Study of how language is used in legal contexts, such as courtrooms, legal documents, and legislation.
Language and the Law: Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: This topic covers the basic concepts of language and the law, including forensic linguistics, the role of linguistic evidence in legal cases, and the various areas where forensic linguistics is used.
Legal language and terminology: This topic covers the distinctive features of legal language, the use of legal jargon, and the importance of terminology for understanding legal documents.
The language of courtroom discourse: The topic covers the way language is used in the courtroom by judges, barristers, and witnesses, including the role of courtroom silence, appropriate dress and etiquette, and the different register used in court.
Language and deception: This topic covers the different ways language is used to deceive or manipulate, including lying, evasion, and equivocation, and how forensic linguists analyze these types of language use.
Linguistic forensic techniques: This topic involves the use of traditional linguistic methods in forensic analysis, such as phonetics, syntax, and semantics, and the use of technology and computer software for language analysis.
Forensic authorship attribution: This topic covers the methods used to identify the author of a text, such as handwriting analysis, punctuation, spelling, and language style.
Language in investigative interviews: This topic covers the use of language in police interviews, including questioning techniques, interviewee responses, and the importance of context in interpreting interview data.
Forensic sociolinguistics: This topic includes the study of language and power, the impact of language on social and criminal behavior, and the interaction between language and social relationships.
Language in the legal profession: This topic covers the nature of legal language and communication, the expected modes of discourse for lawyers, the impact of legal language on the legal system, and the role of language in court transcripts.
Interpreting and translation in forensic contexts: This topic covers the role of interpreters and translators in the legal system, including the challenges and ethical considerations involved in translation and interpreting in court.
Discourse Analysis: This type of forensic linguistics concerns itself with analyzing spoken and written language in order to determine patterns and certain recurring elements of discourse.
Voice Analysis: Voice analysis involves studying the characteristics of an individual's voice to determine their identity.
Syntax Analysis: Syntax analysis involves studying the grammatical structure of sentences to determine any discrepancies or inconsistencies that may indicate deception or other criminal behavior.
Grammatical Analysis: A part of syntax analysis, grammatical analysis focuses on analyzing the grammar of a statement or sentence to identify inconsistencies and determine any potential deception.
Lexical Analysis: This analysis involves studying the language and word choice used by an individual to identify any patterns or inconsistencies that may be related to deception or criminal behavior.
Semantics Analysis: This analysis involves analyzing the meaning of words and phrases used in a statement or sentence to identify any discrepancies or deceptions.
Cohesion Analysis: Cohesion analysis involves studying how different parts of a text are connected to each other to identify any inconsistencies or deceptions.
Pragmatic Analysis: This analysis involves studying the context in which a statement or sentence is made to determine its intended meaning and the implications of any deceptions or inconsistencies found.
Computer Forensic Linguistics: This type of forensic linguistics involves analyzing digital text to determine the authorship or editing history of a document or email.
Genre analysis: Genre analysis involves studying the characteristics of a document or text to determine its genre and how it relates to the context in which it was produced.