lingthusiasm

Bonus 16: Forensic linguistics

Added 2018-06-07 22:59:29 +0000 UTC

Linguistics can help solve crimes!

Sometimes a court needs to figure out who might have written a particular note, or whose voice is on a particular recording, and they call in a forensic linguist to help. But what do linguists in the courtroom actually do?

In this bonus episode, we discuss how linguists can be expert witnesses in the courtroom, the pitfalls of using linguistic evidence (and how to foil a forensic linguistic analysis, should you ever have the need), and how forensic linguists caught J.K. Rowling (admittedly, only writing under a pseudonym, not actually committing a crime).

Content note: this bonus episode of Lingthusiasm is the least-gory crime podcast you'll hear, but this topic involves the kind of stuff that gets brought up in a court of law, like murder, kidnapping, ransom, and suicide.

Thanks to Helen for suggesting this topic and to Solitary Gamer for adding your voice to the suggestion!

Links:

Lauren’s live-tweet of Georgina Heydon’s talk
Lingthusiasm Episode 13 (interview with Nicole Holliday)
How stylistics identified JK Rowling as Robert Galbraith (All Things Linguistics, Language Log)
Adversarial Stylometry (PDF)
Missing Melania: is someone tweeting for the First Lady? (Part II)
Gesture in the courtroom
Emoji in the courtroom
Work by John Baugh on linguistic profiling in relation to housing/work discrimination (PDF)
Covert discrimination: Dialect discrimination in the housing market (Kelly E. Wright & Kevin B. McGowan, 5 Minute Linguist, LSA)
The Institute for Linguistic Evidence

You can listen to this episode on this page, via the Patreon RSS or download the mp3. A transcript is available for this episode as a Google Doc. Lingthusiasm is also on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Email us at contact [at] lingthusiasm [dot] com or chat to us on the Patreon page.

Gretchen is on Twitter as @GretchenAMcC and blogs at All Things Linguistic. Lauren is on Twitter as @superlinguo and blogs at Superlinguo.

Lingthusiasm is created by Gretchen McCulloch and Lauren Gawne. Our audio producer is Claire, our editorial producer is Emily, our production assistant is Celine, and our music is ‘Ancient City’ by The Triangles.