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New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics
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New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2023) | Viewed by 11019

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Julien Longhi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Digital Humanities, CY Cergy Paris Université, 95000 Cergy-Pontoise, France
Interests: discourse analysis; corpus linguistics; semantics; pragmatics; digital humanities
Dr. Nadia Makouar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratoire Praxiling - Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Rte de Mende, 34090 Montpellier, France
Interests: legal linguistics; corpus linguistics; discourse analysis; hate speech and disinformation discourse

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Applied linguistics is experiencing significant growth in the fields of justice, security, and law. Depending on the legal contexts, and the links between universities and institutions, forensic and/or legal linguistics are not developed in the same way, which raises critical questions for applied linguistics. The aim of this Special Issue is therefore to bring together relevant contributions about the current state of forensic linguistics, to document possible outcomes, as well as contexts of study and cooperation, and to highlight future issues and challenges for the field. We encourage researchers to present the most recent developments in the field (in particular in connection with recent cases), explore new avenues of research, and discuss the plurality of theories and methods applied. Indeed, a variety of approaches (corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, pragmatics, terminology) are used, and it could be useful to consider their issues and implications from an applied approach point of view.

This Special Issue will cover a variety of topics, and we invite participants to submit a proposal on, but not limited to, the following strands:

  • Forensic linguistics (Coulthard, M., Johnson, A., and Wright, D. 2016);
  • Authorship attribution (Grant, 2010; Fobbe, E. 2020);
  • Language and law (Hutton, C. 2009);
  • Language as evidence (Longhi 2021, 2022);
  • Courtroom and police interviews discourses (Haworth, 2012; Kredens, K., and Morris, R. 2010);
  • Cyberviolence (Makouar, N. 2022).

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors ([email protected] and [email protected]) or to the Languages editorial office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

Tentative completion schedule:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 20 January 2023
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: 20 February 2023
  • Full manuscript deadline: 20 September 2023

References:

Fobbe, E. (2020). Text-Linguistic Analysis in Forensic Authorship Attribution. JLL, 9, 93.

Grant, T. (2010). Text messaging forensics Txt 4n6: Idiolect free authorship analysis?. In The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics (pp. 536-550). Routledge.

Hutton, C. (2009). Language, meaning and the law. Edinburgh University Press.

Kredens, K., & Morris, R. (2010). Interpreting outside the courtroom*‘A shattered mirror?’Interpreting in legal contexts outside the courtroom. In The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics (pp. 483-498). Routledge.

Coulthard, M., Johnson, A., & Wright, D. (2016). An introduction to forensic linguistics: Language in evidence. Routledge.

Haworth, K. (2013). Audience design in the police interview: The interactional and judicial consequences of audience orientation. Language in Society, 42(1), 45-69.

Longhi, J. (2021). Using digital humanities and linguistics to help with terrorism investigations. Forensic science international, 318, 110564.

Longhi, J. (2022). Linguistic Approaches to the Analysis of Online Terrorist Threats. In Language as Evidence (pp. 439-459). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Makouar, N. (2022). Immigration Statistics in French Online Comment Boards: Mistrust Discourse, Anti-migrant Hate Speech. In Cyberhate in the Context of Migrations (pp. 115- 133). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Prof. Dr. Julien Longhi
Dr. Nadia Makouar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • forensic linguistics
  • legal linguistics
  • applied linguistics
  • language as evidence

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3272 KiB  
Article
Who’s Really Got the Right Moves? Analyzing Recommendations for Writing American Judicial Opinions
by Mary C. Lavissière and Warren Bonnard
Languages 2024, 9(4), 119; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9040119 - 26 Mar 2024
Viewed by 644
Abstract
There is little linguistic research on the structure of judicial opinions from a discourse analysis perspective. There are, however, many professional resources about writing judicial opinions. This paper contributes to genre theory and linguistics of languages for specific purposes by proposing a role [...] Read more.
There is little linguistic research on the structure of judicial opinions from a discourse analysis perspective. There are, however, many professional resources about writing judicial opinions. This paper contributes to genre theory and linguistics of languages for specific purposes by proposing a role for professional writing advice. We also construct a typology of macrostructures proposed by professionals and compare them to the move structure of authentic judicial opinions. Our results show that, in terms of large discourse units, professional resources and move analysis seem to converge. Professional resources, however, do not describe the variation that may be observed in authentic documents. In this way, corpora of professional advice may contribute to a deeper understanding of how a discourse community represents its own genres. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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17 pages, 710 KiB  
Article
The Phraseology of Legal French and Legal Popularisation in France and Canada: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis
by Manon Bouyé and Christopher Gledhill
Languages 2024, 9(3), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030107 - 19 Mar 2024
Viewed by 735
Abstract
The popularisation of legal knowledge is a critical issue for equal access to law and justice. Legal discourse has been justly criticised for its obscure terminology and convoluted phrasing, which notably led to the Plain Language Movement in English-speaking countries. In Canada, the [...] Read more.
The popularisation of legal knowledge is a critical issue for equal access to law and justice. Legal discourse has been justly criticised for its obscure terminology and convoluted phrasing, which notably led to the Plain Language Movement in English-speaking countries. In Canada, the concept of Plain Language has been applied to French since the 1980s due to the official policy of bilingualism, while the concept has only been recently discussed in France. In this paper, we examine the impact of Plain Language rewriting on legal phraseology in French popularisation contexts. The first aim of our study is to see if plain texts published in France contain more traces of legal phraseology than French Canadian texts. Our second objective is to determine if a ‘phraseology of plain language’ can be identified across genres and languages. To do this, we compare two corpora of expert-to-expert legal texts written in French—made up, respectively, of legislative texts published in France and judicial texts published by the Supreme Court of Canada—with two corpora of texts that are claimed to have been written in Plain French Language for a non-expert readership—texts that guide laypersons through legal and administrative processes in France and summaries of decisions by the Supreme Court of Canada. Using n-grams, we extract and discuss the patterns that emerge from the corpora. In particular, our analyses rely on the concept of ‘lexico–grammatical patterns’, defined as the minimal unit of meaningful text made up of recurrent sequences of lexical and grammatical items. We then identify a sample of recurring lexico–grammatical patterns and their discursive functions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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34 pages, 932 KiB  
Article
In Scriptura Veritas? Exploring Measures for Identifying Increased Cognitive Load in Speaking and Writing
by Kajsa Gullberg, Victoria Johansson and Roger Johansson
Languages 2024, 9(3), 85; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9030085 - 29 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1184
Abstract
This study aims to establish a methodological framework for investigating deception in both spoken and written language production. A foundational premise is that the production of deceitful narratives induces a heightened cognitive load that has a discernable influence on linguistic processes during real-time [...] Read more.
This study aims to establish a methodological framework for investigating deception in both spoken and written language production. A foundational premise is that the production of deceitful narratives induces a heightened cognitive load that has a discernable influence on linguistic processes during real-time language production. This study includes meticulous analysis of spoken and written data from two participants who told truthful and deceitful narratives. Spoken processes were captured through audio recordings and subsequently transcribed, while written processes were recorded using keystroke logging, resulting in final texts and corresponding linear representations of the writing activity. By grounding our study in a linguistic approach for understanding cognitive load indicators in language production, we demonstrate how linguistic processes, such as text length, pauses, fluency, revisions, repetitions, and reformulations can be used to capture instances of deception in both speaking and writing. Additionally, our findings underscore that markers of cognitive load are likely to be more discernible and more automatically measured in the written modality. This suggests that the collection and examination of writing processes have substantial potential for forensic applications. By highlighting the efficacy of analyzing both spoken and written modalities, this study provides a versatile methodological framework for studying deception during language production, which significantly enriches the existing forensic toolkit. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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18 pages, 18056 KiB  
Article
Forensic Audio and Voice Analysis: TV Series Reinforce False Popular Beliefs
by Emmanuel Ferragne, Anne Guyot Talbot, Margaux Cecchini, Martine Beugnet, Emmanuelle Delanoë-Brun, Laurianne Georgeton, Christophe Stécoli, Jean-François Bonastre and Corinne Fredouille
Languages 2024, 9(2), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020055 - 2 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1512
Abstract
People’s perception of forensic evidence is greatly influenced by crime TV series. The analysis of the human voice is no exception. However, unlike fingerprints—with which fiction and popular beliefs draw an incorrect parallel—the human voice varies according to many factors, can be altered [...] Read more.
People’s perception of forensic evidence is greatly influenced by crime TV series. The analysis of the human voice is no exception. However, unlike fingerprints—with which fiction and popular beliefs draw an incorrect parallel—the human voice varies according to many factors, can be altered deliberately, and its potential uniqueness has yet to be proven. Starting with a cursory examination of landmarks in forensic voice analysis that exemplify how the voiceprint fallacy came about and why people think they can recognize people’s voices, we then provide a thorough inspection of over 100 excerpts from TV series. Through this analysis, we seek to characterize the narrative and aesthetic processes that fashion our perception of scientific evidence when it comes to identifying somebody based on voice analysis. These processes converge to exaggerate the reliability of forensic voice analysis. We complement our examination with plausibility ratings of a subset of excerpts. We claim that these biased representations have led to a situation where, even today, one of the main challenges faced by forensic voice specialists is to convince trial jurors, judges, lawyers, and police officers that forensic voice comparison can by no means give the sort of straightforward answers that fingerprints or DNA permit. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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24 pages, 5310 KiB  
Article
Validation in Forensic Text Comparison: Issues and Opportunities
by Shunichi Ishihara, Sonia Kulkarni, Michael Carne, Sabine Ehrhardt and Andrea Nini
Languages 2024, 9(2), 47; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020047 - 29 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1598
Abstract
It has been argued in forensic science that the empirical validation of a forensic inference system or methodology should be performed by replicating the conditions of the case under investigation and using data relevant to the case. This study demonstrates that the above [...] Read more.
It has been argued in forensic science that the empirical validation of a forensic inference system or methodology should be performed by replicating the conditions of the case under investigation and using data relevant to the case. This study demonstrates that the above requirement for validation is also critical in forensic text comparison (FTC); otherwise, the trier-of-fact may be misled for their final decision. Two sets of simulated experiments are performed: one fulfilling the above validation requirement and the other overlooking it, using mismatch in topics as a case study. Likelihood ratios (LRs) are calculated via a Dirichlet-multinomial model, followed by logistic-regression calibration. The derived LRs are assessed by means of the log-likelihood-ratio cost, and they are visualized using Tippett plots. Following the experimental results, this paper also attempts to describe some of the essential research required in FTC by highlighting some central issues and challenges unique to textual evidence. Any deliberations on these issues and challenges will contribute to making a scientifically defensible and demonstrably reliable FTC available. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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16 pages, 487 KiB  
Article
The Language of Deception: Applying Findings on Opinion Spam to Legal and Forensic Discourses
by Alibek Jakupov, Julien Longhi and Besma Zeddini
Languages 2024, 9(1), 10; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010010 - 22 Dec 2023
Viewed by 2276
Abstract
Digital forensic investigations are becoming increasingly crucial in criminal investigations and civil litigations, especially in cases of corporate espionage and intellectual property theft as more communication occurs online via e-mail and social media. Deceptive opinion spam analysis is an emerging field of research [...] Read more.
Digital forensic investigations are becoming increasingly crucial in criminal investigations and civil litigations, especially in cases of corporate espionage and intellectual property theft as more communication occurs online via e-mail and social media. Deceptive opinion spam analysis is an emerging field of research that aims to detect and identify fraudulent reviews, comments, and other forms of deceptive online content. In this paper, we explore how the findings from this field may be relevant to forensic investigation, particularly the features that capture stylistic patterns and sentiments, which are psychologically relevant aspects of truthful and deceptive language. To assess these features’ utility, we demonstrate the potential of our proposed approach using the real-world dataset from the Enron Email Corpus. Our findings suggest that deceptive opinion spam analysis may be a valuable tool for forensic investigators and legal professionals looking to identify and analyze deceptive behavior in online communication. By incorporating these techniques into their investigative and legal strategies, professionals can improve the accuracy and reliability of their findings, leading to more effective and just outcomes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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19 pages, 2935 KiB  
Article
A Study of a Specialised American Police Discourse Genre: Probable Cause Affidavits
by Audrey Cartron
Languages 2023, 8(4), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040259 - 3 Nov 2023
Viewed by 1340
Abstract
This paper focuses on the analysis of a specialised American police discourse genre and is based on a corpus of 115 probable cause affidavits. A probable cause affidavit is a sworn statement written by American police officers to state that there is probable [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the analysis of a specialised American police discourse genre and is based on a corpus of 115 probable cause affidavits. A probable cause affidavit is a sworn statement written by American police officers to state that there is probable cause to believe the defendant has committed (or is committing) a criminal offence and that legal action is required. After briefly presenting the methodological framework for this study, the paper intends to show how the police use specific linguistic, discursive and rhetorical strategies to serve a specialised purpose, which is to present the existence of probable cause to the relevant legal authorities. The findings indicate that officers use various discursive devices to inform but also—and perhaps more importantly—to convince their audience by means of a chronological and structured narrative of events that follows a prototypical three-fold internal organisation (exposition, investigation, resolution) signalled by specific linguistic markers. Finally, the paper intends to go beyond the objective description of events in order to highlight the assertive nature of this discourse genre and the additional rhetorical strategies used by PCA writers. It studies the emphasis placed on the expertise of the author, as well as the police classification of the offence and the progressive elaboration of the burden of proof. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Challenges in Forensic and Legal Linguistics)
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