic linguistics, but all of the topics mentioned are dealt with under forensic linguistics .

Beginnings of forensic linguistics

The term "forensic linguistics" appears for the first time in a publication by Jan Svartvik in 1968 ( a case for forensic linguistics ), in which he describes the use of linguistic methods to investigate a serial killer case. Important publications in the German-speaking area followed from the 1980s, e. B. by Hannes Kniffka .

Research and working areas in forensic linguistics

Determination of authorship of texts

A core area of ​​forensic linguistics is the determination of a possible author of texts. The authorship of texts such as letters of confession , threatening and extortion letters , plagiarism , wills and suicide letters is legally relevant .

The language of an individual depends, among other things, on factors such as level of education, language competence, geographical origin, professional training, gender, age and sociological environment. B. is also reflected in a specific style or errors in the spelling. By examining the linguistic characteristics of texts such as the style or the type and number of errors, the group of perpetrators (e.g. writers of threatening letters) can be narrowed down. However, there is no such thing as a “linguistic fingerprint” of the perpetrator, because linguistic peculiarities can usually not be clearly assigned to an individual and because language - in contrast to a fingerprint - is changeable in the course of life. Forensic linguistics therefore warns against the expectation of being able to clearly prove the perpetrator of suspects on the basis of a "linguistic fingerprint".

The methods of determining authorship include style analyzes, error and content analyzes as well as analyzes of manuscripts . Style analysis includes evaluations of word choice such as the use of foreign words, regionalisms, archaisms and the analysis of syntax, i.e. the types of sentences used, sentence lengths and sentence complexity. The error analysis examines individual deviations from the linguistic norm in spelling , punctuation , morphology , semantics and syntax . When evaluating errors, it must also be taken into account that the author of a document can use fictitious errors to try to simulate another author.

In addition to error and style analysis, the content analysis of texts also plays a role in the Anglo-American region, for example when evaluating farewell letters or witness statements. Thus, for the assessment of testimony u. a. the structure of the narrative, the richness of detail, the choice of words or the embedding in time and space. It is also important to note that forensic linguists can only point out inconsistencies in witness statements, but cannot and should not clearly assess the credibility of a witness. Linguistic abnormalities can indicate that a person is lying, but it is also possible that the person does not remember exactly or that statements were suggested to him ( priming ).

In addition to manual, qualitative methods are used in forensic linguistics and quantitative methods are used. The quantitative methods include B. statistical analyzes of texts, as they are also common in corpus linguistics . A classic example is the analysis of the various police protocols in the John Evans case by the linguist Jan Svartvik. He first compiled statistics on the complex and simple record types in the logs. He was able to show that the record containing Evans' confession contained statistically significantly more different types of sentences than other police records, from which Svartvik concluded that the wording in the record was more the wording of the receiving police officer than the language of the Accused acted. Evans was posthumously acquitted on the basis of this opinion.

Often, however, the text basis is not sufficient for a quantitative analysis. Statistical methods cannot be used if, for example, B. only a few short texts are available. In this case, qualitative methods are used.

Analysis of the meaning of texts and oral utterances

Another important area of ​​forensic linguistics is analyzing the meaning of words, texts and utterances. A linguist is sometimes called in as an expert in court, for B. to clarify whether a statement is still covered by artistic freedom or freedom of expression or whether it represents an insult. One example is the question of whether or not the statement "soldiers are murderers" should be considered an insult. Forensic linguists also play a role when it comes to the intelligibility of texts, e.g. B. whether warning notices on products are sufficiently specific and detailed.

Linguistic analyzes in the context of trademark law

Linguistic analyzes can also play a role in trademark law. In the event of a trademark infringement, it is often necessary to clarify whether the defendant has chosen a brand name that is linguistically so similar to the plaintiff's brand name that there is a risk of confusion. A well-known example is Apple , which obtained an injunction against Koziol , a manufacturer of household items, for using the name eiPott for egg cups. In this case, the pronunciation of eiPott and Apple's MP3 player iPod was so similar that there was a risk of trademark confusion.

Forensic phonetics

Forensic phonetics deals with all aspects of spoken language as legal evidence. The most important tasks of forensic linguistics include assessing the social and regional origin of a speaker based on his language and assessing whether the voice in two different recordings belongs to the same person. Forensic phoneticians also help the police with the transcription of voice recordings and the interpretation of controversial utterances. They also assist in the creation of vocal juxtapositions ( voice line-ups ), d. H. Compilations of recordings from various speakers. Witnesses who only heard the voice of a suspect but did not see him are supposed to identify a person on the basis of this language comparison.

The majority of the cases in which a forensic phonetician is consulted involves speaker comparisons. The phonetician should compare different linguistic recordings and contribute criminalistic evidence for the identification of possible suspects. To compare linguistic recordings, the forensic phonetician can create a phonetic transcription of the linguistic utterances and identify linguistic peculiarities of the speakers (e.g. realization of vowels , omission of consonants or special patterns in intonation ). On the other hand, the forensic phonetician can use methods from acoustic phonetics , such as the visual representation of a linguistic utterance in a spectrogram . It should be noted, however, that in contrast to biometric fingerprints, there is no unique "voice" or "voice print " ( voiceprint ).

Language in the legal system

The linguistic analysis of language in the legal system includes the interpretation and analysis of legal texts as well as the technical language of the personnel in the legal system. In addition to lawyers, this also includes police officers and court staff. Historical aspects are also analyzed in this sub-area, e.g. B. the effects of Norman French and ecclesiastical Latin on contemporary Anglo-American legal language. The analysis of the language in the legal system, especially its intelligibility, is particularly important in the Anglo-American area, because lay juries must be able to follow the explanations of the judge and the expert.

Language in court and with the police

Another important area in Anglo-American forensic linguistics and more in German legal linguistics is the analysis of oral communication and the dynamics of dialogues in court and with the police. This includes linguistic considerations of what goes on in courtrooms, such as the language used in cross-examination, the language used in emergency calls and police interviews, and the effects of the interpretation of testimony by the police and court staff. Other topics include dealing with crime victims and vulnerable witnesses such as rape victims and children. In the Anglo-American literature there are also extensive studies on the subject of "linguistic disadvantage of groups in court". These include B. Indigenous minorities such as the Aborigines in Australia, whose communication behavior differs from the English-speaking majority, which can lead to misunderstandings in police interviews and interrogations. Similar problems arise with suspects, witnesses and victims who do not understand the language of the police and the court.

See also

literature

Introductions

  • Malcolm Coulthard, Alison Johnson, David Wright: An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence , 2nd Edition. Routledge, London / New York 2017, ISBN 978-1-138-64171-6 .
  • Raimund H. Drommel: Speech Profiling - Basics and Case Analysis for Forensic Linguistics . Frank & Timme Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-7329-0158-6 .
  • Raimund H. Drommel: Linguistic criminalistics and language profiling. Beginnings, controversies, milestones, case studies (= Grazer Linguistic Monographs. Vol. 30). University - FB Plurilingualism, Graz 2011, ISBN 978-3-901600-28-9 .
  • Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics. An introduction. Fool Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 .
  • John Gibbons: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language in the Justice System . Blackwell, Oxford 2003, ISBN 0-631-21247-7 .
  • Frances Rock: Forensic Linguistics . In: James Simpson: The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics . Routledge, London / New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-415-49067-2 , pp. 138-152.
  • Sabine Schall: Forensic Linguistics . In: Karlfried Knapp et al. (Ed.): Applied Linguistics. A textbook . Francke, Tübingen 2004, pp. 544-562.

Anthologies

  • Malcolm Coulthard (Ed.): The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics . Routledge, Abingdon 2010, ISBN 978-0415837231 .
  • Grewendorf, Günther (Ed.): Legal culture as language culture. On the forensic function of speech analysis . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1992.
  • Hannes Kniffka (Ed.): Texts and theory and practice of forensic linguistics . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1990.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 15-18 .
  2. ^ Jan Svartvik: The Evans statements: a case for forensic linguistics . Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm 1968.
  3. ↑ Hannes Kniffka: The linguist as an expert in court . In: Günter Peuser, Stefan Winter (Ed.): Applied Linguistics: Basic Questions, Reports, Methods. Festschrift for Günter Kandler . Bouvier, Bonn 1981, p. 584-634 .
  4. ↑ Hannes Kniffka (Ed.): Texts on the theory and practice of forensic linguistics . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1990.
  5. ^ Sandra Hansen: As a linguist on the hunt for criminals. Forensic linguistics at the Federal Criminal Police Office. In: scienzz (magazine). August 15, 2006
  6. ↑ Joachim Scharloth : Is there a linguistic fingerprint? In: Security-Informatics.de (blog). September 21, 2011.
  7. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 120 .
  8. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 203-222 .
  9. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 220, 222 .
  10. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 110-115 .
  11. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 22-37 .
  12. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 31 .
  13. ^ Alison Johnson, David Wright: An introduction to forensic linguistics: language in evidence . 2nd Edition. Abingdon, Oxon, ISBN 978-1-138-64170-9 , pp. 129 .
  14. ^ Alison Johnson, David Wright: An introduction to forensic linguistics: language in evidence . 2nd Edition. Abingdon, Oxon, ISBN 978-1-138-64170-9 , pp. 138-146 .
  15. ^ John Gibbons: Forensic linguistics: an introduction to language in the justice system . Blackwell, Malden, Mass. 2003, ISBN 0-631-21246-9 , pp. 162-199 .
  16. ↑ Eilika Fobbe: Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction . Narr Francke Attempto, Tübingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8233-6654-6 , p. 17 .
  17. ^ Alison Johnson, David Wright: An introduction to forensic linguistics: language in evidence . Second ed. Abingdon, Oxon, ISBN 978-1-138-64170-9 , pp. 51-100 .
  18. ^ John Gibbons: Forensic linguistics: an introduction to language in the justice system . Blackwell, Malden, Mass. 2003, ISBN 0-631-21246-9 , pp. 200-227 .