Studying at York
Forensic Linguistics - LAN00065H
Module summary
The module will provide students with an understanding of the topics across the field of forensic linguistics, with a principal focus on the analysis of written texts that are of evidential significance (most particularly in the form of author profiling – where the author of a text is unknown – or author comparison, where a questioned sample of writing is compared against a sample written by a known author).
Related modules
Pre-requisite modules
Co-requisite modules
- None
Prohibited combinations
- None
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Spring Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
- The module will provide students with an understanding of the topics across the field of forensic linguistics, with a principal focus on the analysis of written texts that are of evidential significance (most particularly in the form of author profiling – where the author of a text is unknown – or author comparison, where a questioned sample of writing is compared against a sample written by a known author).
- Areas to be covered include authorship analysis and attribution, plagiarism detection, forgery, and impersonation; there will also be sections on language crimes, forensic corpus linguistics, language analysis in the asylum process, trademark law, language rights, and language in the courtroom (courtroom discourse, translation/interpreting, etc.).
- The characteristics of legal language will also be touched upon, as will forensic phonetics and discrimination based upon linguistic behaviour, but as these topics are dealt with in more detail in other modules, priority will be given to material that is not covered elsewhere.
- Students on the module will develop their skills in the formulation of arguments based upon the synthesis of knowledge acquired from the module readings, from their own observations, and from an understanding of language and linguistics brought from other modules they have studied/are studying. They will be required to communicate these arguments clearly and cogently via a group oral presentation and through the short essays they write for the closed written examination at the end of the module.
Module learning outcomes
Subject content
- Students will acquire knowledge of key theoretical frameworks and methodological approaches used in the forensic analysis of written documents, for example with the goal of acquiring an objectively-grounded opinion concerning a document’s authorship.
- Students will develop an appreciation of the nature and breadth of the set of offences classified as language crimes - extortion, perjury, defamation, incitement to racial/religious hatred, etc. - and will become familiar with those areas of the law under which these offences are prosecuted in England & Wales as well as in a variety of other jurisdictions.
- Students will understand the importance of linguistic science as applied to the investigation and prosecution of crimes as well as in the contexts of civil law, immigration law, human rights law, and legislation drafting. In particular, they will learn that the study of language variation and change, dialectology, and sociolinguistics, all of which build upon more fundamental aspects of linguistic inquiry (syntax, semantics, phonetics, phonology, etc.), are of especial relevance to how scientifically valid language analysis is practised in the forensic sphere.
- Students will be able to analyse written documents using methods developed by forensic linguists for application in casework (e.g. quantification of lexical and syntactic properties of written texts), and will be able to evaluate other linguistic artefacts, such as trademarks, with respect to the provisions and prohibitions encoded in relevant legislation.
Academic and graduate skills
- Students completing this module will be able to compose and defend complex arguments relating to the properties of linguistic materials (chiefly in the written domain) that are of evidential significance or in some other way within the purview of forensic linguistics. They will be required to express their ideas in both oral and written forms, via the group oral presentation, the formative written assessment, and the closed examination.
- Students will enhance their ability to work as part of a group with their peers, through in-class exercises they will perform during the weekly practical sessions, and through their preparation of the group oral presentation.
- Students will further develop their existing abilities to exploit research resources through the library, the internet, and through soliciting advice from teaching staff.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 80 |
| Oral presentation/seminar/exam | 20 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 100 |
Module feedback
Students will receive feedback on their formative assessment within 2 weeks.
Students will receive feedback on their group presentation within 1 week.
Students will receive feedback on their written examination within 3 weeks.
Indicative reading
Coulthard, M. & Johnson, A. (2013, eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics. London: Routledge.
Coulthard, M., Johnson, A. & Wright, D. (2016). An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Eades, D. (2010). Sociolinguistics and the Legal Process. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gibbons, J. (2003). Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language in the Justice System. Oxford: Blackwell.
McMenamin, G. (2002). Forensic Linguistics: Advances in Forensic Stylistics. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press.
Shuy, R. (1996). Language Crimes: The Use and Abuse of Language Evidence in the Courtroom. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tiersma, P. (1999). Legal Language. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Tiersma, P. & Solan, L. (2012, eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Language and Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.