{"id":724,"date":"2010-06-15T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T20:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=724"},"modified":"2010-05-26T09:51:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T07:51:10","slug":"dimensions-of-forensic-linguistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=724","title":{"rendered":"Dimensions of forensic linguistics"},"content":{"rendered":"
Dimensions of forensic linguistics. <\/strong>Ed. by John Gibbons<\/strong> and M. Teresa Turell<\/strong>. (AILA applied linguistics series 5.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008. Pp. vi, 316. ISBN 9789027205216<\/a>. $149 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Amy Gurvis<\/strong><\/a>, Northeastern Illinois University<\/em><\/p>\n

According to its editors, the main purpose of this book is \u2018to provide a guide to the multidisciplinary nature of Forensic Linguistics\u2014understood in its broadest sense as the interface between language and the law\u2014that could be of interest for scholars, graduate students and professionals working in Applied Linguistics\u2019 (1).<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

John Gibbons<\/strong> and Teresa<\/strong> Turell<\/strong> summarize the collection of fourteen papers in the introduction (1\u20134). The remainder of this volume is organized into three sections: \u2018The language of the law\u2019 (7\u2013111), \u2018The language of the court\u2019 (115\u2013211), and \u2018Forensic linguistic evidence\u2019 (216\u201399). In Section 1, Peter Tiersma<\/strong> (\u2018The nature of legal language\u2019) discusses the language of regulation and legislation and examines the growth and use of legal languages. In \u2018Language education for law professionals\u2019, Jill Northcott<\/strong> addresses the difficulties encountered in teaching English legal language to second language learning legal professionals. Chris Heffer<\/strong>, in \u2018The language and communication of jury instruction\u2019, presents an examination of the language used in jury instructions and its comprehension. Then, Phil Hall<\/strong> examines \u2018Policespeak\u2019. Concluding the section is \u2018Legal translation\u2019, in which Enrique Alcaraz Varo<\/strong> examines the challenges and issues of English legal translation.<\/p>\n

Section 2, \u2018The language of the court\u2019, begins with \u2018Questioning in common law criminal courts\u2019 written by John Gibbons<\/strong>, which examines the differences between everyday questioning and courtroom questioning. Then, in \u2018Bilingual courtrooms: In the interests of justice?\u2019, Richard Powell<\/strong> discusses the variable of code choice in courtrooms and its potential effect on justice. Dennis Kurzon<\/strong>, in \u2018The silent witness: Pragmatic and literal interpretations\u2019, addresses how silence can be used in the courtroom and how different countries interpret it. In \u2018Language and disadvantage before the law\u2019, Diana Eades<\/strong> presents an argument about the imbalance of power in the courtroom that linguistically disadvantaged groups, such as the deaf, encounter throughout the justice system. \u2018Interpreting for the minority, interpreting for the power\u2019 by Ester S. M. Leung<\/strong> concludes the section, by examining how interpreting and translating testimony can maintain the power of the status quo.<\/p>\n

Section 3, \u2018Forensic linguistic evidence\u2019, starts\u00a0with Tim Grant<\/strong>\u2019s \u2018Approaching questions in forensic authorship\u00a0analysis\u2019, which examines the analysis and challenges of the written\u00a0authorship process, breaking it into four stages and discussing the inability of any one\u00a0identification technique to address all of these stages. In \u2018Trademarks and other proprietary terms\u2019, Ronald R. Butters<\/strong> discusses the linguistic criteria that define trademarks. Then, William G. Eggington<\/strong> addresses \u2018Deception and fraud\u2019 by analyzing the text of a deceptive email. Finally, in \u2018Plagiarism\u2019, M. Teresa Turell<\/strong> tackles different types of plagiarism, methodologies used, and their subsequent challenges.<\/p>\n

The book provides an extensive look into the field of forensic linguistics and could easily serve as a textbook for a course. It could also be used as an informative resource to anyone interested in language and the law in any capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dimensions of forensic linguistics. Ed. by John Gibbons and M. Teresa Turell. (AILA applied linguistics series 5.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2008. Pp. vi, 316. ISBN 9789027205216. $149 (Hb). Reviewed by Amy Gurvis, Northeastern Illinois University According to its editors, the main purpose of this book is \u2018to provide a guide to the multidisciplinary nature of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":725,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}