Offender
Profiling Series: Vol 1
Interviewing and Deception
Edited by David Canter & Laurence Alison
(1999)
back to Interviewing
& Deception
Interviewing and Deception
Malcolm Coulthard
Forensic Application of Linguistic Analysis
This chapter focuses on the growing use of linguistic
analysis in criminal investigations and the practical application of
forensic linguistics. A variety of areas of analyses are discussed,
with examples from real cases revealing how examination of written text
may reveal consistent grammatical differences to identify the author.
Methods used to investigate claims that statements have been falsified
are then discussed. The first of these examines how spoken and written
English differ, and how this influences the inference that a statement
may be false. Subsequently, conversational rules and register features
are discussed in the same context. They describe how falsified statements
cannot truly reflect real speech. The consistency of statements are
examined showing how linguistics can find whether different parts of
statements were written at different times and in different contexts.
Malcolm Coulthard is
Professor of English Language and Lingusitics at the University of Birmingham,
where he has been for the whole of his academic career. He is best known
for his publications on the analysis of discourse, An Introduction to
Discourse Analysis (1977, 1985) and Advances in Written Text Analysis
(1994). He was the founding Chair of the International Association of
Forensic Linguistics and the founding Editor of Forensic Linguistics:
The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law. He has acted
as an expert witness in over 100 cases and has given evidence in Northern
Ireland, Scotland, Hong Kong and the Appeal Court in London.
