An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence.
Malcolm Coulthard and
Alison Johnson. London: Routledge, 2007. Pp. x + 237. $XX.XX paper.
This book is in many respects an important addition to a growing number of
books and articles on language used in law (e.g. Pavlenko, 2008; Shuy, 1998). Coulthard,
a discourse analyst, and Johnson, a former police officer and now a lecturer in English,
sketch a comprehensive picture of the many intersections language makes with what they
term “institutions” such as law enforcement and the legislative branches of governments.
Thus, the reader is exposed to many transcripts which stand as official recountings of
police interrogations, courtroom cross examinations, emergency police calls, and also to
examples of legislation (written laws).
The wealth of examples of language in use, along with the breadth of topics
touched on, are the strengths of the book. In ten chapters the authors discuss forensic
phonetics, idiolects (as related to authorial attribution), legal genres, and the role of
linguists as expert witnesses, among other things. While their main analytical focus of
legal texts is through discourse analysis, they also use lexical, pragmatic, and narrative
analysis to point out specific features of texts. Their focus is the United Kingdom, the
United States, and Australia.
As applied linguists are occasionally called upon to consult and/or testify on
language issues in legal cases (as this reviewer has been) the book seems a necessary
addition to one’s professional library. Certainly its breadth of treatment mirrors the
variety of cases non-specialist applied linguists may consult on, which might range from
giving opinions on whether a suspect knew enough English to confess to a crime to
giving an opinion on whether a manager was coercing a worker. And, first impression
suggests the book might be used to bring to life discourse analysis and speech acts
for lightly experienced applied linguists, perhaps in their second year of graduate study at
the M.A. level.
These things said: The book suffers from poor editing, which makes it frustrating
to read. The Table of Contents seems logical but within chapters and sub-chapters the
logic breaks down. It is not clear to this reader why certain examples are presented, and
more importantly, what readers are to do with them. That is to say, interpretations of the
transcripts seem disjointed and sometimes do not seem to clearly contribute to the larger
themes of a chapter or subchapter.
The procedures used by the authors to reach their interpretations is often not
described. For experienced applied linguists who might wish to confirm their decisions to
use particular analyses in their work, this is disappointing. Coulthard and Johnson seem
remarkably opaque with descriptions of their analytical procedures (compare with Shuy),
which may add to the impression of sketchy and incomplete interpretations.
In terms of using the book as a graduate-level text: There are statements
throughout the book which seem to refer to previously established concepts which are not
to be found despite close reading. Some terminology appears (e.g., transition relevance
places) which is not well defined, nor followed up on, nor necessarily called for. The
review copy used to write this report is studded with penciled question marks and
statements such as How? and Why? and Why are we talking about this? and So what
about topic movement? You mentioned it so why did you drop it? and Is this
foregrounded at all? This reviewer understands that the authors’ stated purpose is to
introduce learners to new terminology. But the terminology seems to lack sufficient
context within the text to be understood. Anyone planning to use this as a course text
should expect to do a lot of explaining.
This reviewer had hoped to assign this book to introduce applied linguistics
graduate students to realistic applications of different types of linguistic description and
discourse analysis (hence her appreciation of the many transcripts). The imprecise
organization and writing precludes its use as a dedicated course text, unfortunately. One
notable exception is the chapter on “Idiolect and uniqueness of encoding” which contains
a clear definition of idiolect and detailed procedures on detecting idiolect and authorship.
This chapter alone follows through with the implied promise of the book, which seems to
be to raise certain issues and problems, and to build readers’ interpretive skills. The entire
book does the former but only one chapter does the latter.
The book represents a step forward in terms of the range of topics covered in
forensic linguistics. It is truly an introduction in this respect. But for it to be of greater
utility to applied linguists and their students, the authors need to consider carefully their
theories of how readers’ interpretive discernment and skills might be developed.
Greta Gorsuch
Texas Tech University
References
Pavlenko, A. (2008). “I’m very not about the law part”: Nonnative speakers of English
and the Miranda Warnings. TESOL Quarterly, 42(1), 1-30.
Shuy, R. (1998). The language of confession, interrogation, and deception. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
