مقدمه ای بر زبان شناسی قانونی )حقوقی(

دکتر محسن کاهانیرضا رمضانی

An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics

1392بهار

ج'ات نک/م و' الذین' او/توالع+لم د'ر' ا م+ نو/ ی'رفع/ الله' الذین' آم'

سیستم های مبتنی بر دانش

Linguistic

Forensic Linguistic

Examples

Applications

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Definition

• Wikipedia

– “Forensic linguistics is the name given to a number of sub-disciplines within applied linguistics, and which relate to the interface between language, the law and crime. The range of topics is diverse: from the analysis of confessions to the language rights of ethnic minorities, from the assessment of threat in a ransom demand, to determining the genuineness of a suicide note.”

• IAFL

– The study of the language of the law, including the language of legal documents and the language of the courts, the police, and prisons;

• Better public understanding of the interaction between language and the law.

• The alleviation of language-based inequality and disadvantage in the legal system;

• Research into the practice and improvement, of expert testimony and the presentation of linguistic evidence, as well as legal interpreting and translation;

• The interchange of ideas and information between the legal and linguistic communities;

3

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

The Handbook of Linguistics

• Linguistic Topics– Writing Systems

– Historical Linguistics

– Field Linguistics

– Linguistic Phonetics

– Phonology

– Morphology

– The Lexicon

– Syntax

– Generative Grammar

– Functional Linguistics

– Typology

– An Introduction to Formal Semantics

– Pragmatics: Language and Communication

– Discourse Analysis

– Linguistics and Literature

– First Language Acquisition

– Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition

– Multilingualism

– Natural Sign Languages

– Sociolinguistics

– Neurolinguistics

– Computational Linguistics

– Applied Linguistics

– Educational Linguistics

– Linguistics and Reading

– Clinical Linguistics

– Forensic Linguistics

– Translation

– Language Planning

4

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Linguistic Fields

• Broad Divisions of Linguistic Fields

– Theoretical Linguistics

– Applied Linguistics

– Interdisciplinary Fields

5

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Theoretical Linguistics

• Phonology

• Morphology

• Syntax

• Semantics

6

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Applied Linguistics

• Language Teaching

– Teaching methods and techniques

– Syllabus design and evaluation

• Translation

– Translation errors

– Idiomatic translation

– Fixed utterance translation

7

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Applied Linguistics (Cont’d)

• Graphology

– The study of the systems of symbols that have been devised to communicate language in written form

– Orthography

– Stenography

– Cryptography

– Paedography

– Technography

• Forensic Linguistics

– The use of linguistic techniques to investigate crimes in which language data constitute part of the evidence

– In 1950 Timothy Evans was hanged for a murder, but then granted a posthumous pardon in 1966.

8

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Interdisciplinary fields

• Interdisciplinary fields of the Linguistic

– Anthropological Linguistics

– Biological Linguistics

– Clinical Linguistics

– Computational Linguistics

– Ethnolinguistics

– Geographical Linguistics

– Mathematical Linguistics

– Neurolinguistics

– Psycholinguistics

– Sociolinguistics

– Theolinguistics

9

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Forensic Linguistic Area

• Linguistic

– We think of Language teaching / language learning

– But it extended its work to medical communication, advertising, and the intersection of law and language and etc.

• Law Attentions

– Anthropologists

– Psychologists

– Sociologists

– Political scientists

10

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Forensic Linguistic Area (Cont’d)

• Using linguistics for

– Voice identification (Speaker Profiling)

– Authorship of written documents

– Unclear jury instructions

– The asymmetry of power in courtroom exchanges

– Lawyer–client communication breakdown

– The nature of perjury problems in written legal discourse

– Defamation

– Trademark infringement

– Courtroom interpretation and translation difficulties

– The adequacy of warning labels

– The nature of tape recorded conversation used as evidence

That’s Applied Linguistics Forensic Linguistics

11

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Example

Derek Bentley 1953 – hanged for his part in the murder of a policeman.

1998 – Court of Appeal set aside the conviction in part because of Malcolm Coulthard’s evidence that his statement was not “verbatim record of spoken monologue” as claimed at the original trial.

Timothy Evans

1950 - hanged for the murder of his wife and child.

1968 - Jan Svartik analysed Evan’s witness statement and suggested the language was inconsistent.

A case for forensic linguistics.

12

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Derek Bentley statement

Bentley was hanged 28th January, 1953, for his part in the murder of a policeman.

On 30th July, 1998 he was pardoned, partly on the basis of the evidence of Malcolm Coulthard who demonstrated linguistic anomalies in his statement.

In the original trial it was claimed by the prosecution that the statement was produced by Bentley as a monologue and in response to a simple request for his account of events.

[…] The policeman then pushed me down the stairs and I did not see any more. I knew we were going to break into the place, I did not know what we were going to get - just anything that was going. I did not have a gun and I did not know Chris had one until he shot. I now know that the policeman in uniform is dead. I should have mentioned that after the plainclothes policeman got up the drainpipe and arrested me, another policeman in uniform followed and I heard someone call him 'Mac'. He was with us when the other policeman was killed.

Example

13

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Derek Bentley statement

‘then’ occurs 1 in 500 words in general language, 1 in every 930 words in undisputed witness statements, 1 in every 78 words in police witness statements and 1 in 57 words in this statement. ‘I then’ occurs 1 in 16500 words in general language, 1 in 5700 words in undisputed witness statements, 1 in 100 words in police witness statements 1 in every 190 words in this statement.

[…] My mother told me that they had called and I then ran after them. […] We all talked together and then Norman Parsley and Frank Fasey left. Chris Craig and I then caught a bus to Croyden. […] There was a little iron gate at the side. Chris then jumped and over I followed. Chris then climbed up the drainpipe to the roof and I followed. Up to then Chris had not said anything. We both got out on to the flat roof at the top. Then someone in the garden on the opposite side…

Example

14

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

A Brief History

• Rapidly Emerging Field of Linguistics

– The name Forensic Linguistics since 1980

• Since 1990s; it has own academic organization:

– The International Association of Forensic Linguistics (IAFL)

– Journal: Forensic Linguistics

– Growing number of books and articles

• Still in its Infant Stage: ‘Not a perfect science’

– Application of the scientific study of language to law and criminal detection purposes

15

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Aims of the IAFL

• Aims of the IAFL include

– Furthering the interests of linguists engaged in research on the development and practice of forensic linguistics;

– Disseminating knowledge about language analysis, and its forensic applications, among legal and other relevant professionals around the world;

– Drawing up a code of practice on matters such as giving evidence in court, writing official reports etc.;

– Collecting a computer corpus of statements, confessions, suicide notes, police language, etc., which could be used in comparative analysis of disputed texts.

16

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

1. Trademark Infringement

• Examples

– Avita versus Aveda

– McSleep versus McDonald

– Comset versus Comsat

– Bonamine versus Dramamine

– Listogen versus Listerine

– Latouraine versus Lorraine

– Snarnoff versus Simirnoff

– Citisen versus Citizen

– SEICO versus SEIKO

– Monilex versus Soulinex

– ExBier versus Beck’s Beer

17

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

1. Trademark Infringement (Cont’d)

• So what do forensic linguists do?

– A lawyer may have a law suit involving a trademark dispute.

– One company may feel that another company’s trade name is too much like its own.

• The more generic or descriptive the name the more likely such a name can be used by other companies

• The more unique or fanciful the name the more likely such protection will be.

• It’s the names that fall between descriptive and fanciful that find their way to litigation.: “arbitrary” or “suggestive”

– What’s arbitrary / suggestive?

18

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

1. Trademark Infringement (Cont’d)

• Arbitrary

– Arbitrary trade names are non-fanciful words in common use but, when used with goods and services, neither suggest nor describe the ingredients, quality or character of those goods or services.

• The trade names, V-8 (juice), Ivory (soap), and Royal (baking powder)

• Suggestive

– Suggestive trade names are also usually words in common use, non-descriptive of the product’s purpose or function, but suggesting some quality not indicated by the name itself.

• The trade names, Camel (cigarettes), Shell (gasoline), and Arm and Hammer (baking soda)

19

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

1. Trademark Infringement (Cont’d)

• The burden of proof

– Offended party has to show that the other party’s name

• Looks like

• Sounds like

• and Means

– the same as their own.

• To a linguist

– “Looks like” suggests graphology

– “Sounds like” obviously suggests phonology

– “Means the same” suggests semantics

20

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

2. Product Liability

• Linguistics and products that has caused injury to a consumer

– Suppose an attorney has a product liability law suit in which a person has suffered physical harm alleged to have been caused by inadequate package instructions or warning labels.

• Linguistic role

– A linguist is called upon to analyze the language of the warning label to determine:

• Whether or not the warnings follow the guidelines of the relevant regulatory agency

• Whether or not they are clear, unambiguous, and optimally effective.

• For example

– Drug utilization instructions

21

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

3. Speaker Identification

• Longer than in most other areas of legal dispute

• Example

– For example, suppose a caller leaves a threatening message on an answering machine.

• Linguistic usage

– Using only the characteristics of that voice in comparison with tape recordings of voices of various potential suspects.

• If the tapes are of sufficient quality, spectrographic analysis is possible.

• If not, the linguist may rely on training and skills in phonetics to make the comparison

22

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

3. Speaker Identification (Cont’d)

• Problems with such analysis:

– Spectrographic analysis is not allowed in some courts.

– It usually requires suspects to read the original phone message

• Reading voice is not the same as a talking voice.

– The readers, may try to alter their normal speech patterns.

– Juries tend to be impressed with analysis based on electronic equipment rather than on an individual linguist’s phonetic judgment.

• Linguistic

– Using both spectrographic and articulatory phonetic expertise.

23

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

4. Recording Voices

• Recording Voices

– Using advances in recording equipment

– Since the late 1970s, law enforcement agencies have used tape recorders to capture criminal activity in progress.

• Suspects are either recorded with court authorized wire taps placed in such a way that none of the speakers is aware of being taped,

• or by using undercover agents who wear body microphones and engage suspects in conversation.

– Using Linguistics

• Determine whether or not the agents’ representations of illegality have been made clearly and unambiguously

• And whether or not the target has clearly suggested or agreed to the illegal act.

– Recordings are often taped in restaurants, bars, automobiles, and under conditions that do not promote easy hearing for later listeners.

24

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

Danielle Jones

• Last seen 18th June 2001.

• After her disappearance a series of text messages were sent from her phone.

• Linguistic analysis showed that the later messages were sent by her Uncle, Stuart Campbell.

• Campbell was convicted of Danielle’s murder 19th December 2002 in part because of the linguistic evidence.

Jenny Nicholl

• Last seen 30th June 2005.

• After her disappearance a series of text messages were sent from her phone.

• Linguistic analysis showed that the later messages were sent by her classmate, David Hodgson.

Hodgson was convicted of Jenny’s murder 19th February 2008 in part because of the linguistic evidence.

5. Authorship of Written Documents

26

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

• Example: threats exist in written form

• Psychology

– Using expertise of psychologists to provide “psychological profile” of the person who sent the message.

• Linguistics

– To call on linguists to add the dimension of linguistic profiling to their analyses

• Linguistics profiling has two parts:

– Language indicators

• Regional and social dialect

• Age

• Gender

• Education

• Occupation

26

5. Authorship of Written Documents (Cont’d)

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

5. Authorship of Written Documents (Cont’d)

• Linguistics profiling has two parts:

– Language indicators

– Stylistic analysis

• Comparing the document’s style with those of other documents written by possible suspects.

• Stylistic analysis centers on a writer’s habitual language features over which the writer has little or no conscious awareness

• Patterns of clause embedding

• Use of parallel structures

• Deletion of “that” in complementizer constructions

• Mechanical errors

• Punctuation

• Discourse features and organization

• And print features such as underlining, bolding, or italicizing.

27

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

5. Authorship of Written Documents (Cont’d)

• Point out

– Linguistic profiling has been most effectively used to narrow down a suspect list rather than to positively identify a suspect.

– This is not to say that such positive identification is impossible

• But, rather, the texts offered for comparison are sometimes dissimilar in genre, register, and size.

• Example

– One set of threat notes recently analyzed linguistically contained expressions such as:

• “She will finally the seriousness of the problem recognize,”

• “I will not give warning,”

• “You can be transferred to better position,”

• “If I address it her.”

28

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

5. Authorship of Written Documents (Cont’d)

• Analyze

– These and other expressions suggested the influence of Hindi-Urdu English interference.

– Such a speaker might be expected to place the verb at the end of the English sentence and omit articles and pronouns.

• Another Example

– Other language expressions, such as

• “I will take the proper course”

• “She was in hospital at the time,”

– Pointed to a person educated under the influence of British English.

29

Forensic Linguistics – Reza Ramezani

30 Email: r.ramezani@ec.iut.ac.ir

Thanks for Your Attention