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Forensic linguistics is a distinct field of study in the science of language that places significant emphasis on the observation of language usage in our daily lives, including spoken and written language, listening, and reading. This focus on language usage provides a legal perspective for the analysis of language. Initially, forensic linguistics...
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Forensic linguistics is a specialised discipline within the field of applied linguistics, it critically examines language use across diverse modalities. Its fundamental objective is to provide a rigorous legal framework for carefully analysing linguistic patterns. This study aims to identify the publishing trends in forensic linguistics by investig...
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... Correa (2013) indicated that understanding linguistic principles aided anyone participating in a legal process (lawyers, judges, police officers, jury members, and others) in order to have a fair, legal, and effective procedure. Forensic linguistics is a branch of language research that focuses on observing language usage in everyday situations such as spoken and written language, listening, and reading (Alduais, 2023). This emphasis on language usage gave a legal framework for analysing language. ...
... This emphasis on language usage gave a legal framework for analysing language. Alduais (2023) states that forensic linguistics was initially confined to the identification of spoken and written documents in judicial situations, police language, and jail language; however, the field has grown to include: ...
... According to Alduais (2023), forensic linguistics is truly inter-and cross-disciplinary in nature, overlapping with various disciplines like communication, criminology, law, linguistics, sociology, and translation studies. Alduais (2023) also claims that the scope of forensic linguistics is difficult to define because it encompasses characteristics of language from phonetics to discourse analysis during the stages of investigation, trial, and interpretation. ...
This study investigated the threat text messages addressed to victims of gender-based violence (GBV) reported to the Namibian Police Force in Windhoek. The main objectives of this study were to examine the linguistic evidence, features, and choices within threat text messages, investigate the discourse structures of these threat messages, as well as describe the sociolinguistic profiles of the perpetrators of these threat messages. The study adopted a qualitative research approach and used a content checklist analysis to gather data, as well as Linguistic Variation theory paired with Linguistic Profiling Theory to analyse the threatening messages. The results demonstrate a strong link between education, language use, and the propensity for violence, with youth more frequently using informal digital communication to issue threats. Through the identification of linguistic markers and sociolinguistic profiles, this research offers insights into the prevention of gender-based violence by informing law enforcement, legal professionals, and policymakers about the role of language in GBV-related threats and aiding in more effective threat assessment and intervention strategies.
... Forensic linguistics applies linguistic principles and methodologies to analyze language as evidence in legal contexts, offering crucial tools for interpreting the complexities of criminal communication (Coulthard & Johnson, 2007;Olsson, 2008;. This multidisciplinary eld draws on diverse sub elds, including pragmatics (particularly speech act theory), discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and relevant sociological theories of crime, to examine how language functions in criminal contexts (Alduais et al., 2023;Correa, 2013;Momeni, 2011;Slimani, 2024). ...
... Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992), while relevant sociological theories of crime, such as Differential Association (Sutherland, 1947), Strain Theory (Merton, 1938), Social Control Theory (Hirschi, 1969), and Rational Choice Theory (Cornish & Clarke, 1986), offer insights into potential motivations and social contexts. These theoretical frameworks, when integrated, allow for a nuanced and comprehensive language itself is the criminal act or a crucial component (Alduais et al., 2023;Slimani, 2024). Second, characteristic linguistic features frequently associated with speci c language crimes (threatening, solicitation, and conspiracy) will be identi ed, drawing from relevant research (Londhe, Hankare, Ganvir & Damle, 2023). ...
This paper examines the application of forensic linguistic principles to analyze criminal speech acts in the Egyptian case of Hesham Talaat Mustafa, convicted of inciting the murder of Suzan Tamim. Drawing on speech act theory, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics, the study analyzes reported excerpts of recorded conversations between Mustafa and the perpetrator, Mohsen Al-Sokary, alongside court documents and testimonies. The central research question investigates how Mustafa's utterances fulfill the speech act conditions for solicitation, threatening, and conspiracy. The analysis identifies key linguistic features, including directives, commissive, representatives, and euphemisms, demonstrating their contribution to illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect. The broader conversational context, marked by an asymmetrical power relationship and shared understandings, further supports criminal intent. Sociological theories of crime (Differential Association, Strain, Social Control, and Rational Choice) are integrated to provide insights into motivations and social contexts. The study utilizes NVivo for qualitative data analysis, coding for speech acts, linguistic features, and thematic patterns. Findings reveal that Mustafa's communication demonstrably fulfills the criteria for solicitation through consistent directives, financial inducements, and rejection of alternatives. Threatening was established through both direct and indirect threats, creating fear. Evidence of agreement, planning, shared goals, and coordination indicated conspiracy. The analysis, though limited by reliance on reported excerpts rather than full transcripts, confirms that the recorded communication, as presented, provides strong linguistic evidence supporting the charges.
... According to Alduais et al. (2023), forensic linguistics encompasses the application of linguistic knowledge, insights, and methodologies to contexts involving language, law, criminal investigation, judicial procedures, and trials. As a branch of applied linguistics, it involves three primary areas of application: providing linguistic evidence, understanding language use within judicial and forensic processes, and comprehending the language of the law as written. ...
Forensic linguistics is a branch of applied linguistics that analyzes linguistic evidence to clarify ambiguities in judicial proceedings, especially in criminal investigations and legal issues. This study aims to highlight the functions of interpretation and forensic translation in legal contexts, with a particular focus on courtrooms. Interpreters and forensic translators are usually chosen by judges to help the jury and judges convey accurate messages to ensure justice for all parties concerned. The study targets offenders and legal translators within Gulf countries, where there are many non-native Arabic language speakers. This study adopted a qualitative and descriptive method, which was represented in a structured interview composed of ten participants, which was distributed to professional and technical translators and interpreters to answer the questions in writing. These participants are regarded as the participants of this study. The study reveals the coercive power of the linguistic choices of interpreters, which can significantly impact the outcome of judicial proceedings. Forensic translators participate in trials by modifying inaccurate lexical choices made by defendants, focusing on the use of source language, definitions, repair mechanisms, types of hesitation, polite addresses, and cultural norms. The study emphasizes the need for accurate translation in legal contexts and presents recommendations for training, the establishment of a training unit, accreditation from universities in specialized legal interpreting, recognition of forensic interpretation in the legal system and government, and future research studies on forensic interpreting. Overall, this study emphasizes the critical role of forensic linguistics in ensuring accurate and fair judicial proceedings.
... The study of forensic linguistics has predominantly focused on context and media in the digital era. Research by Alduais et al. (2023) emphasizes the importance of understanding everyday language through examination of detection methods, including plagiarism, text detection, and discrimination detection via journal databases. This knowledge facilitates the identification of sources discussing forensic linguistics literature. ...
The proliferation of crimes on social media platforms presents an increasingly complex challenge for society, demanding rigorous analysis and innovative solutions. This paper examines the potential of forensic linguistics in investigating and uncovering language crimes on social media. It explores how forensic linguistic approaches can systematically analyze the linguistic structures—from words to discourses—that constitute criminal communication in digital spaces. Through qualitative research employing document analysis, observation, and note-taking techniques on social media content, five distinct patterns of criminal language use were identified: (1) body shaming, involving insults directed at physical appearance; (2) defamation and libel against individuals and groups; (3) hate speech; (4) threats targeting specific parties or groups; and (5) incitement through the dissemination of false information about interlocutors. These patterns provide valuable insights into crimes that often elude conventional investigative methods. The study demonstrates that forensic linguistic approaches offer promising avenues for case resolution, providing government agencies and relevant institutions with effective tools to address the challenges posed by language crimes on social media platforms. This research contributes to the growing body of knowledge on digital criminology and highlights the critical role of linguistic analysis in navigating the complexities of online criminal behavior.
... It is also an interdisciplinary field as it depends upon other fields like semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, stylistics and phonology. This science is very important to those who work in courts, or study law in particular, and to ordinary people in general, who have to deal with a number of legal documents and processes on a regular basis like, for example: real estate, lease agreement, wills, contacts etc 1 . ...
... guillén-nieto & stein, 2022;hammel, 2022;Khafaga, 2023). One key area within forensic linguistics is authorship attribution, which involves determining the likely author of a text based on comparing its stylistic, grammatical, and lexical patterns to similar texts by the same author (Fobbe, 2022;Van halteren, 2022;alduais et al., 2023). authorship analysis falls under forensic linguistics as it uses linguistic methods to determine the identity or characteristics of an author. ...
... politeness strategies), and spelling patterns (e.g. Fobbe, 2020;Wu et al., 2021;alduais et al., 2023;Zhang & Jiang, 2023). authorship analysis, a crucial function of forensic linguistics, plays a significant role in criminal investigations, including cybercrime (e.g. ...
This forensic linguistic study aims to explore some style markers of three prominent Jordanian columnists. The study examined five semantic, three syntactic, and five structural style features in 75 genre-controlled Arabic newspaper articles. In this investigation, we followed stylistic (qualitative) and stylometric (quantitative) approaches to determine the linguistic style of the three targeted authors and their writing fingerprints. Findings revealed many distinctive style markers among the three authors, such as adopting unique bags of words and employing different word order choices. Moreover, the present study demonstrated that different linguistic styles could be associated with various personality traits, varied demographic backgrounds, and other emotional and psychological states of the authors. This work contributes to the general research on authorship attribution and profiling. It identified authors’ numerical profiles of style markers to assist experts in attributing unidentified texts to their most likely author. The research findings contribute to the field and hold promise for the future, potentially leading to the development of forensic software packages for authorship identification and solving authorship issues such as plagiarism detection.
... guillén-nieto & stein, 2022;hammel, 2022;Khafaga, 2023). One key area within forensic linguistics is authorship attribution, which involves determining the likely author of a text based on comparing its stylistic, grammatical, and lexical patterns to similar texts by the same author (Fobbe, 2022;Van halteren, 2022;alduais et al., 2023). authorship analysis falls under forensic linguistics as it uses linguistic methods to determine the identity or characteristics of an author. ...
... politeness strategies), and spelling patterns (e.g. Fobbe, 2020;Wu et al., 2021;alduais et al., 2023;Zhang & Jiang, 2023). authorship analysis, a crucial function of forensic linguistics, plays a significant role in criminal investigations, including cybercrime (e.g. ...
this forensic linguistic study aims to explore some style markers of three prominent Jordanian columnists. the study examined five semantic, three syntactic, and five structural style features in 75 genre-controlled arabic newspaper articles. in this investigation, we followed stylistic (qualitative) and stylometric (quantitative) approaches to determine the linguistic style of the three targeted authors and their writing fingerprints. Findings revealed many distinctive style markers among the three authors, such as adopting unique bags of words and employing different word order choices. moreover, the present study demonstrated that different linguistic styles could be associated with various personality traits, varied demographic backgrounds, and other emotional and psychological states of the authors. this work contributes to the general research on authorship attribution and profiling. it identified authors' numerical profiles of style markers to assist experts in attributing unidentified texts to their most likely author. the research findings contribute to the field and hold promise for the future, potentially leading to the development of forensic software packages for authorship identification and solving authorship issues such as plagiarism detection.
... In forensic linguistics, the knowledge and techniques of linguistics are applied to examine linguistic phenomena related to legal cases or the examination of cases or personal disputes between several parties which at a later stage have an impact on taking legal action (Fitria, 2024). According to the literature, the main concerns of forensic linguistics are: the language of legal documents, the language of the police and law enforcement, interviews with vulnerable children and witnesses in the legal system, interactions in the courtroom, linguistic evidence and expert testimony in the trial, authorship and plagiarism, and forensic phonetics and speaker identification (Alduais, 2023). Apart from these seven aspects, forensic linguistics also examines the language used in prisons, the development of language translations used in the context of legal events, the provision of linguistic forensic evidence based on expertise, and the provision of linguistic expertise in the preparation of legal documents and efforts to simplify legal language (Gibbons, 2017). ...
... The prevalence of defamation cases has been irritated with the ease of publishing and sharing content on social media and it instigates scholars to explore linguistic strategies employed in defamatory speech online. Alduais et al. (2023) examined that applying linguistic theories and methodologies, forensic linguists study language evidence in legal proceedings, particularly in defamation cases. Forensic linguistics tries to explicate the intent and context behind supposed defamatory statements analyzing the linguistic features which assists in legal interpretation and decision-making. ...
This study aimed to examine the lingual data of speech on Facebook posts, alleged to have resulted in defamation and to describe the case handling process by the police in Banyumas City, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The data was collected through documents handed over by the police. The data was analyzed qualitatively within the framework of forensic linguistic theory. The main findings of the study are that there were six linguistic aspects on the Facebook posts suspected to contain a defamation case under study, namely dialectology, forensic phonetics, forensic language style, language structure analysis, discourse analysis, and authorship. Additionally, the case handling process underwent seven steps, i.e. delivery of application letter from the police to head of linguists’ office, delivery of assignment letter to appointed linguists by head of linguists’ office, linguists’ documents examination by the police, data collection from the police, forensic linguistic data analysis, review session of analysis results, and submission of final results to the police. This study suggests that upholders of law and linguists should work hand in hand in the interest of justice and that linguists build their understanding of law issues within this multidisciplinary practice, while at the same time, upholders of law benefit from the experience of linguists as expert witness.
... In this study, the Bibliometrix R was utilized to analyze and present the annual trend of publications, influential publications, top prolific countries, top influential affiliations, and most influential authors. VOSviewer, on the other hand, serves as bibliometric analysis software utilized to conduct co-word analysis, co-citation analysis, and literature coupling analysis (Alduais et al., 2023;Liu & Zhang, 2021;Mohsen, 2021). The VOSviewer visual representation of research findings is a standout feature, offering distinct strengths in clustering technology and map displays. ...
Translation studies have demonstrated its dynamic and constantly evolving nature, propelled by various influential factors. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis to explore the evolving landscape of translation studies by seeking to identify annual publication trends, significant publications, affiliations, authors, countries, sources, co-cited references, and research foci. To achieve this objective, 1,948 papers published in the Web of Science (WoS) database were analyzed using Bibliometrix R, Excel, and VOSviewer software. The result of the study shows an annual growth rate of 131% from 2019 to 2022, indicating growing interest and relevance. It identifies China, the USA, and the UK as the top influential countries, reflecting global collaboration and regional disparities. Prominent journals identified were Perspectives, Babel, and Interpreter and Translator Trainer, offering insights for researchers to target reputable platforms. The finding of co-citation analysis reveals that Meta Journal, Perspectives, and Interpreter and Translator Trainer are influential sources. The co-occurrence network analysis highlights six major research themes: the interdisciplinary nature of translation studies, pedagogy and technology, Language and linguistics, complexities and communication analysis, audio-visual translation, and cognitive demand in interpreting to show evolving research interests. This study illuminates and provides valuable guidance for future research directions, enabling researchers to address gaps and emerging trends in translation studies.
... The emphasis on language utilisation offers a legal framework for examining linguistic aspects. Originally, the domain of forensic linguistics was limited to the analysis and identification of spoken and written texts within legal contexts, such as police and prison language (Alduais et al., 2023). However, this field has since broadened its scope to encompass various applications, including the detection of speech patterns, identification of textual content, identification of plagiarism, detection of verbal violence on social media platforms, identification of social security issues, and detection of discrimination (Alduais et al., 2023). ...
... Originally, the domain of forensic linguistics was limited to the analysis and identification of spoken and written texts within legal contexts, such as police and prison language (Alduais et al., 2023). However, this field has since broadened its scope to encompass various applications, including the detection of speech patterns, identification of textual content, identification of plagiarism, detection of verbal violence on social media platforms, identification of social security issues, and detection of discrimination (Alduais et al., 2023). ...
Online hate speech has significantly increased, particularly on social media, as a result of the internet's democratization of communication. This is an excellent illustration of how technology has both benefits and drawbacks. The investigation seeks to discover abusive comments on Indonesian social media. The goal of this study is to use a forensic linguistics approach to look at abusive comments on Indonesian social media (Instagram) that could lead to legal offenses. This study employs descriptive qualitative research methods. The study used the speech act theory of Austin (1962) and Searle (1969). The utterances are examined and evaluated within the context of Indonesian legal regulations. The data was obtained from @lambe_turah account (2022). The analysis's findings show that hate speech expresses negative attitudes. This can be seen in acts of insults (expressive speech). Based on the research's findings, it can be concluded that abusive comments are implicit in nature and contain implied meanings. Furthermore, there was a criminal act committed in the comments shared on Indonesian social media platforms, which involved the intentional expression of animosity towards a specific individual or group. This statement has the potential to spark communal anger and frustration because it is presented publicly and can be viewed by a large number of people. The exhaustive analysis contributes to a deeper comprehension of the potential legal implications of hate speech on social media. Additionally, the significance of courteous language is emphasized through adherence to established norms and laws.
