Task 4: Corpus Linguistics

Corpus Linguistics Analysis

(source)

Forensic Linguistics

What is a Corpus?

l  “A collection of linguistic data, either written texts or a transcription of recorded speech, which can be used as a starting-point of linguistic description or as a means of verifying hypotheses about a language.”

(David Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, Blackwell, 3rd Edition, 1991)

l  “A collection of naturally occurring language text, chosen to characterize a state or variety of a language.”

                 (John Sinclair, Corpusize Concordance, Collocation, OUP, 1991)

Definition

•      Characterized as taking linguistic knowledge, methods and insight, and applying these to the forensic context of law, investigation, trial, punishment and rehabilitation.

•      It is not a homogenous discipline in its interest, methods or approach, but rather both involves a wide spectrum of practitioners and researchers applying themselves to different areas of the field.

                                                                       (www.forensiclinguistics.net)

Corpus in Forensic Linguistics

•      Determine the authorship of a document by comparing linguistic features in the disputed document(s), in undisputed documents and in a general corpus.

SCOPE OF FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

1. Language of legal texts
2. Language of legal processes
3. Provision of linguistics evidence

 1)The language of legal texts

•      Study text types and forms of analysis.

•      Any text or item of spoken language can potentially be a forensic text when it is used in a legal or criminal context.

•      Analyzing the linguistics of documents

            -Acts of Parliament (or other law-making body), private wills, court judgments and summonses and the statutes of other bodies, such as States and government departments.

2) The language of legal processes

•      Examines language as it is used in cross-examination, evidence presentation, judge's direction, police cautions, police testimonies in court, summing up to a jury, interview techniques, the questioning process in court and in other areas such as police interviews.

•      The judicial process

Point of arrest - through interview – charge – trial – sentencing

 Linguists, for example, have a considerable interest in the language of police (and other) interviews of witnesses (e.g. Johnson, 2007) and suspects (e.g. Haworth, 2006).

3) Provision of linguistic evidence

•      Trademark disputes

•      Judging Linguistic Competence

•      Failures in Interpretation

  e.g. in police interviews

•      Investigative linguistics: the investigation of forensically interesting texts to aid investigation and or provide evidence.

e.g. suicide/death notes

Example of Suicide Note

•      A suicide note or death note is a message that states the author has died by (or plans to die by) suicide, and left to be discovered and read in anticipation of suicide. (Wikipedia)http://kurtcobainssuicidenote.com/
http://www.thetext.co.uk/cgi-bin/view_texts.pl?dir=&folder=Suicide Notes&text=Analysis of a suicide note.txt

Study: Charlantry in Forensic Speech Science

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~julia/papers/eriksson&lacerda07.pdf

•      Charlatan means one making usually showy pretenses to knowledge or ability (fraud / faker)(www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)

•      Focus of the paper was on discrepancies between the claims the producers and vendors make and what their products are capable of delivering.

•      Methodology
Micro tremor
LVA
Voice Stress Analyzer (VSA)/Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE)
CVSA

•      Findings
CVSA [Computerized Voice Stress Analyzer] nor the LVA [Layered Voice Analysis] were sensitive to the presence of deception or stress.

•      Conclusion

            The authors reviewed 50 years of lie detector research and came to the conclusion that there is no scientific evidence supporting that lie detectors actually work.

•      Is there anything we can do to prevent charlatanry in forensic speech science?