Coulthard, Malcolm; Johnson, Alison; Wright, David

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction

PART I - The Language of the Legal Process

2 Critical, theoretical, and methodological approaches to language in legal settings

3 The language of the law

4 Emergency service calls and police interviewing

5 Trial discourse

PART II - Language as Evidence

6 The work of the forensic linguist

7 Forensic phonetics

8 Authorship Attribution

9 On textual borrowing

10 The linguist as expert witness

11 Conclusion

References

Index

This bestselling textbook has long been the standard reference for courses in forensic linguistics and language and the law. Using knowledge and experience gained in legal settings, the authors combine many perspectives into a unified textbook, focusing throughout on evidence from real cases including UK serial killer Harold Shipman and the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. Divided into two sections, it covers the key topics of the field and includes research tasks, further reading and web links. This edition includes new approaches, new material on courtroom discourse, forensic phonetics and authorship attribution, a new conclusion and glossary, ensuring it remains the essential textbook.