Forensic Linguistics

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course provides students with an overview of the broad field of Forensic Linguistics – namely, linguistic science applied in legal settings. Topics covered include the language of police and suspects (e.g. the language of ‘consensual’ searches, interrogations, confessions, advising of/requesting right to counsel); language crimes (e.g. solicitation, conspiracy, bribery, threats, perjury, plagiarism); and linguistics as evidence (e.g. identifying anonymous authors of documents associated with criminal activity, identifying anonymous voices). We will also discuss the status of linguistic evidence in court and how best to disseminate relevant knowledge about linguistics to law enforcement practitioners, judges, lawyers, juries, etc. The course will incorporate lecture, class discussion, demonstrations and exercises pertaining to language crimes and linguistic evidence, and presentations by practitioners in the field. Students will conduct a term research project and present their results in (1) a final paper suitable for presentation at a professional linguistics or forensic linguistics conference or publication in an appropriate academic journal, and (2) a final presentation to be presented at the end of the term. Students will also be expected to participate actively in class and complete all in-class exercises.