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Forensic Texts
© Forensic Linguistics Institute, 2000-2009.
Books and publications
Forensic Linguistics: Language,
Crime and the Law by John Olsson
was published in 2004. The publisher
is Continuum International of London
and New York. This book
concentrates on authorship, though it
does discuss other areas of forensic
linguistics. It is a useful introduction
for the beginning student, at
undergraduate or graduate level. Its
strengths are its simplicity of
approach and its rich repository of
forensic texts, but it does not address
sufficiently the question of scientific
evidence. Chinese and Arabic
versions are available.
An Introduction to Forensic
Linguistics
Language in Evidence by
Malcolm Coulthard and Alison
Johnson was published by
Routledge in 2007. This book
divides forensic linguistics into
two sub-disciplines: the
language of the law and the
language of evidence. For this
reason it is an excellent
coursebook. The section on
authorship proposes an
idiolectal approach to
identification. There is an
introductory chapter on forensic
phonetics.
Forensic Linguistics, 2nd
edition by John Olsson,
Continuum 2008. This book is an
advance on the first, 2004, edition,
with expanded sections on
authorship and forensic phonetics.
This book and the Coulthard and
Johnson book complement each
other very well. Foreign language
editions are in preparation.
Wordcrime by John Olsson,
published by Continuum, 2009.
This is a case file, in
layperson’s language of 20 of
John Olsson’s major cases,
from the ‘Barrel Killer’ to
‘Betrayed by a full stop’.
Creating Language
Crimes: How Law
Enforcement Uses (and
Misuses) Language by
Roger Shuy, OUP, 2005.
This is Roger Shuy’s
celebrated analysis of the
use of covert surveillance in
court cases and builds on
over 30 years of
consultation as a forensic
expert.
Courtroom Talk and
Neocolonial Control by
Diana Eades, Walter de
Gruyter, 2008. This book
looks at the construction of
victims as delinquents by
the use of language. It is a
must read for anyone
wishing to understand
critical sociolinguistic
analysis.
