Forensic Linguistics 9781350284845, 9781441170767

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This book is dedicated to those we love . . . and to all those who approach the field of forensic linguistics with an aim of making a difference

FIGURES 3.1 Expected relationship between genre internal authors  34 3.2 Unexpected relationship between genre internal authors  35 3.3 Expected genre-internal relations  36 3.4 Unexpected transgenre relations  36 4.1 Number of texters who share corresponding features  51 4.2 Distribution of ‘you’ forms in subject S’s texts  54 6.1 Transistor frequency response  86 6.2 An energy-by-frequency (or ‘instantaneous’) spectrogram  88 6.3 A digital spectrogram of the ‘waterfall’ type  88 6.4 Filtering patterns  89 6.5 Masking of sounds  90 6.6 Waterfall plot of a rerecorded interrupt (such as a splice)  98 6.7 ‘Sequential’ approach to earwitness identification  103 6.8 Speaker identification  108 6.9 An aural–perceptual speaker identification evaluation form  111 6.10 Computer-based speaker identification  112 6.11 LTS vector  115 6.12 TED vector  115 6.13 SFF vector  116 6.14 VF vector  117 6.15 Printout of normalized SAUSI data  118 6.16 Two-dimensional continua from normalized data  120 6.17 Voice and speech shifts – psychological stress  123 6.18 Change in intoxication level as a function of ingesting ethanol  126 6.19 Perceived intoxication levels versus measured levels  127 6.20 Shifts resulting from increasing intoxication  128 6.21 Sensitivity measures  135

TABLES 3.1 Same author match for the 32 novel corpus  40 3.2 Excerpt from Mill on the Floss data (George Eliot)  43 3.3 Excerpt from Lifted Veil data (George Eliot)  43 3.4 Mean HFL scores in descending order  44 3.5 Level of same author match  44 3.6 Mean frequencies and deviations for ‘the’ by author  45 3.7 Mean time lapse (in years) between each author’s works  46 4.1 Range of variation in known and questioned emails – examples  50 4.2 Forms of ‘you’ used by a group of five pre-teen females  53 4.3 Data for predominantly ‘you’ users  56 4.4 Data for predominantly ‘u’ users  57 6.1 Results of SAUSI experiments carried out in the 1990s  119 8.1 Expressions of negativity, chaos and disorder  159 10.1 Questioned texts  173 10.2 Victoria Couchman texts  173 10.3 Tony Couchman texts  175 10.4 Q features with candidate features  179 10.5 Q features with Victoria Couchman’s features  180 10.6 Q features with Tony Couchman’s features  182 10.7 Summary of findings  183 10.8 Features shared exclusively across Q and the candidates  183 10.9 Descriptions of the alleged assailant  198 10.10 Use of postposed ‘then’  199 10.11 Landmarks  201 10.12 Table of examples of anomalous language from the statement  202 11.1 Showing the degree of variation found in group of 53 texters  221 12.1 Table of mobile phone texts in the case  228 12.2 Table of features across the text set  229

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12.3 Inconsistent features in the victim’s texts  231 12.4 List of shared features across known and suspect texts  234 13.1 Broad distribution of contribution types by testimony phase  249 13.2 Distribution of sentence types by testimony phase  252 13.3 Distribution of sentence types by assumed witness sympathies  253 13.4 Distribution of answer types by assumed witness sympathies  254

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my co-author Dr June Luchjenbroers for her input into this third edition, and to thank readers of the first two editions for their support through the last nine years: it is the readers who really make a book. June and I would also like to thank Gurdeep Mattu and Andrew Wardell of Bloomsbury for their most professional and courteous assistance in taking this book through the various stages of production. We have tried to remain true to the spirit of the first edition  – to keep this book as a teaching and learning aid – and we hope that students and lecturers will continue to find it helpful as they make their first forays into forensic linguistics. John Olsson May 2013

FOREWORD Forensic linguistics is not a single science or study, but an umbrella discipline composed of many facets. Thus, any forensic linguistic inquiry or investigation can draw upon any branch of theoretical or applied linguistics in order to analyse the language of some area of human life which has relevance to the law, whether criminal or civil. The discipline is mainly populated by academics, there being few full-time practitioners. Forensic linguists are consulted by lawyers, whether prosecution or defence, police forces, private individuals, corporate clients, government departments and other organizations. Sometimes, rarely, a judge will seek an opinion on a forensic linguistic matter and the linguist will be appointed by the court. Of the 450 or so civil and criminal cases the first author of this book has undertaken in the past 20 years less than one-fifth have involved giving evidence in person: most require the writing of a report, or at least a draft opinion. Inquiries range from authorship attribution to intellectual property matters, from the interpretation of meaning to the disambiguation of a poor audio recording to plagiarism. Linguistic code-breaking has also featured on a number of occasions. Evaluation of several aspects of legal discourse has become increasingly significant: from the discourse of examination and cross-examination to that of linguistically vulnerable witnesses, from the language of statutes to the rhetoric of closing arguments, from judges’ trial summaries to lawyer–client interaction, from prisoner language to the dynamics of police interrogation. Although forensic phonetics is a separate discipline in practice, there are some overlaps between speaker identification and authorship identification. At the criminal end of the spectrum the range of offences so far covered is vast, including murder, suspicious death, sexual and other assault, child pornography, sexual abuse of minors, kidnapping, extortion, forgery, fraud, theft, armed robbery, other deception offences, driving under the influence of alcohol, narcotics offences, terrorism and threats and other malicious communications. At the civil end of the spectrum we have copyright infringement claims and other intellectual property matters, libel, boundary disputes involving analysis of the language of property deeds: these have required either authorship analysis, the interpretation of meaning, syntactic analysis, corpus linguistics skills and a knowledge

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of the language of the law, including an appraisal of the meaning of the language used in a seventeenth-century charter. In addition, a forensic linguist might be called upon to compare the syntax of two phrases, the investigation of a possible neurolinguistic pathology which cannot be discerned by any other means, or may be asked to assess a threat, determine veracity, or establish the authenticity of a suicide note. Linguists, both authors of this book and colleagues working at other universities have written reports for, or given evidence in, a wide variety of courts from international criminal courts to magistrate’s courts, from crown courts to sheriff courts to courts of appeal and supreme courts, from immigration tribunals to employment tribunals, from courts of arbitration to county courts and district courts and to courts of trade guilds in the City of London.

Who should use this book? This book is intended for students of forensic linguistics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. It can be used on its own or in conjunction with other titles in the field. This book is also intended for novices to the field of linguistics, such as law enforcement officers, legal professionals at all levels – from the newly qualified solicitor to the senior barrister, magistrate or judge. Psychologists and sociologists (in particular criminalists) may also find the content of this edition of benefit to their profession, particularly those who already have an interest in language. We believe that experts in all forensic disciplines may find this book useful. The Forensic Linguistics Institute also runs several distance learning courses on the internet and these are well attended by linguists and non-linguists alike from around the world.

About the authors Dr John Olsson has extensive experience as an expert forensic linguist in British, Australian and American courts. He has been involved in more than 400 cases, and has appeared in court for roughly 20 per cent of the cases dealt with. He is frequently consulted by solicitors and law enforcement agencies requiring opinions on forensic texts. To date, he has prepared nearly 500 reports on linguistic and phonetic cases for the courts. Before this, he spent a number of years as an interpreter for the Metropolitan Police in London (1970s), after which he studied psychology at degree level. A stint in business was followed by an MA in linguistics at

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Bangor University in Wales, and an M.Phil. in linguistics at Birmingham University in England. His M.Phil. thesis was a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the process of dictation, as applied to the Derek Bentley text. In 2009 he received a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Glamorgan in Wales, and in 2012 completed a law degree with Bangor University (LLB Hons, First Class). Dr June Luchjenbroers completed her Ph.D. in linguistics with La Trobe University, Australia in 1994, and her dissertation in the areas of Language and the Law and cognitive linguistics focused on a Melbourne murder case. Since that time she has developed a productive research association with Dr Michelle Aldridge-Waddon with whom she has worked on testimonies with children (as conducted by the police as well as in court), and more recently on email communications between paedophiles, and fantasy research. Dr Harry Hollien is a Professor of Speech Sciences, and a Professor of Linguistics with the University of Florida, serving in particular, the area of Speech and Criminal Justice. He received his Ph.D. in 1955 from the University of Iowa and his first appointment with the University of Florida (Associate Professor) was in 1962. He was the Director of the Communication Sciences Laboratory (1968–75) and has been the Director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Communication Processes since 1975. Prof. Hollien has provided reports in nearly 500 cases and given oral evidence in 98 cases. (to date), in the areas of speaker identification, acoustics of gunfire, tape authentication, speech decoding/enhancement, noise control/analysis, electronic signatures, aircraft acoustics, correlates of intoxication, stress in voice. John Olsson and June Luchjenbroers (15 April 2013)

Introduction

What is forensic linguistics? In this part of the book we will discuss some aspects of forensic linguistics, making use of case materials. There will also be some exercises for you to think about. Forensic linguistics is the analysis of language that relates to the law, either as evidence or as legal discourse. Language in evidence includes the attribution of authorship and the interpretation of meaning. Language as legal discourse includes the language of statutes, judicial deliberations, the discourse of the court room and the discourse of exchanges between lawyers and others outside the court room. Forensic linguists have also studied a wide range of interactions, including those taking place in prisons, and within the police service. An emerging aspect of forensic linguistics is the interpretation of legal terminology.

The language of the law: Meaning When we speak of the language of the law we are talking about a number of aspects of legal language. We can divide the topic into two main sections: the professional language of the law and the language of the law encountered by the lay person. There is of course an overlap between the two. We should also bear in mind that a very important part of the language of the law is completely hidden from us: namely, the language used in the jury room. We know very little about how juries assess evidence (Allen 2008: 203), about what jury members say to each other, or about how persuasion works in the jury room. Juries, in fact, wield great power, far greater than we perhaps realize, and the plain fact is that they rarely have to account for their actions. As an example of a jury’s power, it is well established in law

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that a judge cannot direct a jury as to its verdict (Bushell’s Case [1670]).1 In that case, the judge considered that the jury had given the ‘wrong’ verdict. The jury held out against the judge, despite his threats and ill treatment, and were later vindicated. To this day, a judge dare not cross a jury on this point. But a jury’s power is even greater than this: once a verdict is reached, no court in the land has the power to question what happened in the jury room. As the House of Lords ruled in R v. Connor and Another [2004], it is ‘both inappropriate and undesirable that there should be a public inquiry as to what happened in the jury room after the verdict has been given’. 2 Thus, the student of forensic linguistics needs to bear in mind that although we talk of the language of the law, a very important aspect of this language is veiled in secrecy and will never become known. In many countries, jurors are forbidden by law to discuss a case once it is concluded, and have the permanent protection of the law against those who would seek to inquire into their deliberations. It is not even possible to know whether a jury understood the facts of a case (as, for example, occurred in the infamous ouija board case (R v. Young [1991]).3 The same observation is true of magistrates: we do not know how magistrates reach their decisions and unless a case is appealed from a magistrate’s court, we are unlikely to know to what extent such decisions may have violated statute or precedent. Notwithstanding this limitation the language of the law provides a rich source of material for linguists and is still largely unexplored. In our chapters on the ‘Language of the law’, we will provide many examples of legal language for you to work with. In the meantime, here is an example for you to consider.

Example 1 Consider the following excerpt from a judgement in a famous case and ask yourself what the word ‘reasonable’ means: ‘You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour.’4 Background: Donoghue v. Stevenson [1932] was a famous tort case decided in the House of Lords.5 A friend of Mrs Donoghue bought a bottle of ginger beer for her at a tea room in Scotland. A snail was found in the bottle. Mrs Donoghue sued the manufacturer after falling ill as a result of having consumed some of the contents of the bottle before becoming aware of the snail. The House of Lords held that the manufacturer was responsible. This established the principle that a manufacturer owes a duty of care to a consumer because it is reasonably foreseeable that failure to take the necessary care to ensure the product’s safety would cause harm to the consumer.

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The word ‘reasonable’ in the above excerpt is a legal standard. The standard is what the average person (traditionally referred to as the ‘reasonable man’) would consider reasonable. There has been much legal argument over the ‘reasonable person’ test, but, essentially, what Lord Atkin is saying is that the manufacturer must take the sort of care that the average person would consider reasonable. In taking such care the average person would have in mind the need to avoid conduct which would injure others: again, the test is one of reasonableness. What sort of dangers would a reasonable person foresee? Some have argued that the ‘reasonable person’ is not the ‘average person’ precisely because no person can be a ‘standard’, and no person embodies all of the idealized characteristics required. In the Donoghue case, mentioned above, it might be more appropriate to think of the ‘reasonable manufacturer’ and to ask ‘Would a reasonable manufacturer have taken care to ensure that snails did not get into the product line?’ If not, then there would be no liability. The ‘reasonable person’ is thus a legal construct postulated on the basis of an imagined norm. It is thus an objective test and does not depend on how a particular individual acted or what that particular individual believed at the time of acting. It is important, when studying legal language, to understand that it is a technical language, a very highly developed register with specific meanings. One should not assume that a legal term has the same meaning as in everyday usage – it rarely has. As a result of centuries of experience courts have developed certain procedures to decide the meaning of a term. We will consider these matters further in Part Four of this book.

The discourse of the law Studying the language of the law requires us to consider what happens linguistically at every phase of a case, in other words to examine comprehensively the linguistic interactions which take place between the principal actors in the drama. Ideally, this would include all of the following: initial inquiries by police officers, arrests, interviews of suspects, meetings between lawyers and their clients, the defendant’s appearances in court, the examination and cross-examination of witnesses and defendant, comments and questions from the judge in the course of the trial, and the judge’s summary of the case for the jury. As already noted above we seldom know what is said in the jury room where the defendant’s fate is decided and so this is an aspect of legal discourse – even though jury members are ‘legal amateurs’ – of which we can have little or no knowledge. At the same time, we also need to get ‘out of the box’: what happens in a criminal prosecution and in court is only a part of the linguistic

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infrastructure of a case. The court is acting within the legal framework of the state. As such the judge and lawyers involved in the case are relying on the language of legislation, and the language of legal precedents, since cases do not exist in a vacuum.

Linguistic advantage and disadvantage In their seminal work on law, language and power Just Words (2005), John M. Conley and William M. O’Barr broke new ground in delineating the areas of the law where the structures used are the vehicles of power.

Authorship attribution Authorship attribution is the task of identifying the authorship of a document. A document can have a single author or multiple authors. The person who pens the document need not necessarily be its actual author if, for example, the document is being produced on behalf of an institution or an official, or the writer is acting as a scribe or mouthpiece for the person who takes responsibility for the document (cf. Goffman (1981) and his characterization of speech participants). It would not be improper to speak of the person creating the document as the originator or creator, other authors as participants, and the body on whose behalf the document is published as the authority. However, even this classification is too simplistic, since it presupposes that there is typically only one author of a document, or that all authors would have the same level of input into a document. For example, a defendant is interviewed by police and a written statement taken, with a police officer acting as scribe. The statement is produced as an evidential document in a criminal case. Who is the author? Is it the defendant, the police officer conducting the interview, the police officer acting as scribe or the police service in whose jurisdiction the case takes place? Also, the authorship of a document cannot be studied in isolation from the document’s audience. When a police officer reports an offence in a statement the intended audience is usually the court. For relatively minor offences this will usually be a court sitting without a jury  – such as a magistrate’s court in England and Wales, or a justice of the peace court in Scotland. Police officers are trained to communicate efficiently and the language of their statements is therefore intended to convey the details of the offence in such a way as to ensure that a decision can be reached as speedily as possible. This does sometimes place constraints on officers, in that efforts are made to ensure that officers do not contradict each other with regard to the main facts of the offence. As a result, it sometimes

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happens that two police officers will use identical language to report the actions or words of a suspect. In a particular case, a forensic linguist might be asked whether officers went beyond natural cooperation and actually colluded to fabricate evidence.

Example 2 Compare the two statement excerpts below. Some of the similar phrases have been placed in bold type. Using a pencil, underline other identical phrases. Note that some phrases are not quite identical. Excerpt 1 – from statement of Constable YYYY At approximately 0000hrs on ---day nth Month 200- I was on uniform mobile patrol in a marked Police vehicle in company with Constable XXXX. At that time we were in the XYZ area and I heard a radio transmission to the effect that a member of the public was behind a vehicle which was swerving from side to side and the informant thought the driver may be drunk. The vehicle was described as a (colour) (type) Reg No, ABCDEF. I drove to the area given in the radio message and following the receipt of further information regarding the position of the suspect vehicle I drove into the grounds of The PQRS, Such-and-Such Road.

Excerpt 2 – from statement of Constable XXXX At about 00.00 hours on ---day nth Month 200- I was engaged on uniform mobile patrol in a marked police vehicle in company with Constable YYYY. At this time we were in the XYZ area of the ABC when as a result of a radio message to the effect that a member of public was behind a vehicle, which was swerving from side to side and the informant thought the driver may be drunk. The vehicle was described as a (colour) (type) registration number ABCDEF. Constable YYYY drove to the area given by the radio room then drove into the grounds of The PQRS on Such-and-Such Road.

Task 1 Now ask yourself what the significance of the similar phrases and sections is. Does it indicate that the officers colluded? That they might have been fabricating evidence against the defendant?

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When you have thought about this, and made up your mind, move onto the next example. These are different excerpts from the same two statements. Ask yourself the same question as with this example. Are there indications in these excerpts that the officers might have colluded?

Excerpt 3 – from statement of Constable YYYY I asked if he had consumed alcohol, he replied ‘WELL NOT AS SUCH’. Again I asked if he had consumed alcohol, he replied ‘OK YES’. I invited X to sit in the rear of the Police vehicle and he did so. There I assembled a breath screening device of a type approved by the Home Office. I told X that I required him to provide a sample of breath for a screening test. I fully explained the use of the device to X and I pointed out the possible consequences of refusing or failing to provide such a sample. X provided the sample as requested and the device indicated, by means of a red light, that he had failed the test. I then cautioned X and told him that he was now being arrested on suspicion of driving a motor vehicle on a road and in a public place while over the prescribed alcohol limit. He replied ‘HMM RIGHT’.

Excerpt 4 – from statement of Constable XXXX Constable YYYY asked Mr X if he had consumed any alocohol, he replied ‘WELL NOT AS SUCH’. Constable YYYY asked Mr X again if he had consumed alcohol, he replied ‘OK YES’. Constable YYYY asked Mr X to accompany him and sat in the rear of the police vehicle, where constable YYYY conducted a breath test procedure. Mr X supplied a sample, which was positive. Constable YYYY cautioned and arrested Mr X on suspicion of driving a motor vehicle on a road and in a public place whilst over the prescribed limit. He replied ‘HMM RIGHT’.

Here, certain key similarities have been placed in bold type. These are not the only similarities between the sections. As we can see from these statements, there are, broadly, two different types of similarity of interest. First, we have similarities regarding factual data. So, the officers both report the same facts, namely that they were on patrol when they received a radio message, that the driver of a certain vehicle (which they describe) had been seen driving in an apparently inebriated state, that he was traced to a particular car park, was given a breath test, and so on. Since these similarities can for the most part be independently checked, they are not really of forensic concern. It is perfectly reasonable that the two officers would have discussed the incident shortly afterwards,

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providing they were simply making sure they had their facts right. Where was the motorist seen committing the offence? What time was the radio call received? What was the vehicle’s registration number? And so on? These are, for want of a better term, ‘objective’ facts, and facts such as these are not usually in contention. However, there is a second type of ‘fact’ being recorded, and these are contested by the parties. They relate to how the defendant allegedly conducted himself, including what he is claimed to have said. Are two people, whether police officers or not, likely to have remembered – several hours, or even days later  – another person’s exact words? You can test this yourself by carrying out an experiment with two other classmates. Create an incident in which two of you observe what a third person says and does. Then, after allowing about 15 minutes to elapse, independently, record what was happened and what was said. Are your accounts identical, or even similar?

History of forensic linguistics in practice6 In the 20  years or so that forensic linguistics has been practised in the United Kingdom it has become an established part of the criminal justice system, as it has in the United States, Germany, Sweden and Australia. It is also emerging in Spain. The names of distinguished colleagues in these countries are too numerous to mention, but we have tried to list those who can be considered as pioneers in this field in the Appendix. Many of these practitioners are still active. The father of forensic linguistics is undoubtedly Prof. Jan Svartvik, formerly of Lund University in Sweden. He was not only the first person to use the term forensic linguistics, but he also carried out the earliest analysis in Europe in relation to the fabrication of confessions. In the United States, Prof. Roger Shuy, formerly of Georgetown University, should be credited with being the first linguist to bring forensic discourse analysis to the content of recorded interactions and written communications used in, or related to, criminal and alleged criminal activities. Prof. Harry Hollien of the University of Florida at Gainesville is a pioneer in the areas of speaker identification, acoustic analysis and audio enhancement, having worked in the field for over 40  years (he is the author of the chapter on forensic phonetics in this edition). Prof. Ron Butters (formerly of Duke University) has been significant in several areas of forensic work for many years, especially with reference to intellectual property matters, including trade mark analysis. Also in the United States, Dr Carole Chaski has pioneeered the syntactic analysis of authorship. Prof. Gerald McMenamin (University of California, Fresno) has written several textbooks on forensic stylistics and has appeared as a witness in many trials in the United States. The leading practitioners in the language of the law in the United States are

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Dr Bethany Dumas (University of Tennessee), Prof. Peter Tiersma (Loyola Law School), Prof. Larry Solan (Brooklyn Law School) and Prof. Janet Ainsworth (Seattle University). In Australia, the earliest linguistic analyses of confession statements was made by Dr Theodor (Ted) Strehlow in 1959, following the conviction of an Arrernte man, Rupert Max Stuart, for murder. Since the 1980s Prof. Diana Eades of the University of New England, New South Wales, has analysed Aboriginal English and testified in a number of criminal cases. Also in Australia, Dr John Gibbons (University of Western Sydney) has been commissioned on numerous occasions in forensic linguistics and has written many articles and several books. Dr Gibbons and noted Spanish linguist and phonetician Prof. Dr Teresa Maite Turell (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona) have recently co-authored a significant volume in forensic linguistics (see Bibliography). Dr Kate Storey-White, an Australian working in both Australia and the United Kingdom, has made an important contribution to forensic phonetics and has testified in several hundred cases. In the United Kingdom the earliest significant authorship analyses in the forensic context were made by Prof. Malcolm Coulthard of the University of Birmingham (now at the University of Santa Catarina in Brazil). He and Dr Alison Johnson (University of Leeds) have co-authored a major work on forensic linguistics (see Bibliography). Together with his deputy director, Dr Tim Grant (an experienced forensic authorship expert witness and author in the field), Prof. Coulthard set up the Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University. Dr Michelle Aldridge-Waddon (Cardiff University) pioneered the analysis of linguistic interaction with children in the context of criminal investigations. Dr Aldridge-Waddon and the second author of this book have written extensively on the language of vulnerable witnesses and victims in the justice system. Beginning in the 1980s, David Woolls pioneered plagiarism software, which is now in use in forensic and other applications worldwide. David Woolls has collaborated with several universities on the development of software for a wide variety of collusion and infringement applications, including the monitoring of entire course cohort assignment submissions. Also in the United Kingdom, Prof. Peter French (York University) is the longest serving forensic phonetician. He now leads a team of forensic phoneticians, working in courts all over the United Kingdom and sometimes in mainland Europe. In Germany, Prof. Dr Hannes Kniffka (University of Bonn) and Prof. Dr Hermann Künzel (University of Marburg) have both long been significant in the criminal justice system, respectively in forensic linguistics and forensic phonetics. In the Netherlands, Prof. Dr Ton Broeders (University of Leiden) is a foremost forensic phonetician having been responsible for the setting up of the forensic linguistics and phonetics laboratory at the Netherlands Forensic Institute. In Sweden,

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Prof. Anders Eriksson (University of Gothenberg), originally a physicist and mathematician, has been working in the field of forensic phonetic analysis for many years. Not only is forensic linguistics a thriving practice in the criminal jurisdictions of Europe, the United States and Australia, it is also taught widely in universities across the world. It is also beginning to emerge in China, where an earlier edition of this book has been used in several linguistics departments. Translations have also been made into Arabic and Croatian (where the Language of the Law is taught at the University of Zagreb Law School by Prof. Dr Lelija Socanac, co-translator with Tomislav Socanac (MIT) into Croatian of the second edition of this book), and translation work into French is currently underway. The authors, and others, have given lectures and presentations on forensic linguistics in many countries not so far mentioned. It is fair to say that there is worldwide interest in forensic linguistics, both in academia and among law professionals, as well as law enforcement departments, and that current students of the discipline, such as readers of this book at universities (both academics and students), lawyers and police officers have engaged with the field at an exciting period in its history when more and more academics and practitioners are involved in the field and courts are becoming increasingly active in realizing the crucial ways in which forensic linguists can be of assistance to them.

Outline of this book Part One: Language as forensic evidence Part  One of this book will focus on areas relevant to how language use is part of the crime to be dealt with in the legal process, and the forensic linguist’s analysis of the language data that is needed to assist in establishing a suspect’s (or in court, an accused’s) guilt or innocence.7

Part Two: Dealing with linguistic evidence Part Two of the book includes a number of chapters, each dealing with recent cases dealt with by forensic linguists. Also included is a chapter on the importance of accurate transcriptions, as in practice, very small alterations can lead the expert witness in the wrong directions, and ‘cleaning’ the data (i.e. removing ‘errors’) can mean that important information is lost; as well as a small-scale, corpus study conducted by the first author to offer statistical support for his arguments in such cases.

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Part Three: Language and the legal process Part Three focuses on the language used to and by people involved in the judicial process. Current research in the field of forensic linguistics is not just concerned with language as forensic evidence, but also how language is used in the legal process itself. Several aspects of legal discourse have become increasingly significant: such as the questioning styles utilized in the legal process (Court testimony and police interviews), in particular the language used to and by linguistically vulnerable witnesses; but also investigations into the rhetoric of closing arguments, judges’ trial summaries and lawyer–client interactions; the language of statutes; and the nature of prisoner language that has a role in the dynamics of police interrogation. This area of investigation deals with language-based infractions on people’s rights and inhibitions to their performance in the judicial process, and includes the ‘verballing’ of a witness’ testimony and what it is to be a ‘vulnerable’ witness (in court and/or in police interviews).

Part Four: The language of the law This final section of the book dwells on aspects of how the law is written. This discussion includes a more thoughtful treatment of the right to silence, also considered briefly in Part Three (from a language and the law perspective). This part of the book also uses more semantic analyses, with regard to (in particular) the language of officialdom.

Appendices The final section of this book consists of three appendices: Appendix 1 gives more forensic texts for the reader to consider independently Appendix 2 offers more exercises and exercise commentaries to facilitate the learning process and Appendix 3 provides a more detailed description of forensic linguistics research and practice in the field, since its inception by Svartvik in 1968.

Notes 1 [1670] 124 E.R. 1006. 2 [2004] UKHL 2, per Lord Slynn of Hadley at 54.

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3 [1995] QB 32417. 4 [1932] UKHL 100, [1932] SC (HL) 31, [1932] AC 562 per Lord Atkin at 580. 5 [1932] UKHL 100, [1932] SC (HL) 31, [1932] AC 562. 6 See also Appendix 3 for a more detailed account of practitioners in this field. 7 The type of legal case in which language may be presented as evidence has become diversified greatly in recent years, in connection with both criminal and civil matters. In terms of criminal cases, as previously stated, allegations and offences have included all types of homicide, physical and sexual assault, to both adults and minors, the accessing of child pornographic images and other material, abduction (including involving extortion and other forms of extortion), all forms of theft, fraud, deception, burglary, including aggravated burglary (and other violent robberies), a range of driving offences, including drink driving and the analysis of ASBOs (anti-social behaviour orders). At the e-crime end of the spectrum, offences have included terrorism, the grooming of minors for sexual purposes and many forms of malicious communications. Civil cases have included authorship of wills, analysis of the language of property deeds and even the interpretation of a four-hundred-year-old royal charter.

Further reading Allen, C. (2008), Practical guide to evidence. London: Routledge. Goffman, E. (1981), Forms of talk. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Part One

Language as forensic evidence Introduction to Part One This book part deals primarily with authorship determination and is composed of a number of chapters that will take the reader from the historical context of authorship to the practical applications found in recent legal cases. The first five chapters are devoted to theoretical aspects of authorship, beginning in Chapter  One, ‘The road to authorship’, in which the reader is invited to consider ‘what is an author’, given that many ancient works were handed down without the written word (e.g. Homer). The significance of the transition from orality to literacy is forensically relevant in that linguists may be called upon to identify different forms of language use. Chapter Two, ‘The author constructed’, deals with the development of the concept of ‘authorship’ into a phenomenon that may be thought of as something that can be ‘owned’. This is a largely historical discussion using the works and arguments of many literature figures from ancient times to the present to clarify the current concept of ‘authorship’. This discussion then proceeds with a detailed consideration of author ‘style’, as it may be found to be relevant to the forensic context. Chapter Three, ‘Time, variation and genre’ moves on from this point, with a consideration of authorship tests in distinguishing the outputs of different authors, taking genre as a starting point. The discussion in this chapter considers 32 well-known literary sources to reveal that sometimes

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different author styles have more in common than works by the same author, and over time, author styles are arguably likely to change. These points are further illustrated in Chapter Four, ‘Range of variation’, in which text messaging variation is considered. In this discussion, additional factors are taken into account, such as author age and gender. In Chapter  Five, ‘Textual variation’, a consideration is offered of variations of register and non-register factors, as well as polyphonic factors. This discussion considers categories well established in the field of Systemic Functional Grammar (cf. Halliday 1994; Stockwell 2007), such as Field, Tenor and Mode before turning to psycholinguistics (language acquisition and development) as well as sociolinguistic phenomena, in order to develop our understanding of intertextuality. The chapters on authorship analysis (in particular) are then followed by a chapter authored by Prof. Harry Hollien: Chapter Six, an ‘Introduction to forensic phonetics’. This chapter introduces the reader to a range of important aspects to this field of enquiry. The final chapter in Part  One is Chapter Seven: ‘Cybercrime’. Many of the text examples offered in this edition are electronic, but the area of cybercrime includes much more than the types of materials that might land on the forensic linguist’s desk. This chapter gives the reader a broad overview of what kinds of cases fall into this rubric, in terms of what kind of contribution the forensic linguist may be called upon to perform. Of necessity, the discussions include references to general aspects of authorship, not just forensic authorship. Despite this being a theoretical section, however, there are many examples and exercises to help ground the reader. Answers to the exercises are provided in the ‘Exercise commentary’ section. The reader will find, for this and other sections, numerous forensic texts to use in the exercises, or to use for the purposes of practising and developing skills. More so than in earlier editions, the forensic texts supplied with this edition are highly focused to the content of the book. The book’s website also has numerous forensic examples for the reader to work with.

CHAPTER ONE

The road to authorship

The beginnings of literacy Forensic authorship is in many ways far removed from popular notions of what an author is but in order to understand how we go about authorship attribution in the forensic context it is first necessary to situate the idea of author, and we can begin doing this by learning about the historical framework of written language. The word author conjures up a number of archetypal images, most notably perhaps that of a novelist. Images of the starving writer scribbling on paper in a cold, bare garret persist, even in these days of central heating and computers. In fact, several of our conceptualizations of author stem from the romantic period, although we probably imagine that authors have always existed. Many readers will have been taught at school that in the ancient world, the poet Homer was one of the great authors of his age. However, scholars have long believed that Homer was probably not literate. Far from being an author, Homer was most likely a reciter. He lived at a time when literacy was still relatively rare, and not at all as highly regarded as it came to be later. His great achievement was his ability to commit large tracts of poetry to memory. For this he used a number of mnemonic techniques described later.

The role of memory in language use In talking about writing, the role of memory is critical. In our modern age when we are able to write things down – when pen and ink, or computer keyboards, or mobile phone keypads, are in plentiful supply  – our need

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to commit details to memory is not as great as it was in the oral stage of language. In fact, our ability to remember is probably declining. For example, less than two decades ago most of us would most likely have had to recall at least a dozen telephone numbers, but nowadays the numbers we most frequently use are stored electronically in the devices we use, and so we do not even have to think about trying to memorize them.

Orality in early written language Our forebears had many ways of remembering. In fact, they structured their language use around this most essential requirement. The idea that Homer’s Epics were first transmitted orally began to take hold in the eighteenth century, largely through, as Walter Ong reports, the work of Friedrich August Wolf (1759–1824).1 Ong, in describing the work of Milman Parry on poetic metre in the Epics, notes that written and oral language are structured differently from one another because of the limitations of memory (Ong 2002: 20). Ong observes that we find many examples of orality in ancient texts such as the Bible. As you read through the following key features of orality, it is worth considering how these devices may have assisted Homer to memorize long tracts of poetry (summarized from Ong 2002: 21, 37–45). Additivity: This technique uses concatenated constructions joined by a simple conjunction, such as ‘and’, for example: ‘And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters’ (Genesis 1.1–2; Ong 2002: 37). Aggregation: The process of using multiple descriptors to emphasize aspects of an individual’s character or the outstanding features of a place; for example, in traditional European fairy tales princesses are always fair, with milk white skin or long silky hair; soldiers are usually brave, tall and handsome; oaks are sturdy (Ong 2002: 39). Repetition of a refrain can also be considered as a form of aggregation, perhaps combining an element of additivity. Redundancy: In written language we have the text to refresh our memory if we become distracted, but spoken language is transient, and for this reason, according to Ong, redundancy is helpful; it keeps the interactants in a conversation focused, by repeating what has just been said. By contrast: ‘Sparsely linear or analytic thought and speech are artificial creations, structured by the technology of writing’ (Ong, infra) and in this sense are the opposite of speech which is normally repetitious and, as Ong notes, essentially redundant. In public speaking, the speaker ‘need[s] to keep going while he is running through his mind what to say next’ and thus, ‘it is better to repeat something, artfully if possible, rather than simply to stop speaking while fishing for the next idea’ (Ong 2002: 40–1).

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We find many examples of redundancy in poetry, which until the eighteenth century was largely an oral art. Thus, in Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, dusk is signalled several times, first as ‘parting day’, then as ‘the world’ descending into ‘darkness’, and shortly thereafter as the ‘glimmering landscape’ which ‘fades . . . on the sight’. Not long after, night is established with the ‘moping owl’ which ‘complain[s]’ to ‘the moon’. The first few verses of the poem are replete with redundancy, but it is done skilfully and in such a way that the different parts of the day cohere with each other and provide a moving picture in the hearer’s mind: a necessary device given that the hearer does not have the text to look back over. Knowledge of how redundancy works in oral language is of great assistance to public speakers such as actors and politicians. Agonism: An important component of oral language is the use of agonistic or enthusiastic imagery. Those living in early times tended to experience much more conflict than modern humans, and were prone to random catastrophes, including sudden and inexplicable illness, material deprivation, physical assault, political tyranny, natural disasters, and so forth. Their language often expresses these elements in vivid, violent language, the converse of which, as Ong notes, is the praise literally heaped on prominent figures such as rulers and military heroes. While the ‘fulsome praise in the old, residually oral, rhetoric tradition strikes persons from a high-literacy culture as insincere, flatulent, and comically pretentious’, on the other hand ‘praise goes with the highly polarized, agonistic, oral world of good and evil, virtue and vice, villains and heroes’ (Ong 2002: 45). Readers will readily appreciate the contribution of other features of oral language which can assist memory, such as alliteration, rhythm and rhyme. Even ordinary, every day oral discourse will often exhibit one or more of the above characteristics, and for this reason we may be able to tell when a text which purports to have originated in written form, is more likely to have resulted from spoken language or dictation. This can be a question of importance in forensic work. Milman Parry’s great insight into orality was the way in which metre was affected: he was able to see that very often a word was chosen, not for its precise meaning, but because it assisted the poem’s metre at that point, in Homer’s case a metrical form known as the dactylic hexameter. Dactyl is from the Greek word for finger. In poetry it consists of one long measure and two short ones and hexameter simply means there are six dactyls. Two short measures are the equivalent of one long one, and sometimes the two short measures are replaced by a long one, known as a spondee. Thus, although fairly rigid theoretically, the dactylic hexameter is also very flexible. It is this combination which enables the reciter to substitute one image or epithet for another, from a huge stock of epithets for each element of the story. As Ong notes, using the theme of wine

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as an example: ‘[T]he Homeric epithets used for wine are all metrically different and  .  .  .  the use of a given epithet was determined not by its precise meaning so much as by the metrical needs of the passage in which it turned up’ (2002: 21). Given these findings, it was inescapable that the Homeric Epics originated as oral language, and not written. How Homer came to be considered as the author of the Epics is also worth consideration. This specific problem was considered by Gregory Nagy, cited by Andrew Bennett (2005). According to Nagy, Homer simply stood in a long line of rhapsodic poets, but happened to be the one who took the form to its full development. Later exponents were mere imitators: We might imagine the oral dissemination of a poem progressing from one performer to the next, from A to B to C, and so on, with each performance building on the last . . . at some point in this series, say with performer M, differentiation effectively ends, and rather than attempting to develop or elaborate the song the performer attempts to stabilize it, to preserve what now comes to seem more like a finished ‘text’. At this point, performer L begins to be mythologized as the author, the originator of the poem or song, and future performers come to be seen simply as reciters (rhapsodes) of L’s original work. (Bennett 2005: 34, citing Nagy 1989, 1996a, 1996b, 2003) This process not only tells us about the transition from orality to literacy – because eventually the recited work gets written down – but it also gives us an insight into another aspect of language closely related to authorship, namely genre. We will explore that issue later when we come to talk about the problems of discerning authorship attribution among authors working in the same fiction genre.

Exercise 1.1

L

ook at the two examples below and describe how they demonstrate signs of orality in written language. Comment on any features of interest.

Excerpt 1.1 – from Inaugural speech of President Obama (2009) We will restore science to its rightful place and / wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality / and lower its cost. / We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil / to fuel our cars and run our factories. And / we will transform our schools and colleges/ and universities to meet the demands of a new age. / All this we can do. All this we will do.

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Our challenges may be new, the instruments with which we meet them may be new, but those values upon which our success depends, honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old. These things are true.

Excerpt 1.2 – from statement of Susan Smith (1995) When I left my home on Tuesday, October 25, I was very emotionally distraught. I didn’t want to live anymore! I felt like things could never get any worse. When I left home, I was going to ride around a little while and then go to my mom’s. As I rode and rode and rode, I felt even more anxiety coming upon me about not wanting to live. I felt I couldn’t be a good mom anymore, but I didn’t want my children to grow up without a mom. I felt I had to end our lives to protect us from any grief or harm. I had never felt so lonely and so sad in my entire life.

The transition from orality to literacy At some point in time nomadic groups adopted a more settled existence and began to form into larger, more organized societies. The early cities may have begun as collections of small, rudimentary dwellings but it was not long before structures of governance and control began to emerge. Records needed to be kept of food stores, memberships of militias and land usage. It would not have been possible, at this stage in our development, to rely on the memory of officials in the administration of the lives and property of large numbers of people. The literacy scholar David Barton notes that in about the year 2300 BC several text types began to appear in the Mesopotamia region. These included receipts for commercial and land transactions and for inventories of an administrative nature relating to food and other supplies (Barton 1984: 115). Zettler confirms that these written materials were limited to sources of an ‘economic (administrative and legal)  .  .  .  character’ (1996: 17). In documents such as these – just as in many modern legal documents – it is not likely that there were many signs of individual authorship. The objective was probably to produce standardized methods of recording data: methods which would be relatively easy to teach and which were consistent and predictable. At this point in social evolution, humans knew that they could no longer rely on memory, that for the purposes of social order it was important to be able to reproduce the details of transactions accurately, possibly months or even years after an event had occurred.

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Thus, referring to Milman Parry’s research on the metrical forms found in the Epics, Walter Ong considers that we began writing largely because of our limitations of memory. The need for personal communication was not so significant – most of the people we would have needed to communicate with would have been living nearby (Ong 2002: 36).

The first author? In Babylonia, now Iraq, the historical king Gilgamesh built the city of Uruk in about 2700 BC. The legends surrounding his life were recorded, reputedly by Shin-eqi-unninni, in cuneiform on stone tablets. This was not only an exception to the practice of writing for official purposes, but was also unusual in that, it would seem for the first time, the author was named. It is doubtful, however, that Shin was the actual author of the tablets, given that the events occurred long before he recorded them. Doubtless, the story of the ‘heroic’ king had been told for centuries around camp fires, and in this way passed from generation to generation. Some of the material is also found in ancient Sumerian as well as Akkadian (the language of the tablets). Therefore, although Shin-eqi-unninni is often referred to as ‘the first author’ this is probably not accurate. Given the size of the task of transcribing such a lengthy tale using the cuneiform alphabet it is likely that the work was commissioned by the authorities at Uruk as a kind of historical record or monument. The authorities must have considered that there was a danger of Uruk’s history being lost to future generations. What is singular about the language of Gilgamesh is its immediacy. We have strong indications of orality in such phrases as ‘I dreamed a dream in my nightly vision’ or describes ‘a dream I dreamed in my night’s sleep’. Typically, characters in the poem do not have dreams: they either dream dreams or see dreams. When they tell others of their dreams, which was customary, those others hear dreams. The dream references in the poem thus contain elements both of aggregation and redundancy.

Conclusion As we have seen, the structure of oral language differs from written language in several important respects, largely due to the limitations of human memory. Because of this, signs of orality are detectable in the language of works such as the Epics which were eventually committed to paper. Thus, it is in the transition from orality to literacy that the notion of the named author seems to have had its beginnings.

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As with other technological developments, humans adapted to the changing needs of their social circumstances, and writing arose as a method of record-keeping, rather than as a forum for expressing thoughts and ideas. Even epic works such as Gilgamesh are a form of record, in this case intended to be historical. Very early writings were not usually personal communications but records kept by city states to administer increasing numbers of people. They are impersonal documents such as inventories, censuses, lists of food and clothing supplies, and registers of land allocations. As such these documents contain no clear traces of individual authorship. We are not even certain that Shin-eqi-unninni was an ‘actual’ author: he may have been the scribe, or he may have simply collected stories from other sources. It would be many centuries before the social construct of authorship came into being. Several of the insights noted in this chapter have implications for authorship in contemporary society. Records of commercial and military transactions would have seen the beginnings of institutional and official written language, with its focus on factual matters. Such official language would have contrasted strongly with the type of language necessary to transcribe the Gilgamesh legends. In turn, the Homeric Epics with their gradual, primarily oral, evolution would have engendered an altogether different kind of language use: one in which the content of the speech event, the oral recitation of the poem, was designed to serve the language as a form of entertainment, as a performance. All of this has relevance for the theory and practice of forensic linguistics. Forensic linguists have been called upon to consider the differences between institutional language and the language of defendants and witnesses in criminal and civil cases; between language which originated as speech and language which originated as writing, and between language which was contemporaneous with an event, and language which recorded that event at a later time. Forensic linguists have also been called upon to distinguish between documents of single authorship and multiple authorship, and to consider the question of author influence. For these reasons, it is valuable to study the origins of authorship, and even writing itself, and it is important to understand the nature of oral language, and how it is distinguished from literary language. As societies move further into the age of digital document production, more questions will arise as to the nature of authorship: what we learn from history is that authorship is not a static property, but an evolving one. The nature of authorship changes as society and its methods of communication change.

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Note 1 Any student of literacy questions, which is a key aspect of authorship studies, should consider reading Walter Ong’s book, referenced in the Bibliography and at the end of this chapter. See also references to David Barton.

Further reading Barton, D. (1984), Literacy: an introduction to the ecology of written language. Oxford: Blackwell. Ong, W. J. (2002), Orality and literacy. London: Routledge.

CHAPTER TWO

The author constructed

The doctrine of authorship As explained in the previous chapter, the development of writing came about primarily as a technology for record-keeping. The idea that written language could be used as a form of personal, artistic and scientific expression, as well as a means of communication between individuals separated by distance, took shape only gradually. In this chapter it will be seen that over the centuries a doctrine of authorship has emerged, whereby writers have come to have a special status in society, based largely on socially constructed elements such as genius, ‘ownership’ of written language, and individuality of expression. Perversely, the question of ownership had little to do with proprietorship or paternity but was effectively a means of control over what was published. The key question for linguists is whether the belief system around which society has constructed the author can be deconstructed in order to determine which, if any, of its elements are scientifically sustainable.

Authorship as an individual act Several time periods have been suggested as marking the entry of this component into Western thinking. While Barthes relates the ‘prestige of the individual [author]’, to the end of the Middle Ages (Barthes 1977), others cite philosophical concepts such as ‘Je pense, donc je suis’ (Descartes)1 as the source of valorizing individualism (e.g. Govier 1997: 84). On the other hand, Woodmansee and Jaszi (1994: 13)  propose the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution as the source of the ‘ideology of individual creativity’. Still later, we have Coleridge’s claim that ‘Every man’s

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language has its individualities’ (Bibliographia Literaria 1817: ch.  17). Much later, in the twentieth century, the term ‘idiolect’ was introduced (Bloch 1948) to refer to the individual use of language. Although conceived as a property of speech, it now has widespread currency among linguists in relation to the authorship of written language (Chaski 1997; Coulthard 2004; McMenamin 2002).

Text as property In the sixteenth century, the idea that authors owned what they wrote began to surface, starting with the state’s determination to enforce legal accountability: an author who transgressed the law by publishing seditious material faced criminalization, simply because ‘his’ name was on the title page of a book. 2 This particular idea owes its origins to legal concepts of the ownership of ideas which in turn stem from the political climate of the late sixteenth century when the English parliament passed a law forbidding the publication of a work unless it bore the author’s name. Their intention, as Woodmansee and Jaszi show, was not to protect the rights of the author but, in the war against the publication of seditious material, to give the authorities: an instrument for establishing criminal responsibility for books deemed libelous, seditious, or blasphemous. Aware that an unscrupulous printer might publish a book against the author’s wishes, the House of Commons included a clause requiring authorial consent. (1994: 214) Interestingly, the notion of ‘transgressive’ authorship had also surfaced in France, and Foucault cites the ability to penalize those who offended in their writings, marking this as the beginning of modern authorship (Foucault 1984). It was only later that the notion of reward for labour came to be officially recognized. Writers complained that their work was not only being copied, but copied badly and, moreover, that they received no compensation for it. If authors could be punished, they should also be rewarded. Defoe, commenting in an early eighteenth-century tract complained that ‘if no body will Buy, no body will Write’ (The TrueBorn Englishman, 1703). Thus, as a consequence of what was seen as an epidemic of what would nowadays be termed ‘piracy’, the law took steps to enshrine benevolent proprietary rights, as opposed to just punitive ones. The eventual result was the Statute of Anne, an act ‘for the Encouragement of Learned Men to Compose and Write useful Books’ (Act for the Encouragement of Learning, 1710).

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These events, among other efforts at regulation, ultimately led to the creation of a professional class of writers, including authors such as Richardson and Fielding. This process was perhaps assisted by what Hernáez Lerena describes as the social phenomenon of ‘public hunger for seeing . . . their own experiences’. Literary formats, too, changed, and the novel surfaced as the vehicle best suited to portray ‘normal  . . .  life in its ordinary aspects’ (Hernáez Lerena 1990: 84). The Act of 1710 was the world’s first copyright act and became a model for intellectual property protection legislation in 13 American states and, later, in other Englishspeaking countries. It solemnized in law the notion of authorial ownership of language. Common law notions of copyright differ from those of civil jurisdictions, such as France and Germany, where the author’s rights are divided into patrimonial rights over the intellectual property and moral rights of publication. The first one deals with ownership of property and the second with restrictions on others regarding publication.

The genius of the author Following from ideas of individual distinctiveness and language owner­ ship, the next component in the formation of the idea of authorship was that of ‘genius’. Woodmansee and Jaszi (1994: 16) point to Wordsworth’s declaration that ‘Genius is the introduction of a new element into the intellectual universe’ and cite this, and statements like it, as the source of the popular concept of the author as ‘genius’. Edward Young’s 1759 ‘Conjectures on original composition’ had perhaps set the tone for the originality claim, stating that ‘the mind of a man [sic] of Genius is a fertile and pleasant field’. It was in this period that authors began to be seen as contributing ‘something new and distinctive [to] the literary system’ (Ross 2000: 102). From notions of genius and originality it was but a short step to the birth of the ‘romantic, creative hero’ and, in particular, the ‘traditional model of solitary authorship’ (Woodmansee and Jaszi 1994: 418; see also Vaver 2006: 50). The notion of the author as a creative hero, working in reclusive isolation, is still with us today in popular culture. Barthes (1972/2000: 29–31), for example, observes that writers have a ‘glamorous status’ as society’s ‘spiritual representatives’. In his 1972 essay ‘The writer on holiday’ (L’écrivain en vacances) Barthes commented on what he saw as the contradiction inherent in the notion of a writer taking a holiday. Although, according to Barthes, journalism portrays the writer as a prosaic figure who engages in ‘ordinary’ activities, like going on holiday, living in an old house, wearing shorts, and so on (1972: 30), this did not demystify the writer: rather it made the writer more ‘charismatic’ and ‘celestial’. Thus, presenting the writer as ordinary

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made ‘the products of his art’ ‘even more miraculous’ and ‘of a more divine essence’. Corpus information suggests that the word ‘reclusive’ is most often associated with wealth, film actors and authorship. In the British National Corpus (BNC) ‘reclusive’ occurs 43 times: novelists and poets are mentioned 4 times (e.g. Thomas Hardy, Philip Larkin), the super rich (e.g. J. Paul Getty) 3 times and film stars are mentioned twice. The most common lexical collocates for ‘reclusive’ include ‘novelist’, ‘famous’ and ‘lifestyle’. On the other hand, collocates for ‘author’ include the words ‘fascinating’, ‘celebrity/ies’ and ‘spiritual’. These observations suggest that the populist conception of the author seems to have changed little from the time of Barthes’ essay.

Exercise 2.1

C

omment on the following as an example of the mythology surrounding the author In 2006 Dan Brown, the writer of the Da Vinci Code, was being sued in the London High Court for allegedly plagiarising his novel from a work entitled The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. In the news reporting which covered the court case the media, almost without exception, focused on the persona of Dan Brown the writer, virtually to the exclusion of the issues of the case. The ABC network said that Dan Brown ‘usually shuns the spotlight’ (ABC, 28 February 2006), while the BBC saw him as ‘ . . . the reclusive writer Dan Brown . . . ’ (BBC Radio 4 Profile 4 March 2006), a theme echoed by two British newspapers, viz ‘ . . . as the reclusive writer prepares to testify in the high court . . . ’ (Observer, March 12 2006, on Dan Brown) and ‘the reclusive Dan Brown’ (Guardian 17 May 2006). The Guardian, in one of a number of full length features on the author, also told the story of how Brown had come to write one of his novels during a visit to his parents’ home (interestingly – in the light of Barthes’ comments – during the holidays): When his agent asked for it [the book] he was on a Christmas holiday with his parents in Florida. He duly hammered it out in the only private space in the house: the laundry room, using clothes hamper as a chair and an ironing board as his desk. [Guardian March 14, 2006]

Style In contemporary scholarship it has come to be recognized that style is a fluid property, often constrained by the purpose of the communication, and

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closely related to questions of genre and register. However, style has been of concern to scholars since the classical era and has been variously used as a tool of critics and as a means of attributing text. The Greek philosopher, Plutarch, wrote extensively on style in the first century AD, linking it to virtue. He advocated a plain style of writing, holding up the Spartans as a literary ideal: ‘The style of them was plain and without affectation.’ Similarly, he praises Fabius for his ‘eloquence [which] had not much of popular ornament, nor empty artifice’ (Plutarch, Lives). He was followed by Gellius, who, in his Noctes Atticae, criticized writers for their ‘unsuitable use of archaisms’ and lack of ‘clarity or refinement’. In contrast, he praised writers whose language had ‘vitality and meaningfulness’ (Holford-Strevens and Vardi 2004: 43). Also critical of ‘pompous expressions’ was Athenaeus, the author of a curious volume called the Deipnosophists which combined the twin loves of philosophy and cuisine. Possibly the first scholar to attempt attribution was St Jerome, who in his De Viris Illustribus sought to give ‘a systematic account of ecclesiastical writers’. Jerome made translations of the Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Latin, and evaluated elements of style when deciding to accept or reject a work as being within a particular authorial canon. Style continued to preoccupy scholars in the succeeding centuries. Dante advocated the use of Italian in preference to Latin, and demanded in Book 2 of his De Vulgari Eloquentia that writers use only ‘noble words’ in their texts. By contrast, the poet John Milton, a staunch puritan – who nevertheless implored Parliament not to censor literary works  – required that language be of ‘naked plainness’ (Areopagitica, 1644). At this stage, as can be seen from these observations, style was considered a means of articulating ideas: the Earl of Chesterfield, for example, claimed that style was ‘the dress of thought’ (a common formulation in eighteenth-century Europe).3 Dr Samuel Johnson commented not only on style as manner, but also on its use as a means of identifying an author. In his Lives of the Poets, referring to the work of Dryden, he considered individual style to be ‘such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted’. Thus, while the notion of style started out as a way of describing the supposed artistic merits of written language it also took on further meanings, including as a tool for attribution. Dr Johnson was perhaps the first to suggest that style has an habitual aspect – that is, an author would exhibit ‘a recurrence of particular modes’. This question of habit and the recurrence of features is an essential aspect of the identification of authors in the forensic context. In the following subsection we will look at this process more closely. As we do so, it is important to avoid the trap of reaching a conclusion on authorship too hastily. For, although an author will often exhibit features with apparent regularity, individuals are prone to variation and imitation. What can appear to be a

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distinctive feature in one author’s writing is not an individual property, but is open to all to use. How authors come to shift styles and acquire features from each other is an important aspect of forensic authorship. The mythologizing of the author, as described earlier, is also of relevance to forensic authorship: courts are sometimes too easily persuaded that a defendant suspected of the authorship of a text has a distinctive style which matches that of a given questioned text: this occurs even where the evidence is linguistically insubstantial. This undoubtedly stems from the notion of distinctive and individual authorship which has become embedded in social consciousness over the past two centuries.

Social factors and language style In the previous subsection we reviewed aspects of the historical development of the perception of style. In this subsection we will consider style in more detail, in particular how it relates to the forensic context. Forensic linguistic evidence often purports to make identifications of perpetrators of crimes. In some disciplines, identification data are of a biometric nature and forensic evidence is given on the basis of biological data matches. However, in linguistics the underlying concept that is being  dealt with is individual style of language use, which is not a biological property but a socially acquired one. As will be seen from this section, an individual’s style is not a fixed property, but is prone to variation. Variation is socially motivated, not individually, and for this reason it is important for forensic linguists to understand how and under what circumstances an individual’s style can and does change. The pioneering work in this area was carried out by sociolinguists in the 1970s, most notably William Labov. Style is a multifaceted, highly nuanced, dynamic property. In his seminal work on Black English Vernacular (BEV),4 Labov (1972) observed many types of style among his participants, distinguishing between ‘informal style’, ‘the style of peer group interaction’, a ‘middle-class verbal style’, ‘the  style closest to the vernacular of everyday life’, and ‘colloquial’ and ‘formal’ styles. Labov’s research took place against a backdrop of mainstream educational hostility towards speakers of BEV. A study by a leading educationalist at the time claimed that black children had lower IQs than white children. The way black children spoke, according to this research, was ‘proof’ that black children could not learn English as well as white children could. Chief among the proponents of this racial inferiority hypothesis was an educationalist called Arthur Jensen (1969) who believed that ‘the problem must be located in the child’ and that the real issue was ‘the genetic inferiority of black children’ (in Labov 1972: 234, 235). The results from

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Jensen’s mass IQ testing of black students claimed that black children were intellectually inferior, lacked ambition and mostly came from homes where there were no career or educational aspirations (Labov 1972: 4). In studying BEV, Labov was able to dispose of the prejudice that there was a single black English vernacular and that, as in any other speech community, speakers of BEV were able to utilize a full repertoire of registers in response to different contexts. Labov concluded that there were important structural differences between ‘standard English’ and BEV  – differences which were not due to any deficiency, either of the speakers of BEV or of BEV itself. Labov found that BEV utilized different subsystems (syntactic, lexical, morphological and phonological) from standard English. It became apparent to him that schoolteachers – who were among the main critics of the supposed limitations of BEV  – did not accept these facts about BEV, insisting that black children were using a defective version of English, and that this was due to wilfulness or laziness on the part of these children. Whereas teachers and some educationalists saw the problem as having racial causes, Labov realized that until the establishment came to accept BEV as a dialect in its own right, little progress would be made. What teachers needed to realize was not that the children were failing to observe a rule system but that they, the teachers, were actually seeking to impose what they saw as ‘order’ on a pre-existing system, one which had become natural to their students: effectively that there were ‘structural conflicts’ between the two systems (Labov 1972: 6), particularly as teachers either refused to believe that BEV was a system, or that it had any validity. As mentioned earlier, Labov was able to show that variations in the vernacular occurred for the same reasons as they occurred in any other dialect group, such as among users of standard English and that just as in standard English they were socially motivated. In particular, Labov found that speakers of BEV showed linguistic, communicative ‘competence’. The reader may recall that Hymes (1971) formulated the concept of communicative competence in response to what he saw as the limitations of Chomsky’s (1968) generative syntax competence–performance paradigm. The theory has been modified by several linguists since Hymes, most notably by Canale and Swain, who stated that communicative competence should consist of four elements: (1) grammatical competence, (2) sociolinguistic competence, (3) discourse competence and (4) strategic competence (i.e. the appropriate use of communication strategies) (cf. Canale and Swain 1980: 1–47). Although not specifically working within Hymes’ paradigm, Labov found that in addition to the four categories of competence above, speakers of BEV were also highly successful in narrative competence: the ability to tell stories. At the time Labov was writing, Bernstein had not long published his theory of language codes (Bernstein 1971), stating that working-class children lacked the more abstract concepts of their middle-class peers, and that this was due to the restricted code they had been exposed to in their

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

environment. However, Labov found that Bernstein’s claims regarding the communicative power of the elaborated (middle-class) code were exaggerated. Labov asks: ‘Is the elaborated code of Bernstein really so “flexible, detailed and subtle” as some psychologists believe? Isn’t it also turgid, redundant, bombastic, and empty? Is it not simply an elaborated style, rather than a superior code or system?’ Not surprisingly, Labov (1972: 213) did not find that black workingclass children lacked the ability to articulate abstract concepts, as Bernstein had claimed. Instead of focusing on what many saw as racial or deterministic issues, Labov concentrated on ‘patterns of social interaction’ which he found could ‘influence grammar in subtle and unsuspected ways’ (1972: 255). Other levels of language could also be affected, including morphology and phonology (Labov 1972: 380). What Labov’s study established was the importance of examining the social motivations of language variation. This is of huge significance in forensic work, and has hitherto received only a minimum degree of attention by those working in this field.

Aspects of style There is no easy way to define style, as other linguists have pointed out. While Halliday (1994) distinguishes between social dialect and other, less permanent aspects of speaker identity (which he terms ‘register’, and which includes ‘style’), according to Patrick: most sociolinguists have two kinds of ‘variation by use’ in mind. They distinguish ‘style’ from ‘register’  .  .  .  and mean something narrower by the latter  – something characterized by less permanent aspects of people’s identities, such as their occupations (lawyers as in ‘legalese’, or fire-fighters, as in the lexicon of ‘smoke-jumpers’), or temporary roles (an adult interacting with a child, as in ‘baby-talk’). (Patrick ms.) The following aspects of ‘style’ have been found to be significant: (1) order in variation, (2) style and variation, (3) style and context, (4) style and identity and (5) style as a feature of a person’s socio-culture. These are considered in turn now.

Order in variation Perhaps the key finding from variationist sociolinguists is that variation in language is never random, but in fact is orderly (cf. Labov’s famous phrase ‘orderly heterogeneity’, Weinreich et al. 1968: 100). Montgomery

THE AUTHOR CONSTRUCTED

31

(2007: 110), for example, shows that misspellings among semi-literate writers of early modern English (despite intra-author inconsistencies and wide variation from one writer to the next) were actually orderly representations from which contemporary regional pronunciations could be inferred.

Style and variation From the beginning, ‘style’ has been seen by sociolinguists as a quality that is subject to variation, and is not ‘fixed’. Bell (1984) summarizes the Labovian quantitative approach to style as being too mechanistic, and contrasts it with Hymes’ concept of ethnographic speaking, which was more concerned with the ‘messiness of actually occurring data’ in that it confronts the ‘richer smorgasbord of contextual influences on a speaker’s linguistic choices’ (2007: 91). Bell proposes that style can be defined as the ‘range of variation produced by individual speakers within their own speech’ (2007: 90). See also Chapter 10, ‘Forensic authorship in practice’ for a discussion of variation in a recent murder case involving family questioned authorship.

Style and context An important component of style is context. To use Patrick’s example (Patrick, ms.), the language of the lawyer would not be appropriate to the activity of ‘smoke-jumping’, for example, and it would be equally inappropriate to use legalese in talking to a child. As Voloshinov noted, style has to be seen as part of the context, ‘the social event of verbal interaction’ (in Bell 2007: 97). Bell (1984) himself emphasizes this point in his study on audience design.

Style and identity The question of how individual identity is negotiated has also engaged sociolinguists and anthropologists (Hazen 2007: 80). Overlapping individual identity are other types of identity, such as cultural, group and family identity (Vaughn-Cooke 2007: 271). A fundamental question asked by sociolinguists is to what extent is an individual’s identity constructed and maintained by language (cf. Eckert 2000). From an authorship perspective there needs to be an awareness of how the individual’s different identities would cause variation in style – that is, how much an author’s style might vary according to how they choose to be seen, as a function of different social groups.?

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Style: socio-culture versus language Sociolinguists have also been concerned with the relative influence of socioculture versus language on variability. For example, Fasold and Preston (2007) show that while some sociolinguists attribute all variation to social causes, this is largely a question of research focus since some aspects of variation cannot be dealt with in this way. As a result they summarize sociolinguistic approaches to variation under three headings: variation caused by (1) interaction of social forces and linguistic forms, (2) influence of one linguistic factor on another and (3) linguistic change (Fasold and Preston 2007: 45–69).

Conclusion In this chapter we have seen that the populist conception of the author is essentially flawed, and that style is not an individual property, but, rather, an individual response to a complex mix of linguistic and social factors. Hazen proposes that language production is structured from a variety of constraints operating on the individual: ‘[L]inguistic factors produce possible linguistic forms, social status factors organize those language possibilities according to identity groups, and individual style ranges derive from community knowledge of differential status forms’ (2007: 79). In the next chapter we will consider the interplay of two such constraints on authorship, namely social factors and individual limita­ tions, particularly in relation to time.

Notes 1 ‘I think therefore I am’. 2 Authors of the day were likely male. 3 Variations on this theme have also been attributed to Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding. 4 Varieties of black English have also been called AAVE (African American Vernacular English), Black English and, more recently, Ebonics (Vaughn-Cooke 2007: 254).

CHAPTER THREE

Time, variation and genre

Many authorship tests appear more than adequate at distinguishing the output of one novelist from another. This chapter gives an example of the High Frequency Lexicon test. However, apparent success at same author matching hides a number of defects in the thinking behind genre  authorship testing. Not only is the author space a public one, and therefore prone to occupation by other genre authors, but authors themselves are susceptible to inconsistencies which are more systematic than is generally acknowledged. In addition, genres are not fixed entities, but fluid social institutions. Any test, therefore, that purports to attribute authorship of genre texts needs to take into account the fact that both the homogenizing force of genre and the author’s apparently individualistic features yield to the inevitable forces of social and personal entropy (decay) and ectropy (growth). Thus, claims by authorship scholars, whether in literary or forensic authorship, that authors have an ‘idiolect’ or ‘linguistic fingerprint’ disguise the influence of genre and related factors, and therefore need to be evaluated with caution.

Introduction A number of researchers have considered aspects of the author-genre relationship, including Argamon et al. (2003) who takes a machine-learning approach, and John Burrows (1987, 1992) who has tested genre texts on the basis of function words. Many computational studies follow in the footsteps of the famous Mosteller and Wallace (1964) investigation into the authorship of the Federalist Papers. Although considerations of genre are implicit in these and other studies, the dynamics of the author-genre relationship have yet to be fully explored. We should stress that by genre here, we do not mean the traditional ‘structuring and classifying a mainly literary textual universe’ but ‘the

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

linguistic, sociological, and psychological assumptions underlying and shaping these text-types’ (cf. Bawarshi 2000: 335). While what Barthes termed ‘transitive authorship’ (also referred to here as non-genre authorship) is not within the scope of this discussion, it is nevertheless instructive to view the different approaches to authorship which have been emerging over the past decade, especially in the application of authorship questions to forensic investigations. In his work, which has often involved giving evidence on authorship, Malcolm Coulthard (2004) has favoured an idiolectal approach. Carole Chaski, a US forensic practitioner uses syntactic analysis. Tim Grant (2007), a colleague of Coulthard, analysed the contributions of over 70 stylistic markers to attribution tasks. Grant has also proposed that forensic authorship can be undertaken without relying on an idiolect concept because ‘practically and methodologically, authorship analysis depends on the facility to detect consistent patterns of language use’ (2010: 509). Unlike the stylistics approach, Grant’s theory does not presuppose the existence of universal style markers (see, for example, McMenamin 1993). Nevertheless, implicit in Grant’s hypothesis is that writers are consistent, at least with respect to some features, and that they do produce patterns – an explicit claim of both genre and non-genre researchers. But are authors consistent, and if so, what determines this? Is consistency a feature of authorship or genre, or are other factors at work?

Expected and unexpected relationships in the genre domain What factors influence the success of an attribution of a genre text to its author? We would usually expect that two texts by the same author in the same genre would probably have more in common with each other than the respective works of different authors working within the same genre. We can illustrate this expectation as in Figure 3.1. Both Author A and Author B work in Genre 1. For the time being, we can refer to them as ‘genre authors’ – authors producing work in the same

Genre 1: Authors A1 A2

B

Figure 3.1  Expected relationship between genre internal authors.

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

35

Genre 1: Authors

A1

B A2

Figure 3.2  Unexpected relationship between genre internal authors. genre as each other. Author A’s two works, A1 and A 2 , are expected to be more similar to each other than either work would be to that of Author B. However, this does not always happen (see Figure 3.2). In this particular case, we see that Author A’s second title is more similar to B’s work than it is to Author A’s other work. Possible reasons for this include plagiarism on the part of A or B, or a closer chronology between B and A 2 than between A1 and A 2 .

The genre institution and the author space A genre is an institution within the framework of society. As social changes occur the genre itself will change, simply because the authors working in that genre are members of society and are subject to its influences. Authors seek to position themselves at particular points within the genre frame, either by identifying their work with those of prominent same-genre authors, or perhaps in opposition to particular members of the genre group. In this way, each author creates an author space which may or may not coincide with the vectors of some other author working in that genre. An author space is not owned: no author can claim it exclusively and nor is the occupation of that space necessarily permanent. The creation of the author space is a combination of conscious and unconscious factors, as well as ‘real world’ social determinants – it is not totally within the author’s control.

Comparison across genres Just as we would expect within-genre intra-author similarity, so too would we consider it almost inevitable that within-genre works would be more similar to each other than they would to works in other genres (Figure 3.3). Here, we would anticipate greater similarity between Genre 1 authors than between any of them and any Genre 2 author. Again, the expected does not always happen.

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Genre 1: Authors A, B

A

Genre 2: Author C

C

B

Figure 3.3  Expected genre-internal relations.

Genre 1: Authors A (B)

A

Genre 2: Author C

B

C

Figure 3.4  Unexpected transgenre relations. Author B appears to have shifted closer to Author C, even though B’s work is ostensibly located in Genre 1. It may not be the case, however, that B is moving closer to C. Rather, B might be adapting to, or moving towards, Genre 2. This could be a temporary, possibly even unintended result, or it could be that the boundaries between the two genres themselves are either merging or becoming more fluid. Another possibility is that B is a new author to either of these genres. In addition, it should be borne in mind that just as an author does not occupy a fixed or exclusive space, genres themselves are not immutable. For example, Sylvie Honigman refers to the Deipnosophistae as a ‘blend of genres’. Michael Sinding, a proponent of Conceptual Blending Theory, considers genre-merging to be a form of conceptual realignment, where a genre is viewed as a cognitive schema (see Sinding 2005).

Testing author-genre relationships The novels of Thomas Hardy and George Eliot are widely considered to be in the same literary genre as each other, a genre referred to as regionalism. In some respects the similarities were so great that contemporary critics sometimes attributed the work of Hardy to Eliot or considered that in his early works, Hardy was little more than an imitator of Eliot.

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

37

It was not uncommon in the nineteenth century to publish novels in serial form, sometimes anonymously. Thus, Geoffrey Harvey reports that when Far from the Madding Crowd first appeared in January 1874 in a well-known periodical of the time, Cornhill, ‘several reviewers identified the author as George Eliot’ (Harvey 2003: 23). In the same vein, Samuel Chew writes that Hardy’s Desperate Remedies (1871), also published anonymously, was not well received on first publication, though one reviewer considered the Wessex characters to be ‘almost worthy of George Eliot’ (1928: 24). However, it should be noted that not all of Hardy’s and Eliot’s works can be located within a single genre. Eliot’s Lifted Veil (1859), for example, is more in the tradition of the horror novel. Similarly, her Daniel Deronda is a blend of genres, including regionalism. While all of Hardy’s novels rely heavily on rural themes, it was not until 1874 that he introduced the fictional Wessex into his writing and thus, he too, presents opportunities for transgenre analysis. In order to test the extent to which the works of these two authors occupy one or more notional genre spaces, a corpus of some of their novels was collected. This was combined with a number of other novels, some of which lie within related genres, and others which do not. It should be stressed that the aim of the exercise is not primarily to learn about the relationship between Hardy’s and Eliot’s work and their location within some genre ‘territoire’.1 Rather, the aim is to understand what factors influence the authorship attribution of writings which are said to be genre texts. Some of these factors may be directly related to, or stem from, genre issues, but this cannot be assumed a priori. While we may consider a genre to be a social construct, a literary or other written work, such as a novel, is primarily the product of an individual human being’s cognition. There is thus a fusion of cognitive and social parameters to consider and possibly disambiguate. This is why the corpus includes works in other genres than which the two protagonists mainly worked: we need to explore not just how two authors, in this case Hardy and Eliot, might relate to each other, but how they locate in relation to other social spaces and cognitive processes.

A corpus of 32 novels The corpus list (given in Table 3.1) shows that early, middle and late works are included from both Hardy and Eliot. Because Hardy produced more works than Eliot over a longer period of time the corpus has eight of his works compared to Eliot’s six. As noted earlier, some of the work of each of these two authors is located outside the regionalist genre. We thus have four types of comparisons: same author, same genre comparisons; same

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

38

author, transgenre comparisons; different author, same genre comparisons; and different author, transgenre comparisons. Other novelists whose work is thought to bear a generic relationship to that of Hardy and Eliot include (more or less in order of proximity): the Brontë sisters Charlotte and Emily, Charles Dickens and, to a considerably lesser extent, Jane Austen. Closely related to Austen’s genre is that of Frances Burney. Moving away from the above authors by some margin is Mark Twain, who is represented by his two major novels, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. Finally, some twentieth-century novels are included, precisely because of their generic distance from the core novels in the study. All of the novelists in the corpus are represented by at least two works, except for Burney and Emily Brontë. The idea of including single work author representation was to attempt a ‘pure’ genre comparison, unencumbered by considerations of authorship. Emily Brontë was chosen for the obvious reason that she wrote only one novel. In Burney’s case this does not apply, but there is a considerable time interval between Burney’s relatively few novels which could have had an impact on their successful attribution, and so it was considered more important to explore the location of her work to genre-related questions, rather than attempting attribution on a relatively small corpus where the works had been written at such long intervals. As a general point, the novels in the corpus were chosen for their accessibility and absence of copyright issues. Previous experience with long texts in plagiarism cases suggested that measurement of the high frequency lexicon would be the most effective way to make comparisons of the kind envisaged here (see also Johnson 1997). The method has the twin advantages of being easily understood, and of being relatively straightforward to implement in software. The software, which can be readily replicated, was developed with the following capabilities: Remove punctuation and formatting as well as chapter headings. Remove proper nouns and text-exclusive words. Remove function words from the text. To do this, a list of common function words is first compiled and the programme then searches for and removes any of those words found in the text. There are about 350 common function words in English. All forms of dual status words such as ‘have’, ‘be’, ‘like’, and so on are also removed. The frequency of such words is generally so high that to retain them would reduce the effectiveness of the test. 4 Calculate the 30 most frequent words in the text. Because of the previous point, these will be lexical words. These 30 words are the High Frequency Lexicon of the text (HFL). 1 2 3

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

39

5 Compare each text’s HFL with the HFL of every other text. Note the number of common entries (ignoring any capitalization) across each pair of texts. 6 Rank each novel with every other novel in terms of the percentage of the HFL they have in common. Because software with the above specification can be written with relatively little knowledge of programming and because the corpus texts are readily available, the experiment described here should not be difficult to reproduce.

Examples of data found As an example of the data produced, the 25 HFL words shared by Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and her Pride and Prejudice are as follows: ‘day’, ‘first’, ‘give’, ‘good’, ‘great’, ‘know’, ‘lady’, ‘little’, ‘made’, ‘make’, ‘man’, ‘miss’, ‘mother’, ‘mr’, ‘mrs’, ‘one’, ‘room’, ‘said’, ‘say’, ‘see’, ‘sister’, ‘soon’, ‘think’, ‘time’ and ‘two’. Sense and Sensibility has these 5 words not within the common HFL: ‘heart’, ‘house’, ‘sir’, ‘sure’, ‘thing’. Pride and Prejudice has these 5 words not in common within the common HFL: ‘dear’, ‘family’, ‘father’, ‘hope’, ‘young’. By comparison, Frances Burney’s Cecilia, arguably in a similar genre to the Austen novels, has 21 high frequency words in common with Sense and Sensibility. However, a work in a very different genre, Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, has only 12 high frequency words in common with Sense and Sensibility. As noted above, the HFL words from each text are tested for commonality across pairs of texts. If the two texts have all 30 words in common, then the degree of variation between them is nil. In practice this does not happen. If two texts have no words in common then their variation is 100 per cent or 1. This also does not happen, at least within the fiction genres tested here. It should be stressed that the HFL test is not being held up as in any sense an ‘ideal’ way of testing for authorship and genre. Many other tests, some devised with a high degree of statistical sophistication, will produce equally, or more, effective results. It is used here because of its simplicity of implementation, and because it presumes no prior technical knowledge on the part of the reader.

Same author matching The primary purpose of the study is to understand author-genre relationships, not to conduct an authorship test per se. However, part of genre testing

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

inevitably involves some kind of text matching. In the present instance, since we are locating authors in relation to genres, the simplest way to test for authorship is same author matching. The Jane Austen example given above illustrates, as we saw, the closest match to the HFL for Pride and Prejudice is Sense and Sensibility. The next highest is Mansfield Park. These are the  only three novels by Jane Austen in the corpus. Since no other novels have a higher HFL than Sense and Sensibility for Pride and Prejudice, we have a same author match. This shows that the test at least has some effectiveness, though we will have to qualify that point later on. Below are the results of same author matching across the corpus. The 32 novels are presented in the first column ‘Test text’, followed by the author’s name in the second column. The text which has the highest HFL with the test text is in the third column, followed by the name of that text’s author. If the author’s name in the second column matches the author’s name in the fourth column, then this is reported as a same author match, using the Boolean values of 1 = true, 0 = false. Of the 32 novels, two cannot be matched because they are by single novel authors, respectively Frances Burney and Emily Brontë. Thus, we can only test 30 novels. Of these 30 novels, the table shows that only 1 novel failed to provide a same author match (Table 3.1).

Table 3.1  Same author match for the 32 novel corpus Test text

Author – test text

Highest HFL Text

Mill on the Floss

Eliot

Adam Bede

Eliot

1

Mansfield Park

Austen

Sense and Sensibility

Austen

1

Huckleberry Finn

Twain

Tom Sawyer

Twain

1

Tom Sawyer

Twain

Huckleberry Finn

Twain

1

Patriot Games

Clancy

Rainbow Six

Clancy

1

Rainbow Six

Clancy

Patriot Games

Clancy

1

Blindsight

Cook

Abduction

Cook

1

Trumpet Major

Hardy

Return of the Native

Hardy

1

Return of the Native Hardy

Trumpet Major

Hardy

1

Silas Marner

Mill on the Floss

Eliot

1

Eliot

Author – Same author highest HFL match text (0 = false; 1 = true)

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TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

Test text

Author – test text

Highest HFL Text

Author – Same author highest HFL match text (0 = false; 1 = true)

Jude the Obscure

Hardy

Return of the Native

Hardy

1

Pair of Blue Eyes

Hardy

Far from the Madding Crowd

Hardy

1

Adam Bede

Eliot

Mill on the Floss

Eliot

1

Mayor of Casterbridge

Hardy

Far from the Madding Crowd

Hardy

1

Woodlanders

Hardy

Mayor of Casterbridge

Hardy

1

Under the Greenwood Tree

Hardy

Woodlanders

Hardy

1

The Lifted Veil

Eliot

Daniel Deronda

Eliot

1

Far from the Madding Crowd

Hardy

Mayor of Casterbridge

Hardy

1

Sense and Sensibility

Austen

Pride and Prejudice

Austen

1

Pride and Prejudice

Austen

Sense and Sensibility

Austen

1

Cecilia

Burney

Sense and Sensibility

Austen

n/a

Jane Eyre

C. Bronte

The Professor

C. Bronte

1

The Professor

C. Bronte

Jane Eyre

C. Bronte

1

Wuthering Heights

E. Bronte

Jane Eyre

C. Bronte

n/a

Bleak House

Dickens

David Copperfield

Dickens

1

Barnaby Rudge

Dickens

Far from the Madding Crowd

Hardy

0

David Copperfield

Dickens

Bleak House

Dickens

1

Oliver Twist

Dickens

Bleak House

Dickens

1

Christmas Carol

Dickens

Barnaby Rudge

Dickens

1

Daniel Deronda

Eliot

Middlemarch

Eliot

1

Middlemarch

Eliot

Daniel Deronda

Eliot

1

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

We thus obtain a same author match in 29 out of 30 cases, a rate of 96.7 per cent. However, this is only one part of the test and by no means represents a ‘successful author attribution test’, although it is certainly effective in providing raw boolean data. More important, though, is the need to discover whether these results shed any light on author-genre relationships. As a first step in this quest, consider the results in Table 3.2, which is an excerpt from the result sheets for Mill on the Floss. Table  3.2 captures an excerpt from the result sheet for the test text, Mill on the Floss, given at the top left of this table. We see, for example, that it has 25 high frequency words in common with Adam Bede, both novels being by George Eliot. The correlation between the HFLs of the two novels is 0.7, with a significance (t) of 4.75. However, Eliot’s other novel in the corpus The Lifted Veil is almost at the bottom of the table, below most of the other authors in terms of its HFL. Given that the Lifted Veil is not in Eliot’s mainstream genre this is not surprising – in fact, it is entirely expected. When we come to consider how the Lifted Veil relates to the other novels in the corpus, the data in Table 3.3 emerge. In Table 3.3 we see that there is a same author match, but it is equally matched for HFL by both Hardy’s Pair of Blue Eyes and his Woodlanders, although there is no statistical significance for the HFL correlation in the latter case. Note that Daniel Deronda is also outside of Eliot’s mainstream genre and, like Lifted Veil, has been referred to as containing Gothic elements (Wolstenholme 1993: 106). However, the value of the match, being only 15 out of 30 items is low for the corpus (n = 32, μ = 22.81, σ  =  2.13, range: 15–25). Table  3.2 confirms that Lifted Veil lies outside of the mainstream genre for this author. Table 3.3 confirms that the text closest to the non-genre text is also out of Eliot’s mainstream, but it still provides a same author match, although a weak one.

Mean HFL scores The mean HFL scores for those authors presenting three or more works in the corpus are given in Table 3.4. Another way of describing the above data is that Austen exhibits the least variability across her work (24.67  = 17%), Hardy only slightly more variability (21%), Eliot more still (24%) and Dickens even greater variability (31%).

Near author match The same sequence found in the variability data applies to the author matching task. Put another way, the authors ranged from least to most

Table 3.2  Excerpt from Mill on the Floss data (George Eliot) Common HFL

Correlation

Significance of correlation

Comparison text

Mill on the Floss

Author

Date of publication

Years elapsed between publications

Eliot

1860

0

0.7036

4.7486

Adam Bede

Eliot

1859

1

24

0.6519

4.0323

Silas Marner

Eliot

1861

1

24

0.4572

2.4112

Daniel Deronda

Eliot

1876

16

23

0.8809

8.529

Middlemarch

Eliot

1871

11

22

0.3122

1.4697

Woodlanders

Hardy

1887

27

21

0.4068

1.9411

Greenwood Tree

Hardy

1872

12

12

0.6617

2.7908

Lifted Veil

Eliot

1859

1

Table 3.3  Excerpt from Lifted Veil data (George Eliot)

Lifted Veil

Correlation

Significance of correlation

Comparison text

Author

Date of publication

Years elapsed between publications

15

0.691

3.4467

Daniel Deronda

Eliot

1876

17

15

0.2864

1.0778

Pair of Blue Eyes

Hardy

1873

14

15

0.217

0.8015

Woodlanders

Hardy

1887

28

43

Common HFL

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

25

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

44

Table 3.4  Mean HFL scores in descending order Author

Mean HFL score

Variability (%)

Austen

24.67

17

Hardy

23.75

21

Eliot

22.83

24

Dickens

20.8

31

Table 3.5  Level of same author match Author

Level of same author match

Austen

All

Hardy

All

Eliot

1 co-match

Dickens

1 different author match

variable with respect to their HFL in the same order that they successfully matched any of their works with their other works. Above, it was noted that Dickens was the only author in the corpus who had a different author match, although Eliot’s Lifted Veil had an equal number of HFL items with one of her other works, Daniel Deronda and Hardy’s Pair of Blue Eyes (referred to here as a co-match). At the opposite end of the scale from Dickens was Austen, who had the highest scores consistently across her oeuvre. Of these four authors, therefore, the most predictable was Austen, followed by Hardy, then Eliot, and, lastly, Dickens. We can represent these observations as in Table 3.5. It might be thought that the lexicon is a strong contender for the presence of some kind of ‘idiolect’ or ‘linguistic fingerprint’. However, the lexicon is dependent on the genre. If the writer is writing on the same topic in one novel as in another, it is highly likely that the lexicons will be very close. When two writers work in the same genre, covering similar character types, topics and events, it is likely that they will choose similar lexicons. We could almost say that the genre and text type seem to choose the lexicon, just as much as the writers themselves do. A writer attracted to, or wishing to write in, a particular genre will doubtless have encountered and perhaps even studied other texts in that genre. The HFL is a highly visible part of language.

45

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

As Barthes (1973) notes, texts within a single genre are conformistic. He uses the word ‘plagiarism’ to describe one of the ‘edges’ of genre writing. Perhaps even without intending to do so, the writer copies aspects of the lexicon in the course of encountering the genre, or at least it becomes imprinted on the memory after many encounters, and so what the writer produces when later on working in the same genre is a variant of some idealized instance of that genre, visible through the high frequency lexicon. More broadly, the genre is a social institution and each text in that genre is an instance, necessarily recognizable to most readers, of that particular social institution. Too great a distance from some notional prototype would render that particular instance of the genre unrecognizable, and it would no longer have membership of the genre. The lexicon is one of the key elements in making the genre recognizable to the reader.

System or system failure? As we have seen, it sometimes happens, albeit rarely, that the similarity between the HFLs of two authors is closer than it is between two works by one author. If this is a random event, then by definition we will not be able to predict it – we just know that it will happen from time to time. On the other hand, given what appears to be the dependability of the HFL test, it might be premature to assume that a failure to achieve a same author match is dependent on mere chance. In his researches into Jane Austen’s authorship, Burrows (1987) used a number of function words, including ‘the’, the most common function word in genre writing. For the present study, the frequency of ‘the’ was measured for the same texts as in the previous tests. The following results were obtained, this time with the measure of interest being the standard deviation from the author’s average ‘the’ density. First, it should be noted that although the result of the above deviations is clear enough, the differences between the different authors’ values is not statistically significant. The same applies to the previous two tests

Table 3.6  Mean frequencies and deviations for ‘the’ by author Author

Mean frequency of ‘the’

Deviation

Austen

0.036

0.002

Hardy

0.057

0.004

Eliot

0.045

0.005

Dickens

0.049

0.009

46

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

(given in Tables 3.2 through 3.5). Having said that, we see that the order of extent of deviation from the mean for each author is the same order as that found in the variation test given in Table 3.4. In other words, the author who shows the least variability in terms of the HFL is the same author who shows least deviation of ‘the’ frequency from the mean. The order in each case is: Austen, Hardy, Eliot and Dickens. This is the same order of level of same author matching given earlier. The result seems to suggest that there is an underlying common cause at work here, and throws up the possibility that the single failure to achieve same author matching in the experiment may not be random. Rather, there might be a reason for the distribution found in that case which has nothing to do with statistical probability.

The tropics of time On examination, the three Jane Austen novels tested here were all written within a relatively short time frame. On the other hand the Dickens’ novels tested were produced over a longer period. It was decided to measure the average time lapse between the works of each author. These data are given in Table 3.7. As can be seen in Table  3.7, the order is the same as for the three previous tests. Hence, the reason for the degree of variability within each author may be somewhat mundane: it seems to have something to do with the average number of years between their works. Thus, the average time lapse between an author’s texts may be an important factor in determining how distinctive one author’s works will be in relation to those of another author. But time on its own cannot be causative of variation. We need to consider the malleability of the language system, and hence its susceptibility to tropism, the innate cognitive facility for regeneration, and the corresponding tendency to decay.

Table 3.7  Mean time lapse (in years) between each author’s works Author

Mean time lapse

Austen

1.5

Hardy

3.3

Eliot

3.4

Dickens

3.6

TIME, VARIATION AND GENRE

47

Entropy and ectropy in the language system The language system is subject to change through both loss and regeneration. Loss occurs when items (lexical tokens, functions, structures) are not used, especially if they are not used for significant periods of time. Regeneration occurs when previously decayed items are regained (which is likely to be rare), or when new items are added to the lexical system. Less frequently used items may be displaced or downgraded by newer items being introduced into the system. Respectively, these are entropy (loss) and ectropy (increase). The system is changing all the time and the greater the time period between any two events (texts) the greater the possibility of change – through a combination of entropy and ectropy. It is not that the system is changing because of time – time is not causative in any sense. It is simply that greater periods of time reflect greater potential for change than do shorter periods. In Jane Austen’s case we find very little variation in the measures investigated – correspondingly, the time periods between her works were small.

Conclusion The genres in which these authors’ work act as conduits for inter­ textuality, which is the operative homogenizing process. No author has a ‘private space’ within a genre. The genre is a public space  – cf. Hymes’ ‘performative turn’ (Hymes 1971). It may happen that an author temporarily occupies an area within a genre to the exclusion of other authors, but it is hazardous to conceive of such an occupation as anything other than temporary. Genre works are, to paraphrase Barthes, the plagiaristic edge of writing, constantly changing as they feed off each other, and genre space is as susceptible to change as is author space. Because of the twin forces of social change on the one hand, and tropic factors on the other, neither the genre nor the individuality of authorship can be said to have permanence. It therefore seems inescapable that in relation to genre texts (and perhaps non-genre, transitive texts also), initial appearances as to their being distinctive or idiolectal are illusory. Just as the lapse of time dissipates the impression of consistency within the author’s oeuvre, so too a corresponding lack of time creates an apparently stabilizing effect, giving the illusion of author consistency. While the genre appears to act as a cohesive force between authors, with individual differences providing an apparent distinctiveness, in reality neither the genre nor the author are consistent, exclusive or, ultimately, predictable. As interesting as time may be as a factor in variation, it does not cause variation. Rather, as the next chapter will show, variation is an innate function of how humans store and use language units, including the lexicon.

48

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Note 1 The word ‘territoire’ refers to a space occupied by one or more authors. This is an aspect of intertextuality, as discussed, for example, by Kristeva (1970, 2002), Barthes (1972), Foucault (1984), and many others, which sees two authors as (possibly) occupying the same space as opposed to ‘relating’ to each other (which requires precedence).

CHAPTER FOUR

Range of variation

Individual range of variation Individual differences between authors are important, but sometimes variation within an author’s work can be more indicative of authorship than differences between authors’ works. This leads us to observe the phenomenon of the individual range of variation. Lexical network theory proposes that the lexicon is ordered, not as a flat list of items, but within semantic frames which are connected by links to each other and deal with a variety of lexical relationships, including synonymy and polysemy (Norvig 1989: 2). Here, it is proposed that at the individual level variation arises because of semantic and functional links within and across frames. Under certain circumstances the range of variation a writer exhibits will itself be distinctive. This may not be the case in all types of authorship, but it certainly occurs in the context of electronic modes of composition, such as mobile phone texts, some emails and instant messages, where it is not unusual to find informal orthographic forms, for example, ‘u’ and ‘ya’ in place of the more conventional ‘you’. In a recent conspiracy case, the authorship of a set of informal emails was in question. It was noticed that a suspect’s texts and some of the questioned texts both exhibited a similar range of variation with regard to common tokens (Table 4.1). From Table  4.1 it can be seen that both Candidate 1 (C1) and the questioned text author (Q) share identical variation across (1) you: ‘you’ and ‘u’; (2) to: ‘to’ and ‘2’; (3) are: ‘are’ and ‘r’; (4) wh: both as ‘wh’ and as ‘w’; (5) I: ‘I’ with apostrophe and auxiliary, and ‘I’ without apostrophe and auxiliary and (6) I have: ‘I have’ and ‘ive’. A second suspect in the case (C2) shares only two of these dualities, you as ‘you’ and ‘u’ and to as ‘to’ and ‘2’. It therefore became a matter of some possibility that C1 was the author of the questioned text. The question was how to test the somewhat novel

50

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Table 4.1  Range of variation in known and questioned emails – examples Variation pairs

C1

Questioned

C2

‘you’ as ‘you’

yes

yes

yes

‘you’ as ‘u’

yes

yes

yes

‘to’ as ‘2’

yes

yes

NO

‘to’ as ‘to’

yes

yes

yes

‘are’ as ‘r’

yes

yes

yes

‘are’ as ‘are’

yes

yes

yes

‘wh’ as ‘w’ (wot/wen)

yes

yes

NO

‘wh’ as ‘wh’

yes

yes

yes

‘I’ with apostrophe & aux.

yes

yes

NO

‘I’ without apostrophe & aux.

yes

yes

NO

‘I have’ as ‘I have’

yes

yes

yes

‘I have’ as ‘ive’

yes

yes

NO

notion that it was not what was consistent in an author’s language which was of possible significance to the authorship question, but something which was in fact inconsistent, namely the range of variation. It was decided to test this notion of ‘range of variation’ using a corpus of mobile phone texts. It is appreciated that the case texts being discussed are of a different type, namely emails. However, the features I am describing are common to informal emails and mobile phone texts as well as a variety of other types of electronic text, such as chat room contributions and instant messaging. In all of these electronic text types we routinely find a degree of orthographic latitude, whereby multiple forms of common tokens are used. In the mobile phone corpus the three most common tokens are ‘you’, ‘to’ and ‘are’. It was decided to test how many of the 53 texters who had contributed to the corpus shared the same variation across these three items as C1 in the inquiry and the questioned author. The specific question was whether any of the 53 texters would have all three of these dualities in their texts. It soon became apparent that although many of the texters shared most of the features singly, when features were considered in terms of their range of variation, the number of texters who shared them diminished sharply. Thus 22 of the 53 texters use ‘you’, and 27 use ‘u’, but only 11 texters use ‘you’ and ‘u’. When the forms of ‘you’ and the forms of ‘to’ are combined, we find that only 5 texters use ‘you’, ‘u’, ‘to’ and ‘2’. Finally, it was found

51

RANGE OF VARIATION

30

25

20

you

u

to

2

are

r

you/u

to/2

are/r

you/u + to/2

you/u + to/2 + are/r

15

10

5

you

u

to

2

are

r

you/u

to/2

are/r

you/u + you/u + to/2 to/2 + are/r

Figure 4.1  Number of texters who share corresponding features. that only one of the 53 texters used all 6 forms, namely ‘you’, ‘u’, ‘to’, ‘2’, ‘are’ and ‘r’. Figure 4.1 depicts these data visually. Thus, from the data in Figure 4.1 we can see that even though all of the features are very common in electronic text, the number of texters who share the combination of the different ranges of variation diminishes as the number of features increases. Moreover, if we refer to Table  4.1 which listed the common range of variation across the known authors and the questioned author, we see that there are in fact six features which are shared between the first candidate and the questioned author, double the number of features tested. On this basis, it is strongly suggested that the C1 texts and the Q texts are of the same authorship. However, it is important to point out that the range of variation does not necessarily imply a fixed or permanent style on the part of the author. Although there were many items where a common range of variation could be seen across known and questioned texts, there are also several items where no such matching could be found. The fact that an individual possesses a range of variation at a given moment does not mean that this is to the exclusion of all other speakers (i.e. that it is necessarily an exclusive or distinctive property of that individual), and  – given the instability of variation  – it may not be permanent. In fact, according to Weinreich et al. (1968), heterogeneity is an intrinsic aspect of linguistic competence. Speakers choose particular variants of a variable at a given time or in a given context because of some kind of internal mental selection process.

52

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Although it is not much discussed now, the key mental process is thought to be something akin to the ‘variable rule’, whereby an individual selects a particular variant on a probabilistic basis. But, as Ammon et al. note, ‘Rules such as [the variable rule]1 are not predictions about individual utterances of individual speakers . . . [it] is a rule of grammar of a speech community, not of an idiolect.’ They also point out that ‘a large number of small effects contribute to a base level of fluctuation which makes such predictions [i.e. at the individual level] impossible’ (Ammon et al. 2006: 40). An obvious alternative explanation is that the speaker will select a particular variant of a variable because of audience design, as first discussed by Bell (1984). He cites a study where an informant shifted his speech style based on the presence or absence of certain people, including auditors and overhearers. Informal written text is usually one-to-one, but the same applies here. A writer will vary according to axes of formality and context. Despite the obvious need for caution when making an attribution however, it is also clear that the greater the number of items across known and questioned text in an inquiry which share a common range of variation, then the greater is the likelihood of shared authorship. Even so, it is important not to assume that authors will remain constant in their range of variation. Because of interpersonal accommodation factors (among others), they may override established habits and tendencies. Not enough is yet known about how the range of variation itself is prone to variation, and nor should we expect variables to be uniform in their differentiation.

Variation and interpersonal relationships As an illustration of how range of variation can be affected by social interaction we will now look at an example from the mobile phone text corpus, referred to earlier. The interaction concerns two pre-teen females. These two texters – coded here as ‘S’ and ‘K’ are part of a group of five texters. They attend the same school and are all 12 years old at the time of texting. The five texters use four different forms of YOU in their texts. The predominant form of YOU in this pre-teen group is ‘yhoo’, a form not found in any of the other texters’ texts in the corpus. It is evident on reading S’s texts that she has a number of difficulties in relating to the other members of the group. For example, she texts ‘K’ at 2.00 a.m., and gets this response: Text ‘K’: Fucking Piss off ii tell yhoo not to text me late and yhoo keep doing it dont tb idiot

53

RANGE OF VARIATION Later, ‘K’ blocks ‘S’ from sending her messages, but eventually relents. ‘S’ texts as follows: Text ‘S’: Why did u block me? I apoligized 4 txting u! I no i pissed u off but i txted u asking u if we can be matees and u neva. Can i pop up 2 see u! Plz i’m bored! Plz can i cum and c ya

On reviewing instances of the variable YOU in the group the breakdown of variant usage observed is given in Table 4.2. The first column lists the different forms of YOU for this group, such as ‘yhoo’, ‘u’, and so on. The second column lists the percentage of frequencies for each item for each member, excluding ‘S’. The final column lists the proportion of frequencies for each item for ‘S’ alone. As can be seen, the predominant form of YOU for the group is ‘yhoo’, but for ‘S’ this is one of her least frequent forms. Her predominant YOU form is ‘u’. The kind of conflict seen between ‘S’ and ‘K’ does not occur between the other group members, and it is only ‘S’ who keeps insisting that she wants to be ‘mates’, that she wants to visit ‘K’ at home, and who routinely texts ‘K’ at unsociable hours. Here are just three of the texts where she expresses a desire to be ‘mates’: Text Aren’t u my m8 ? Text Why can’t we be m8s ? Tb -plz i want us to be matees Text I got more credit ! Why can’t we be matees

Of the eight instances of ‘bored’ found in the texts in this group, ‘S’ instances five of these, frequently using ‘being bored’ as an opening move in a text dialogue: Text Can i come 2 urs plz me bored Text Can i pop up 2 see u! Plz i’m bored! Text Hi im bored wuu2?2

Table 4.2  Forms of ‘you’ used by a group of five pre-teen females Instances of YOU

Group (%)

‘S’

yhoo

0.48

0.06

u

0.12

0.74

you

0.40

0.14

ya

0.00

0.06

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

54

The other texters in the group rarely use pleas of boredom as a conversation opener, and there are no other instances of requests to be ‘mates’. ‘S’ thus frequently expresses a desire to be part of the group, but with her pleas of boredom (a call which is usually ignored by the other texters), her texting at unsociable hours and her apparent longing to be ‘mates’, she does not appear to understand the effect of her texts on the others. Even after being blocked by ‘K’ and later being unblocked, she still texts ‘K’ and asks: Text ‘S’: Why did u tell me 2 fuk off wen i txted u

An interesting feature of the ‘S’ texts is the variation in YOU forms. She begins by using ‘you’ but rapidly moves to ‘u’. Shortly after beginning with ‘u’ she tries out ‘ya’ a few times – a form not used by any of the others in the group. Finally, she appears to realize the predominance of ‘yhoo’ in the group and switches to this exclusively. The breakdown of ‘you’ forms from this texter can be seen in Figure 4.2. From Figure 4.2 we can see that the distribution of ‘yhoo’ (top left in the graph) is isolated from the distribution of the other YOU forms. Whereas the other texters in the group had used this form almost from the beginning of the exchanges, ‘S’ adopted it only somewhat late in the day. Although all of the members of the group have known each other since primary school, including ‘S’, ‘S’ has had a long history of serious medical problems necessitating extended stays in hospital. As a result she has had little opportunity for socialization. She also has a physical disability about which she appears to be somewhat self-conscious. One indication of the outgroup status of ‘S’ is that she is the only one of the pre-teen females to use forms of the word ‘please’ to the other texters in the group. Although all 90 80 70 60 50 you

40

u

30

ya yhoo

20 10 0 1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23

25

27

29

Figure 4.2  Distribution of ‘you’ forms in subject S’s texts.

31

33

RANGE OF VARIATION

55

the members use forms of ‘please’ when texting their parents, they do not use ‘please’ (or any of its forms) to each other. This is a likely indication that ‘S’ does not feel totally accepted by the group (see discussions on ‘negative politeness, for example, Brown and Levinson 1987: 67). The efforts by ‘S’ to show linguistic convergence with the group are not reciprocated by the others: none of them converge to her use of YOU, nor do they use any form of ‘please’ to each other – cf. Yaeger-Dror’s ‘inter-personal dynamics’ hypothesis (2001: 179). However, while some variation undoubtedly arises because of the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, the broader picture appears to be that macrosocial factors will exert a strong influence on usage. In the next section we will consider the extent to which variation may be socially determined rather than individually motivated.

Is variation random? Chambers and Trudgill (1998) define the linguistic variable as ‘a linguistic unit with two or more variants involved in co-variation with other social and/or linguistic variables’. Or, to put it more plainly, linguistic variables ‘can often be regarded as socially different but linguistically equivalent ways of doing or saying the same thing’ (Chambers and Trudgill 1998: 50). A variable does not necessarily have more than one variant in every dialect. For example, in a number of American dialects the /r/ in environments like ‘store’ or ‘farm’ correlates with age and social class (Labov 1972). However, in other dialects /r/ does not vary. A variable such as /r/, in the above case, will not show individual variation. That is to say, a New Yorker, for example, who articulates the post-vocalic /r/ will most likely always do so. It is an indicator of social class, not a marker which the individual shifts from time to time. In his study on BEV referred to earlier, Labov isolated a number of forms the nature of whose distribution was not immediately plain, such as ‘he not black’ and ‘he ain’t black’ (1972: 70). Such variants had previously been thought to be in ‘free variation’. Labov disagreed and proposed instead that ‘the study of variation’ should ‘[add] to our knowledge of linguistic structure and simplify . . . rules’ (1972: 94). Hence, the purpose of studying variability was to ‘achieve a higher level of accountability than unconstrained free variation will allow’. He laid it down as a principle that all forms of a variable should be considered in order to avoid the danger of meeting theoretical preconceptions by ‘citing isolated instances of what individuals have been heard saying’. He goes on to point out the dangers of ‘linguists who are searching for an invariant, homogenous dialect [and who] will perceive even more categorically than most’ (Labov 1972: 94). This is a very real danger in

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

56

forensic work, where a practitioner might seek to model a suspect’s idiolect, claiming consistency where, in fact, there is variation. So, the fact that a texter uses ‘u’ for ‘you’ may be thought to be an indication of that individual’s idiolect, until we notice that the individual also uses ‘ya’. In that case, it makes no sense to speak of consistency: clearly, the individual is not using a single variable of a token, but several. We can see this distribution at work in the mobile phone corpus, as the next subsection shows.

The token ‘you’ as a variable in the mobile phone text corpus In the mobile phone corpus a number of forms of YOU were found, including ‘u’, ‘you’, ‘ya’ and ‘yer’. The two main variants of this token in the corpus are ‘you’ and ‘u’. Tables 4.3 and 4.4 summarize the use of the two main YOU forms in the corpus. As can be seen from Tables 4.3 and 4.4, each of these texters showed a preference for either ‘you’ or ‘u’ although some have, additionally,

Table 4.3  Data for predominantly ‘you’ users Author code No. of texts Gender

Age

NS density

Avr. length of texts

AN9

3

M

25

0.007

241.0

F113

35

F

12

0.024

46.0

F322

41

F

32

0.010

106.6

F401

4

F

40

0.005

48.0

M241

48

M

24

0.020

85.5

M261

19

M

26

0.011

114.3

M321

9

M

32

0.018

116.9

M401

32

M

39

0.009

62.8

M471

93

M

47

0.007

88.7

M501

11

M

50

0.002

132.2

M561

27

M

56

0.011

67.2

M9

3

M

22

0.020

84.5

NL1

103

F

38

0.008

91.4

SS4

86

F

39

0.017

53.1

Average

34.5

33.8

0.011

95.6

57

RANGE OF VARIATION

used other forms. They can be classified as predominantly ‘you’ users or predominantly ‘u’ users on the basis of their majority use. The first two columns give the author code within the corpus and the number of texts presented by each texter. After that the texter’s gender and age are given, followed by the texter’s Non-Standard Density. This is calculated by adding all the non-standard tokens together (e.g. ‘u’ is a nonstandard token) and dividing by the text’s length. This calculation is then averaged for the texter. This value was taken for both the predominantly ‘you’ texters and for the predominantly ‘u’ texters.

Table 4.4  Data for predominantly ‘u’ users Author code

No. of texts

Gender

Age

NS density

Av. length of texts

AC6

32

F

39

0.030

111

F111

27

F

12

0.071

32

F112

80

F

12

0.042

68

F114

47

F

12

0.026

39

F115

47

F

12

0.035

36

F161

94

F

16

0.079

118

F201

22

F

20

0.061

60

F241

5

F

24

0.052

89

F242

8

F

24

0.025

64

F451

17

F

45

0.027

87

F461

104

F

46

0.032

107

F462

85

F

46

0.039

54

M162

21

M

16

0.059

101

M171

30

M

17

0.054

57

M231

7

M

23

0.071

50

M322

7

M

32

0.057

68

MB3

60

F

26

0.019

109

MBM10

31

F

45

0.038

30

MS11

9

F

18

0.027

96

NS14

24

M

30

0.037

44

SK5

28

M

35

0.022

48

Average

37.4

26.2

0.043

69.9

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

58

Exerci se 4.1

U

sing Tables 4.3 and 4.4, extrapolate the following information: What is the age distribution of the predominantly ‘you’ and ‘u’ users? Is either gender predominant in either category? Do ‘you’ users produce longer or shorter texts, and is the difference significant? Do ‘u’ users have a higher non-standard density than ‘you’ users? What conclusions can you draw from these observations? Note: The age difference between male and female texters in the corpus is 1.97 years. This is not a significant age difference given the age distribution in the corpus.

The ‘-ing’ inflection An interesting result was obtained when analysing distribution of the ‘-ING’ inflection in the mobile phone corpus, which has been of importance to linguists and sociolinguists since the 1970s. Adamson (2009) describes the history of this inflection. In late Middle English the present participle ended in ‘-nde’, for example, ‘singende’ (singing). Verbal nouns on the other hand ended in ‘ing’, for example, ‘lufiung (loving), as did concrete nouns, for example, ‘farthing’. However, as Adamson notes: Gradually, the functional difference between nominals and verbals was blurred, with gerunds occupying the fuzzy area between the two categories. The partial coalescing of the categories verbal noun and verbal led to a blurring in the phonetic distinction between the two categories, which were already very similar; thus, [ind] began to be pronounced [in]. By the end of the fourteenth century, this sound change had progressed to the point that it was reflected in the orthography, so that [many] . . . forms . . . were spelled with -ing. Despite the similarity in spelling, however, nominal and verbal -ing forms continued to be pronounced variably, with nominals favouring [-ing] and verbals favouring [-in], a pattern that has continued up to the present day. (2009: 26) Although studies have found class and gender differences in the distributions of ‘-ing’ and ‘-in’, this variable is not motivated solely by social factors, but also by linguistic ones. In the mobile phone corpus the gender differences with respect to this inflection are interesting. Females used the standard ‘-ing’ form much more frequently than the males did, but they also used the non-standard form ‘-in’ much more frequently than the males. At first these findings may seem to conflict. However, there are reasons for the apparent contradiction. The reader may be aware of Labov’s ‘gender paradox’

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hypothesis, which states that although females use prestigious forms of the language at a greater rate than males, they also adopt innovative and nonstandard forms more readily than males do (1990: 213–15). As an example of this theory, Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg (2003: 111) give the history of the third-person singular present tense form, which was at an earlier stage of English ‘-eth’, for example, ‘he/she speaketh’. This was the standard form, with the ‘-s’ variant, for example, ‘he/she speaks’ only emerging in the early modern period, apparently originating from the lower classes and predominantly from the female section of the population, rather than from males. Their study appears to confirm Labov’s gender paradox theory, namely that non-standard forms will more typically originate from females rather than from males. As discussed above ‘-ING’, both as an inflection, for example, ‘walking’ and as an ending in nouns, for example, ‘thing’ and in pronouns, for example, ‘everything’ was analysed. As the reader will be aware, in speech these can take the standard ‘-ing’ form, for example, ‘nothing’ or the ‘-in’ form, for example, ‘nothin’. The distribution of ‘-ING’ was found to be significant with regard to age, with the average age of the ‘-in’ user being 23.4 years among females and 21.5 years among males, both averages being considerably below the respective average ages for each gender (30.13 for females and 32.11 for males). Earlier, it was noted that previous studies had found that there were linguistic reasons for different ‘-ING’ patterning between nouns and verbs. In the mobile phone text corpus this was also found to be the case: the corpus shows that nominals using the ‘-in’ form are much rarer than nominals using the ‘-ing’ form. All of the above results would appear to offer confirmation that the distribution of token forms is not random in mobile phone texting. The corpus used in these tests is a fairly small corpus, and it would be interesting to see to what extent these results would be replicated elsewhere. Despite the relatively small size of the sample, the information from YOU and -ING forms appears consistent with the research of both Labov, and Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg, as well as that of Adamson. As to the concept of ‘free variation’, the above data support the notion that these are genuine linguistic variables. The variation they exhibit is not random: they are not in so-called free variation and their distributions not only follow a pattern, but appear to be confirmatory of other studies in the field relating to gender and age distribution.

Conclusion The chapter began by looking at the concept of individual range of variation. It was found that sometimes a speaker’s variant forms of high frequency items can be more informative as to authorship than differences between

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speakers. Data from a recent criminal case were given in support of this view. Before leaping to the conclusion that this may be a useful attribution method however, we need to be aware that authors are not always constant in their use of variables. It was found, for example, that interpersonal factors can cause speakers to adopt or abandon particular variant forms. We illustrated this with an example of convergence among a group of phone texters where, it appeared, one of the texters was anxious to be identified as an in-group member, and chose to exploit the resources of language to do so. Finally, we observed the need to view the use of particular forms of variables in the context of macrosocial constraints, such as age and gender. In this regard, we noted that variations in common tokens such as ‘you’ (e.g. ‘you’, ‘u’) were more than mere aberrations of spelling. As we saw, it turns out that variation in this regard is neither random nor purposeless. Labov’s thesis of ‘orderly heterogeneity’ is found to be sustained. The occurrence of forms such as -ING also confirmed well-established research on known male/female and age group distributions with regard to certain variables. All in all, it is clear that although there are many possible techniques for discerning authorship, it is important to be mindful of social and interpersonal factors which can impact on which forms a particular speaker will deploy. Not all variant forms are present in a speaker’s repertoire at a given time as individual forms. Because of social factors, such as the influence of interactivity, or group affiliations, variant forms can be adopted or jettisoned. From the above there appears to be little doubt that authorship is socially as well as individually determined.

Notes 1 The variable rule has recently resurfaced in other forms, such as Optimality Theory (Ammon et al. 2006: 40). 2 wuu2: ‘what are you up to?’

CHAPTER FIVE

Textual variation

Register factors Several elements contribute to register, and each of these in turn has the potential to influence textual variability. Register is defined by the ‘circumstance and purpose of the communicative situation’ and is perceived as occurring across three dimensions: field, tenor and mode: Field is concerned with ‘the social setting and purpose of the interaction’ and includes ‘the subject matter of the article, and the purpose in publishing it’, Tenor concerns ‘the relationship between the participants in the event’ and Mode relates to ‘the medium of communication’ (spoken, written, dictated, texted, emailed, etc.) – Stockwell (2007: 7). More broadly, stylistic differences, only some of which are measurable, often occur as a result of textual dualities, such as text type (Kilgarriff and Rose 1998: 6). Schleppergrell (2004: 18) defines ‘register’ as the variety of language used in a particular social setting, or for a specific purpose. It can also be considered as the realization of a social context through language. It is a text’s lexical and grammatical features which express its register most clearly.

Field: Text type Within the dimension of ‘field’, a potentially important duality within a text or between two texts is that of text type. It is considered that if two texts

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are by the same author, then there may be significant stylistic differences between them if they are of different text types. The following are two excerpts from different texts by the same police officer.

Exercise 5.1

H

ere are two excerpts from written documents by the same police officer. Discuss the similarities and differences between these two excerpts. To assist you in this task look at the police statements in the ‘Forensic text’ section at the back of the book.

Excerpt 5.1 I am 38  years of age and I have completed 14  years Police service with XYZ Police. I am stationed at X Police Office. About 0225 hours on -day 10th September 200-, I was on uniformed mobile patrol in the X area accompanied by Z. At that time, I was directed via means of my personal radio to attend at No.00  – Drive, X in relation to an assault where it was alleged that a male person had been struck on the head with a bottle. Z and I attended immediately along with Police Constables A and B.

Excerpt 5.2 My Role: I am a uniformed patrol constable working in X Local Command Unit. My role and duties include tutoring of a probationary Constable, foot and mobile patrol, attending to calls timeously and generating my own enquiries. My Priorities: Attend incidents timeously and deal with them effectively. Keep myself informed of local crime trends, patterns and make regular criminal intelligence submissions. When possible maintain a high visibility presence in areas where regular complaints are received regarding youth problems.

The following are two text excerpts from a 16-year-old male. The first is a suicide note and the second appears to be some thoughts about suicide in a kind of poetic format, found in one of the youth’s school exercise books. Excerpt 5.3 well, i dont really know what to write, except for im either going to kill myself tonight or have 1 final day at school, and a final chance to see [name], tomorrow, having a fag at the moment, thinking aboutt friday

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morning, Police, when they phoned me up i really did shit myself, i was just glad though that [name] was sat there with me, Im not telling ma, well you’ll find out anyway, but atleast ill be dead, well at least [name] can spit on my grave like she said she wanted to! Ive fucked up too much in life to live anymore, and I dont want to fuck up even more! only good things going for me is family and [name]!

Excerpt 5.4 I tried to stay positive But i lost to negativity hanging from the apple tree, dead, cold, wet, blowing around in the wind, as it is pretty windy 2nite I could carry on, eventually be happy, take too long tho, and myt never happen. the end.

In the first excerpt the writer appears to be describing a plan to commit suicide, and seems to be debating with himself as to when this should occur. Based on a corpus of suicide notes from past cases and other sources, it seems to be a reasonably coherent note. In the second text excerpt (written before the note) the writer combines what appears to be poetic imagery with a description of his mood. Even the line length has more of a resemblance to a verse in a poem than it does to prose. The differences between these two excerpts are qualitative rather than quantitative. The differences occur because the text types are different from each other: each text appears to instance a different kind of communication. Even when two texts are produced by the same author on the same topic, we should not prejudge the extent to which they may have shared characteristics. The police document excerpts above exhibit several crucial differences, noted in the exercise commentary section. The suicide note excerpts are also very different from each other, even though the texts are arguably of the same ‘type’, and by the same author.

Register mixing Of particular interest to forensic linguists with regard to register is the presence of mixed registers in a text. Variation caused by the mixing of registers highlights possibilities such as dual authorship, plagiarism or imitation. The following text is excerpted from an anonymous letter writer who claimed to have killed an FBI agent in the United States some years ago. In general, the letter is in very informal, perhaps even casual, language:

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Exercise 5.2

C

omment on the excerpt below, with regard to the issue of register mixing.

Excerpt 5.5 Go to Seattle, heck I lived there once, no big deal. Hang out in this guy’s backyard, she even gave me the address. Stop off at a place, pick up our gun, and drop it off at a specified location when you are done.

The concept of register mixing appears to run counter to current theories of register. Consider, for example, Halliday and Hasan’s position in this regard: ‘A text is a passage of discourse which is coherent in these two regards; it is coherent with respect to the context of situation, and therefore consistent in register; and it is consistent with respect to itself, and therefore cohesive’ (1976: 23).

Tenor: Writer–addressee relationships Many relationship factors, of varying significance, can cause minute changes in style. Consider these two short excerpts from two suicide notes written by the same person to two different people.

Exercise 5.3

C

omment on the differences between the two excerpts above. How can they be accounted for?

Excerpt 5.6 Thank you for all your care & concern for me. I have been on this medication for a long time now and still do not seem to be any better. Therefore, I have decided to end my life.

Excerpt 5.7 After almost a year I don’t seem to be getting any better on the medication – I am still afraid to go out & can’t drive the car. Therefore I have decided to take these matters into my own hands.

The following two email examples are also both from one author but, as in the previous example, they have different addressees. They concern similar topics, but there are important stylistic differences.

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Excerpt 5.8 It is with great regret that I have decided to step down from the XYZ Executive. There are a number of issues and concerns I have with some of the current Committee, one of the main ones being the cancellation of the ABC event which I believe is not in the interest of our members. I have enjoyed most of my time on the committee and would like to thank everyone I have worked with past and present and despite differences with some of the current committee will always remain a strong supporter of the XYZ.

Excerpt 5.9 hello mary i am distraught to hear how you have been treated. thius is getting out of hand now and the pnly thing i think may be abe to happen is to see if all the members are willing to ask for a wholw new committee. i offer you my full support in any matter you wish to proceed in and i am willing to re-nominate myself on the executive and email them. what do you think.

In the first excerpt, the author is writing to a committee to tell them that he is resigning from the club’s executive. In the second, he is writing to a friend who is a fellow member of the club suggesting certain actions to take in relation to the committee he has previously resigned from. The first excerpt is in conventional, reasonably formal language, with conventional capitalization, punctuation and orthography. In the second text the author appears to be writing to someone with whom he is familiar, in an informal style. Sentence and proper noun capitalization are unconventional and there are a number of typographical errors. Clause connections in the second excerpt are on the whole simpler than the first excerpt. There are also some differences in the lexicons of the two excerpts. Words like ‘issues’, ‘concerns’, ‘current’, ‘cancellation’ and ‘executive’ in the first excerpt are indicative of a technical or professional communication, while in the second we have similar terms  – such as ‘re-nominate’ and, again, ‘executive’. The word ‘distraught’, however, does not fit into this category, and is perhaps a signal of solidarity from the writer to the addressee. The informality of the second excerpt lies mostly in the unconventional orthography and the fact that the author has left a number of typographical errors without correcting them: these appear to signal a familiarity with the addressee, especially in the email environment, where unconventional capitalization, paragraphing and punctuation may indicate closeness between acquaintances. In fact, it may be the case that using a more formal typography and orthography to a close acquaintance or friend in an email would be considered to indicate a less than friendly attitude on the part of the writer. Hence, in this last example, variation appears to result from the

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very different relationship the author has with the club’s committee on the one hand, and with his friend on the other.

Context In the first of the next two examples, the author is writing in connection with a job application. The first text is an application for the job, but we see from the second example that he has not been successful. All of the factors, apart from the context, appear to be constant: same author, same addressee, same topic – but different context. Excerpt 5.1 0 I wish to apply for the post of development worker with the XYZ Centre. I have been frequenting the Centre for over three years and in the last nine months I have been actively involved in the day-to-day running of the Centre, i.e. manning the reception area, organising the forthcoming fund-raising events, developing the cultural aspects of the Centre, such as exhibiting local artist’s work and displaying local historical facts. Also I have made the odd cup of tea! I should state here that the artistic and historical projects are in motion. Regarding the post of Development Worker, I am well aware (through my involvement with the XYZ Centre) of the provision already in place, of which I am fully supportive.

Excerpt 5.11 [H]ow could I as one of the original applicants be granted, amidst the political turmoil in the face of transparency, a fair and just interview when two members of the interviewing panel had prior knowledge of me personally and thus should have removed themselves, eliminating further prejudice and discrimination which occured. Consider the consequences, Management Committee, should further action be taken by any applicant who has performed satisfactorily the duties of the post advertised within the voluntary sector and then degraded and humiliated as I have been by such a process. I leave the matter in your hands. May you act with wisdom and compassion and never allow this to happen again.

We learn from the second excerpt that the author was not successful in his application for the job referred to in the first excerpt. The first excerpt appears to be informal, even though it is a job application. The author writes as though his addressee would be aware of his activities, including the fact that he has ‘made the odd cup of tea’. In the second excerpt he is complaining that some of the people who interviewed him had prior knowledge of him.

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In the application letter the key words relate to the job and the applicant’s experience: ‘apply’, ‘post’, ‘running’, ‘management’, ‘advice’, ‘aspects’ and ‘involvement’. The lexis appears to be of the business world in general and the activity of personnel selection in particular. However, in the second text (although the text is within the business or commercial milieu) the lexis is one we would usually associate with themes such as anger and complaint: ‘turmoil’, ‘prejudice’, ‘discrimination’, ‘degraded’ and ‘humiliated’. The variation between these two same-author texts is therefore likely to be mainly attributable to a change in context.

Mode and other factors In the Derek Bentley statement (see Appendix) there is a measurable duality of style between two sections. Excerpt 5.12 I have known Craig since I went to school. We were stopped by our parents going out together, but we still continued going out with each other – I mean we have not gone out together until tonight. I was watching television tonight (2nd November 1952) and between 8pm and 9pm Craig called for me. My Mother answered the door and I heard her say I was out. I had been out earlier to the pictures and got home just after 7pm. A little later Norman Parsley and Frank Fazey called. I did not answer the door or speak to them.

Excerpt 5.13 When we came to the place where you found me, Chris looked in the window. There was a little iron gate at the side. Chris then jumped over and I followed. Up to then Chris had not said anything. We both got out on to the flat roof at the top. Then someone in a garden on the opposite side shone a torch up towards us. Chris said: ‘It’s a copper, hide behind here.’ We hid behind a shelter arrangement on the roof. We were there waiting for about ten minutes.

In the first excerpt above the sentence length average is over 14.3 words, but just 10.1 in the second, while the average word length in the first excerpt is 4.1 and 3.9 in the second. Along with other inconsistencies in the text, the question engaging linguists (Coulthard 1994; Olsson 1997) has always been whether this difference of style reflected duality of authorship or duality of mode (spoken vs writing), or whether, perhaps, it was indicative of the text having been edited. In the beginning of the statement Christopher Craig is referred to as ‘Craig’ and then as ‘Chris Craig’, but in the second section of the text he is always referred to as

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‘Chris’. This suggests the possibility that the first reference to Craig may have been in the form of a question ‘How long have you known Craig?’ Later, Bentley may have been able to simply narrate the events of the evening without the intervention of questions, and the referent, Christopher Craig, may have been transcribed as Bentley stated it (i.e. as ‘Chris’). Hence, the duality in the text, as evidenced by the multiple reference formats (Craig, Chris Craig, Chris) and the measurement differences given above could be a combination of interaction style, duality of authorship and duality of mode. Duality of mode should be given consideration as the likely source of variation because in the second excerpt we have the highly unusual phrase ‘shelter arrangement’. The speaker is a 19-year-old youth with learning difficulties and is unlikely to have come up with this phrase. The combination of short words and very short sentences is also unusual and, along with the rare phrase ‘shelter arrangement’ suggests a written origin for the second excerpt, whereas the structure of the first excerpt suggests responses to questions, such as ‘How long have you known Craig?’

Non-register factors In this section we offer a consideration of a variety of factors that can impact on individual variability. An individual undergoes neurological development beginning with acquisition (Richards 1990) and in some stages of life may undergo neurological and neurolinguistic decay. In any event there are neurological changes in relation to language throughout the various stages of life (Gleason 2000: 1). Separately, heteroglossic factors act upon individuals in their use of language. Finally, every individual varies in their competence and performance capabilities with regard to language.

Neurological and social changes Neurological changes in an individual (which may contribute to variation or homogenization in an individual’s use of language) can be temporary or permanent in nature. Temporary alteration includes altered brain states such as inebriation, the influence of narcotic substances or the effects of certain types of medication (Chin and Pisoni 1997). Mental illness can also bring about changes in an individual’s language use (Caplan 1987), as can neurological damage in the form of a stroke (Crystal and Varley 1993). Change resulting from neurological damage is not always irreversible: stroke victims, for example, can sometimes recover an almost complete use of their language abilities (Heilman and Valenstein 2003: 625).

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Heteroglossia Bakhtin conceived of two forces acting on individuals in their use of language. He was concerned with the notion of heteroglossia, which broadly views social phenomena as resulting separately from centripetal and centrifugal forces. As Holquist explains, there are according to Bakhtin: two tendencies that energize language’s power to mean: the ‘Manichaean opposition’ between centrifugal forces that seek to keep things apart, and ‘Centripetal forces’ that work to make things cohere. At another level, it is between language at the level of code, i.e. the level of prescribed meanings (where ‘tree’ means any tree), and language at the level of discourse (where ‘tree’ means this tree here and now). (2002: 69) Bakhtin suggests that speakers and writers are permanently engaged in a conflict between everyday language and language as ‘the system of linguistic norms’. The vital language of daily communication thus opposes and is opposed by the culturally construed ‘stable linguistic nucleus of an officially recognized  .  .  .  language’ (Bakhtin 1934–5, in Burke et  al. 2000:  270). Heteroglossia is thus a source of variation in the individual’s language because ‘alongside verbal-ideological centralization and unification, the uninterrupted processes of decentralization and disunification go forward . . . [these] processes . . . intersect in the utterance’ (Burke et al. 2000: 271) and it is also a source of variation because ‘any utterance . . . is a contradiction-ridden, tension-filled unity of two embattled tendencies in the life of language’ (271).

Competence and performance Variation can also relate to the writer’s competence or performance. If an error is repeated and is systematic it may relate to competence: an apparently genuine inability to apply a particular structure or form. On the other hand, an error could arise from performance factors, such as fatigue or poor health. However, it is not always clear whether variation is being caused by competence or performance limitations. Spelling, both standard and non-standard, can present particularly interesting examples of variation. Common errors include rendering two identical letters as a single letter (cf. ‘accomodate’ for ‘accommodate’), doubling a letter within a word (‘memmory’), doubling a letter before an inflection (‘benefitted’), doubling a final letter (‘beautifull’), omission of a silent letter (‘wether’ for ‘whether’) and transposition of letters in homophonic syllables (‘recieved’ for ‘received’). However, in some cases a writer’s spelling system appears to be occasionally unstable and there will be variation of error, with the writer

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producing the error most times, but in an isolated instance producing the standard form. In one case, the defendant repeatedly wrote ‘friend’ as ‘freind’, except in a single instance, where the word was rendered correctly as ‘friend’. Borrowing a term from generative syntax, we could say that the writer had fixed his parameter for this item to a setting which produced ‘freind’, but on that one occasion the parameter had temporarily reset to ‘friend’, which happens to be the correct form. In another instance a writer whose spelling and orthography were generally faultless, wrote his own first name with a lower case initial letter in a formal text. Both the above cases seem to be instances of competence varied by performance: in the ‘freinds/friends’ case it seems that the writer lacks competence with regard to the spelling of the word – yet, he occasionally produced the correct form. This does not necessarily mean he ‘performed’ correctly, it may just be that he performed differently, which happened, in this instance, to be correctly. The single standard instance of ‘friend’ may have been due to convergence factors with an interactant who routinely spelled the word correctly. In the second case, the writer usually wrote ‘Harry’ correctly, and happened to produce ‘harry’ on one occasion. The error also seems to be a performance error, possibly induced by some condition such as fatigue, intoxication, anxiety or perhaps even haste. The writer is normally highly competent, but produces a performance error. On the other hand, the writer could have been subject to some cultural influence, such as mobile phone texting, where it is not uncommon to write a proper noun with an initial lower case letter. It occasionally turns out that a perfectly competent writer will have an Achilles’ heel. Thus, one writer – whose level of spelling and grammar appeared to be standard, somehow produced ‘decieved’ and ‘recieved’ instead of the conventional forms. Another writer seemed unexceptional except for a small orthographic difficulty: he regularly failed to apply the possessive apostrophe appropriately, although the contracting apostrophe was correctly used. In a recent case an employee was accused of writing hate mail to discredit herself in order to obtain a medical discharge from her employment on the grounds of harassment, allegedly from her work colleagues. The questioned texts appeared to be written in a manner somewhat more error prone than her known texts. One curious feature of the questioned texts was the unusual spelling of a number of words, including ‘ritten’, ‘lightss’ and ‘yourselfes’. The known texts also contained instances of poor spelling, including ‘recentley’, ‘recieved’ and ‘detatched’. However, the aberrant spellings in the questioned texts appeared to indicate someone of a very low literacy level. On the other hand, this was not borne out by the hundreds of correctly spelled words in the questioned texts, including such examples as ‘considering’, ‘worthless’, ‘employed’,

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‘permanent’, ‘eventually’, ‘ceases’, ‘continue’. The known texts, however, contained only fairly common misspellings – at least none were anywhere near as rare as ‘lightss’ and ‘yourselfes’. One of the misspellings in the known texts, ‘recieved’ is what we may term a systematic misspelling: the writer’s production of the vowels in the second syllable of the word ‘received’ occurs elsewhere in the language, and it is an error produced by many writers, even some well-educated ones. To a lesser extent the same applies to words like ‘recentley’, ‘differentley’, and so on. There are words which correctly end in ‘-ely’, though the ‘e’ is usually part of the root, for example, ‘purely’, ‘excessively’. Viewed in this way ‘lightss’, for example, does not seem systematic. We do not, as far as is generally known, find plurals formed by adding ‘ss’ to a singular noun, even if that noun ends with the letter ‘s’. Similarly, though initial ‘r’ is found in thousands of words, and although ‘wr’ is rare in this position, yet ‘ritten’ for ‘written’ is extremely unusual. Like ‘lightss’ it does not seem to be systematic. It therefore seemed possible that the writer in question was feigning an incompetence he or she did not possess. This was not a determining factor in the identity of the author in this case, though it did appear to indicate that the writer of the hate mail texts was pretending to be excessively incompetent. Other instances of this apparent pretence included some variation in the orthography of the text.

Polyphonic factors The term polyphony is adapted here from Bakhtin (Farrell 1995) and Kristeva (McAfee 2003) to mean the ways in which an individual’s language is influenced by other speakers and writers. As such polyphonic influences can cause homogenization between writers, or they can increase internal variation within the text of a writer. Polyphony is thus an important aspect of variability. There are many forms of polyphony. One form concerns ‘different audiences and purposes for which texts . . . were composed’ (Farrell 1995: 12). Another type of polyphony relates to authorship itself, where that authorship is ‘multiple’ and ‘indeterminate’ (Farrell 1995: 123). Hence, polyphony is closely related to intertextuality, accommodation and heteroglossia. Polyphony occurs in plagiarism and in translation, and it can also come about through dual authorship, authorship disguise and imitation, and because of cultural appropriation.

Acquisition processes Our earliest source of language is that which we encounter in infancy and childhood, and later we continue to acquire language in the education

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system, from the media, from our various peers and from others we come into contact with. In the early stages of acquisition, polyphony is the absorption into an individual’s language of the language of adults, caregivers and other children, beginning at what Kristeva (1970/1973) calls the semiotic stage, which is associated with preverbal communication, as opposed to the symbolic, a term used in reference to language as a system of symbols and signs (cf. McAfee 2003). At the level of echolalia and imitation, repetition by the child of what is heard is a normal part of language acquisition, which is thus not a harmonious process, but has ‘multiple and elusive’ sources, the echoing of various voices within the individual who is no more than an expression of those sources (Kristeva 1970/1973: 111). Cognitive neuropsychologists argue that most information and language processing takes place unconsciously (Frith 1979, cited in Heinrichs 2001: 34). It is often the case, therefore, that we do not know the source of what we say, and that some of the phrases and concepts in our language stem back as far as early childhood (Heinrichs 2001: 34). In some cases such phrases may be released as a result of traumatic events in our lives or other psychological difficulties. Fenichel is credited with the discovery of the ‘defective filter’ theory, which posits that memories which threaten the individual are normally filtered out of consciousness. However, in the event of trauma or other psychological assault this filtering process ceases to function properly, thus allowing the return of childhood experiences (Fenichel 1945, cited in Heinrichs 2001: 34). This lack of ability to filter experience also applies to language in the form of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia (Heinrichs 2001: 41). Echolalia is thought by some commentators to be part of the creative process in poetry, possibly as part of the search for identity: ‘poetic language . . . by its very economy borders on psychosis’ (Kristeva cited in Barzilai 1991: 296). However, the processes of polyphonic absorption and expression are not confined either to the preverbal stage, to poetic creativity or to psychological conditions such as schizophrenia, because ‘the two poles of the speaking being, the semiotic and symbolic, are simultaneously at work’ (McAfee 2003: 105).

Intertextuality Intertextuality can occur for a number of reasons. It can be deliberate, as in the case of plagiarism, or it can result from absorption of a writer’s style into a genre or discourse type. In the non-genre context it can come about from exposure to the language of others. In a recent forensic linguistics case, a driver was arrested on suspicion of being inebriated. At the police station, officers attempted to breathalyse her.

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However, they were unsuccessful and the driver was charged with failure to provide a specimen, a charge which is more serious than driving under the influence of alcohol. In her defence the driver claimed that she had been suffering from a panic attack. At the initial court hearing the defence barrister questioned both officers and asked why it was that their statements appeared so similar. One of the similarities can be observed in the following excerpt. Excerpt 5.14 Officer 1: [The defendant] did not have any form of panic attack or hyperventilation . . . Officer 2: [The defendant] did not have any kind of panic attack or hyperventilation . . .1

The first officer was unable to account for the similarities, and eventually he was dismissed from the witness stand, and the second officer was called. After initially denying that either he or the other officer had seen each other’s statement, the officer suddenly recalled that there had been a memo from the prosecutor. The barrister requested sight of the memo. The prosecutor denied that there had been a memo, but the memo was eventually found and the court was adjourned for an expert opinion on the memo. The court specifically wanted to know whether the officers had colluded with each other or, alternatively, to what degree the memo may have affected the evidence given in their statements. The first officer had been the addressee of the memo and thus undoubtedly saw it but seemed to have forgotten that he had used it in his statement. The second officer remembered being told about the memo and being asked by the first officer to give a statement but did not recall having seen the actual memo. The memo had been written by the prosecutor in the case to the first officer (who was the case officer), requesting that the officers involved provide statements. Inter alia he wrote: ‘I will need section 9 statements from PC X – and yourself that the lady was not suffering from any form of panic attack or hyperventilation.’ The italicized section was in precisely the wording that the first officer had used. As the memo had been addressed to him it did not seem unreasonable that he may have copied the phrase to ensure that he had answered the question correctly. The second officer continued to deny having seen the memo or having consulted the first officer’s statement. The first officer also denied having shown his statement to the second officer. The defence were concerned that the officers were not being truthful. It is accepted among forensic linguists working in the area of plagiarism that six contiguous words is the usual maximum length of string that most people are able to recall spontaneously, aside from fixed phrases, and that

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there is a strong likelihood that the second phrase will not have occurred independently of the first phrase in those cases where longer phrases occur (Olsson 2004). The phrase ‘any form of panic attack or hyperventilation’ is seven words in length. In a well-known Scottish case (relating to a series of incidents which came to be known as ‘The Ice Cream Wars’), four officers claimed to have remembered the following phrase. Excerpt 5.15 ‘I only wanted the van windaes shot up. The fire at Fat Boy’s was only meant to be a frightener which went too far.’

This text is 24 words in length. The appeal court, on the advice of Professor Brian Clifford, a memory expert from the University of East London, held that it could not have been remembered spontaneously by the officers. Returning to text excerpt 5.14, it is just possible that the second officer remembered the phrase, but without remembering that it had been said to him. The other possibility was that he had simply forgotten that he had seen the memo, or had had it read to him but had somehow remembered the phrase ‘panic attack or hyperventilation’. See also the reference to Pettinati in the next subsection. In another recent case, two witnesses gave statements testifying to the behaviour of the drivers of two vehicles which had overtaken a number of cars, allegedly dangerously. The first statement contained the words: ‘it was obvious to me that the two cars were racing each other’ while the second witness, who claimed she was not acquainted with the first witness, had stated: ‘It was very obvious that the two cars were racing each other.’ The connection between the two witnesses was that the same officer had taken both statements. This officer was adamant that he had not copied the phrase from the earlier statement and that he had forgotten it was in the first statement. In cross-examination, however, he admitted the possibility that he had perhaps asked the second witness if ‘it was obvious to her that the two cars had been racing each other’. Here it seems possible that having transcribed the first statement, elements of this phrase had remained in the officer’s memory without his being aware of it, and that he had subsequently asked the second witness a question based on it, not least perhaps because the phrase relating to racing was relevant to the criminal charge in this case, which was that the drivers who had overtaken the other vehicles had been driving recklessly. The connection between intertextuality and polyphony is that it may not always be the case that a speaker will remember the source of a phrase or expression. In the above instances the result of the intertextuality was homogenization between speakers/writers rather than variation.

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Accommodation theory Accommodation theory is often associated with spoken language, but Giles et al. (1991) report an experiment in which journalists were asked how they imagined their audience. The journalists who were interviewed ‘claimed to think of “imaginary interlocutors”, but those images were formed only in the most general terms . . . some journalists speak of writing for family members or friends’ (Giles et al. 1991: 71–2). Giles et al. (1991) believe that accommodation occurs in the form of constantly evaluating a stereotype of readers’ (or speakers’) language. This is because, in general, speakers do not ‘accommodate to an interlocutor’s actual speech but to what they believe to be the interlocutor’s speech’. This, along with constant self-monitoring, is instrumental in moulding the language used by mass communicators in writing and, it is suggested, to a lesser extent in non-genre writing (Giles et al. 1991: 73). The usual effect of accommodation between writers is homogenization. However, accommodation theory as related to non-genre texts is not highly developed: Finegan and Biber, for example, criticize the failure of sociolinguistics to recognize the ‘rich range of registers in a community’s repertoire’ including written registers, citing in particular the need to explain ‘patterns of linguistic variation’ (2001: 239). See also Bell (1984) with regard to audience design factors.

Plagiarism One of the most controversial allegations of plagiarism concerns the deaf-blind author Helen Keller who at the age of 11 was accused of plagiarizing her ‘Frost Fairies’ story from Margaret Canby’s ‘King Frost’. Some examples of the parallels between the two stories are given below (C = Canby; K = Keller). Excerpt 5.16 C: One day King Frost was trying to think of some good that he could do with his treasure K: one day King Frost was surveying his vast wealth and thinking what good he could do with it C: suddenly he concluded to send some of it to his kind neighbour, Santa Claus K: he suddenly bethought him of his jolly old neighbour, Santa Claus C: So he called together his merry little fairies K: So he called together the merry little fairies of his household

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The only way Helen Keller could have read the story was if it had been published in Braille, which was not the case. A family friend suggested she may have read the story to the child several years before, but Helen Keller had no recollection of it. The Swiss psychologist, C. G. Jung, refers to a type of memory process known as ‘cryptomnesia’. This is the phenomenon whereby individuals believe that a phrase they have used is their own, whereas in fact the phrase originates with someone else (Bishop 1999: 84). This incident, according to Pettinati ‘implies that the experience of remembering something can be cut off or dissociated from the fact of something remembered  – that there, is in other words, an important distinction to be made between something remembered and the experience of remembering something’ (1988: 5). It is possible that this is what happened in Helen Keller’s case. She herself always denied plagiarism, and subsequently refused to write fiction as a result of this experience. Raz, Striem, Pundak, Orlov and Zohary (2007) note the superior memory capabilities of blind people, mainly owing to sensory compensation factors.

Translation In translation the author attempts to re-create the meaning of a text in another language, but translations vary greatly with regard to the extent that they rely on echoes from the source text. Below are three passages. The first (5.17) is an excerpt from the fourteenth-century text ‘The Cloud of Unknowing’. Below that (5.18 and 5.19) are two translations of the passage. Excerpt 5.17 I fynde, in my boistous beholdyng, foure degrees and fourmes of Cristen mens levyng; and ben theese: Co-moun, Special, Singuler, and Parfite. Thre of theese mow be bigonnen and eendid in this liif; and the ferthe may bi grace be bigonnen here, bot it schal ever laste with outen eende in the blis of heven.

Excerpt 5.18 I find, in my boisterous beholding, four degrees and forms of Christian men’s living: and they be these, Common, Special, Singular, and Perfect. Three of these may be begun and ended in this life; and the fourth may by grace be begun here, but it shall ever last without end in the bliss of Heaven. (Anonymous)

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Excerpt 5.19 It seems to me, in my rough and ready way, that there are four states or kinds of Christian life, and they are these: Common, Special, Solitary and Perfect. Three of them may be begun and ended in this life; the fourth, by the grace of God, may be begun here, but it goes on for ever in the bliss of Heaven! (Wolters 1961)

Excerpt 5.18 is an almost literal translation of the Middle English original, while excerpt 5.19 rephrases most of the text. The first translator simply re-renders the original tokens in contemporary form without taking into account the incongruity of phrases like ‘boisterous beholding’ or the use of the word ‘ever’, while the second translator appears to have produced a fresh text while still retaining some echoes of the medieval source. As a result there are some interesting reverberations of the Middle English original in the second translation. In fourteenth-century English ‘boistous’ (boisterous) literally meant ‘rough’ and this is how the second translator renders it in the idiom ‘rough and ready’. Also, by translating ‘grace’ as ‘the grace of God’ the translator is simply echoing a common mantra of the period which expressed the belief that all grace was divine (e.g. the phrase ‘Godes grace’ occurs many times in the medieval poem, Pearl, in ‘The Life of St Benedict’ and in other works of the period). The first translator appears to have wanted to retain the flavour of the original, and for this reason might not have wished to use contemporary idiom. The effect may seem to be plagiaristic, but some would consider that in the context of poetic translation there is an argument for preserving the language of the source text.

Dual authorship Another example of variation within a text is the well-known Evans statements, supposedly dictated by Timothy John Evans to police at Notting Hill Police Station. Svartvik (1968) showed that there seemed to be two clear methods of communication in the statements, one apparently emulating a colloquial manner, the other a formal written register with a number of indications of police institutional language in it. Excerpt 5.20 – Evans statement 1 In the meanwhile my wife got herself into £20 debt so I borrowed £20 off the Guvnor under false pretences, so he give me the £20 which I took home and gave it to my wife. I asked her who she owed the money to but she would not tell me, so a week later I got sacked.

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Excerpt 5.21 – Evans statement 2 She was incurring one debt after another and I could not stand it any longer so I strangled her with a piece of rope and took her down to the flat below the same night whilst the old man was in hospital.

In the first excerpt above we see what appears to be a colloquial register ‘borrowed  .  .  .  off the Guvnor’ with ‘guvnor’ transcribed in a pseudophonetic manner, although it should be noted that Evans came from South Wales where ‘governor’ was not a locally used word. In the same example there is a resumptive pronoun ‘. . . which I took home and gave it to my wife . . .’ and colloquial ‘give’ for ‘gave’. However, these colloquial examples occur alongside the more formal ‘under false pretences’ and we have past ‘give’ and ‘gave’ in the same sentence. The second excerpt includes the word incurring, which suggests a more formal register than ‘got herself into . . . debt’, but ‘one . . . after another’ and ‘piece of rope’ are less formal. It is difficult to give a clear explanation for the types of variation found here: the texts could be of dual authorship, or – following Bakhtin (as mentioned earlier  – see also Morson and Emerson 1990: 30)  – there could be heteroglossic reasons for these instances of internal variation. In this model, words like ‘incurring’ may suggest an attempt at showing the institutional locus of the discourse, while the use of ‘guvnor’ could be an attempt to make the statement appear to be genuinely colloquial. It is also possible that what we have here is a clash of discourses: institutional and private. The ‘top-down’ structure of the genre or institutional text meets the ‘bottom-up’ prosaic of colloquial discourse.

Authorship disguise and imitation Another possible source of polyphony, one which can contribute to either variation or homogenization, is that of disguise. A writer may write in a disguised way in order to prevent detection or, alternatively, may deliberately attempt an imitation of another writer’s way of writing. In practice, neither sustained disguise nor sustained imitation is easy for an unskilled fabricator to effect, and in fact some metalinguistic awareness would be necessary to make the effort plausible (Chaski 1997: 19). The question of author disguise has frequently recurred in connection with the Lindbergh case. The reader may know that in 1932 US aviator Charles Lindbergh’s young son was kidnapped and that subsequently Bruno Hauptmann was charged with and convicted of the child’s murder. The following are excerpts from two of the ransom demands which were sent to the Lindbergh family (see Appendix for facsimiles of these texts).

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Excerpt 5.22 We warn you for making anyding public or for notify the polise the child is in gute care.

Excerpt 5.23 We have warned you note to make anything public also notify the police

The reader will notice the similarities between the two excerpts ‘warn’, ‘anything public’, ‘notify police’. The spelling differences, however, are interesting. In the first example we have ‘anyding’ instead of ‘anything’, which appears in the second example, and we have  – also in the first example – ‘polise’, instead of ‘police’ which appears in the second example. These are not the only differences: the first text also contains ‘gute’ for ‘good’, while the second contains ‘gut’ for ‘good’ (not shown here); the first text has ‘we will inform you’, while the second text has ‘we will form you’. In an earlier work, I considered these differences to be related to neurolinguistic causes and cited parallels between certain speech forms (derived from a radio recording of Hauptmann’s voice) and the ransom demands (Olsson 2004), but there is also the possibility that the writer may be someone other than Hauptmann who could be attempting a naïve ‘foreign’ style, in this case the imitation being that of a German native speaker trying to write English.

Cultural appropriation Appropriating the culture of others is another source of polyphony. This next example concerns a group of letters written by young Japanese-descended internees in World War II to Clara Breed, the librarian of their home town, San Diego. The young internees were all between 15 and 18 years of age and had been uprooted from their daily lives to live in camps in isolated rural areas. Here is an excerpt from a letter by one of the internees, a young boy by the name of Tetsuzo (known as ‘Ted’) Hirasaki. The letter is given without alteration or correction. Excerpt 5.24 – Letter to Miss Breed by Ted Hirasaki Here is the letter I promised you. Little did I think that I would see Santa Anita, where once trod the million of pleasure seeking fans of the sport of kings  – horse-racing. Why?? I’m actually treading the ground where the mighty Seabiscuit won his great duels on the track. I am in good health and my arm is getting along fine. I received doctor’s order so I am allowed to have milk with my meals. The food here is about

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the same as the food at the county hospital with the exception of less meat here. Now that we have a number of San Diego men working in the kitchens the food has improved quite a bit, especially with the salads. I have heard that we are to receive meat soon, but I think it will be mostly stew because we are not allowed knives, just a spoon and fork as eating utensils. The state room that we live in are not bad since the roof didn’t leak at all when during he rains that we had – which reminds me that we certainly lucky that it didn’t rain while we were being assigned to our quarters. © Japanese American National Museum

In this letter the phrase ‘where once trod’ is almost poetic, as is the use of ‘why’ in the text and, also, ‘mighty’. These usages are in some contrast to the tone in ‘the roof didn’t leak at all’ and ‘the food has improved quite a bit’. The phrase at the very end of the text, ‘assigned to our quarters’ has a military, or at least institutional, ring to it. As is evident, the text contains signs of colloquialism, poetic language and institutional (possibly military) terminology. In another letter the same young Japanese–American writes that ‘nisei’2 were classed as aliens ‘inelegible [sic.] for military service’, which is in a formal, official style. Thus, the young writer of this letter seems to have been subject to a number of somewhat diverse influences. The reason for the appearance of what seems to be institutional language may be related to the writer’s situation. Elsewhere, he writes of the hope among young Japanese–Americans to be able to serve in the armed forces to prove their loyalty to the United States. His use of institutional language may be related to these aspirations. The source for the data in Hirasaki’s text seems to be polyphony rather than merely a change of register because the indications of institutional language do not appear to be related to the purpose of the communication or its level of formality. Kimmich (2005: 49) associates this type of polyphony with a desire for social cohesion while, more generally, Kristeva (2002) associates polyphony with the search for an identity, which she considers to be a ‘creative process’. Thus, individuals may be constructing their ‘own world-model according to the innate (biological) and acquired (socialized) acting preconditions in [their] cognitive domain[s]’ (Schmidt 1980: 533). We could thus consider the appearance of the kind of polyphonous language discussed above to be related to some kind of cognitive shift which has arisen owing to the writer’s change in circumstances.

Textual structure: Topic, trajectory, relevance Textual structure is another important reason why genre and non-genre text vary in different ways. Prosaic texts are free to express whatever the writer

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needs to express in whatever language is available, or seem appropriate. Hence the topic range of prosaic text is much less restricted than that of genre text. A private letter can cover a wide range of themes and ideas in a more or less unrestricted order, using a mix of registers. In general, private letters are much less structured than they at first appear – they often contain a heading, a body and a farewell salutation. This may make them look as though they are conforming to some ideal. In fact, the conformity may extend only to their document-like appearance. What lies within the text may be much less limited. The key is addressivity and transitivity. The language may not be as ‘fine’ as that of a novel to the outside observer, who is in the same position as somebody overhearing a conversation and can thus never know the full context of the conversation. This is because the language itself is not the goal of the writer, or the reader. The language serves an end. The text is transitive because it is there to transmit the relationship between the writer and the reader, and it may be dialogic if the writer is attempting to gauge the reader’s response. This does not mean that the writer is entirely lacking an agenda, or a plan, or that the writer is not attempting to follow some system. There are inevitably restrictions in any form of dialogue – we may not be able or willing to say everything we may want to say. Nevertheless, the private communication has latitudes and freedoms the public text does not. Moreover, it does not necessarily have a trajectory: it does not seek to travel from A to B. For example, if we refer back to the young internee’s letter given in the previous section, we see that the letter begins in a seemingly grand manner – Ted is on the very race track where ‘the mighty’ Seabiscuit won his ‘great duels’. The topic range moves from horse-racing to his health, his diet, cooking arrangements on the camp, allowable cutlery and leaking roofs. There seems to be a broad range of topics here for such a small sample of discourse. By contrast, in a genre text every element has to have a purpose, with the overall narrative developing according to a trajectory. This limits the topic range to what is ‘relevant’ to the narrative. The topic range of the genre text has restrictions placed on it by the medium: we do not find these restrictions in non-genre texts.

Conclusion Earlier, we saw that it is common practice among forensic linguists to use descriptive rather than statistical methods of identifying authorship. However, some forensic linguists make their authorship claims on the basis of the existence of the idiolect which presupposes homogeneity within an individual’s language use. By contrast, we have noted that variation is entirely normal in naturalistic texts, and in this section we have been able to pinpoint some

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of the reasons for variation. Initially, we commented on a number of social and cognitive factors, but in those cases where register factors such as text type, writer–addressee relationships, context and mode are constrained, then the linguist’s focus needs to turn to polyphonic influences, such as accommodation, register mixing and cultural appropriation. It is clear that interaction with other speakers and writers is a significant influence on our use of language and may often be a factor in increasing internal variation. Interestingly, the effect of such influences appears to be very different on genre texts when compared with non-genre texts. This could be because intertextuality in genre tends to lead to convergence, in particular of lexicons, while in non-genre texts accommodation incorporates both convergence and divergence processes, and thus in non-genre text both homogenization and variation are produced. Even though variation is intrinsic to language use, there are periods when the range of variation an author exhibits will, temporarily at least, be stable. Thus, when reporting on authorship for a court, the linguist needs to be mindful of the possible limitations of similarities and their causes. Only the most scrupulous observation of similarities and differences can yield an accurate picture. Moreover, it is not enough for the linguist working in the forensic environment to describe similarities and differences: these need to be explained within the social parameters of the texts. Texts do not exist in a vacuum, but in a context.

Notes 1 Although the second officer’s wording is slightly different from either that of the prosecutor or the first officer – he uses the words ‘kind of . . .’ rather than ‘form of’ – I would consider this difference to be trivial. 2 Second generation Japanese–Americans referred to themselves as nisei.

CHAPTER SIX

Forensic phonetics: An introduction by Harry Hollien1

The overall area of forensic communication is made up of three major subdisciplines plus a few minor ones. The three major areas are forensic linguistics (the subject of this book), forensic phonetics (the focus of this chapter) and forensic psychoacoustics (an area that basically involves heard signals and their effect – acoustic, perceptual, neural – on individuals and their behaviours). As would be expected, the dimensions of the three prime content areas overlap  – and substantially in some places. They also can overlap with other relevant disciplines – ones such as engineering (especially computer science), medicine, and so on. However, this chapter is all about forensic phonetics, and the best place to start is with definitions.

Defining forensic phonetics It might be useful  – and possibly interesting  – to first provide a general description of phonetics, and just why professionals of this sort are able to carry out the functions/operations to be described. Obviously an experimental phonetician is interested in, and grounded in, the acoustical, physiological and perceptual study of human speech. To conduct research (or to teach) in these areas, plus to be able to interface with other professionals, he or she must be trained in both the central issues (including phonology to some extent) and a number of complementary disciplines. Most notable among the others are acoustics and relevant engineering specialties. Phoneticians must also have fundamental expertise in human behaviour (ranging from psychology to physiology to neurophysiology) and in hearing (especially psychoacoustics and hearing neurophysiology). They also must be able to

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develop specialized processing procedures and equipment (both mechanical and electronic) and/or adapt available, but relevant, systems to their needs. Finally, a forensic phonetician is one who is both interested in, and trained in, a number of areas within the forensic sciences (Hollien 1983). Indeed, interests across a broad grouping of related areas are common to this specialty. For example, Alexander Graham Bell taught Phonetics at Boston University before he invented the telephone; he also had a lifelong interest in, and made contributions to, deafness and glider design. Another example is George Bernard Shaw who developed techniques in phonetics and studied dialects before he became a playwright. My Fair Lady (originally Pygmalion) depicts some of his early activities. Thus, it is not unusual that some phoneticians contribute to forensic sciences and criminal justice. Now to be more specific. Forensic phonetics consists of two primary areas: 1 the electroacoustical analyses of speech signals which have been transmitted and stored; 2 the analysis of communicative (or speech) behaviours themselves (Hollien 1990). The first of these is focused on problems such as the proper transmission and storage of spoken exchanges, the authentication of all types of recordings, the enhancement of speech, speech decoding, transcripts and similar problems. The second includes the identification of speakers, obtaining information relative to the physical or psychological states of a talker (e.g. stress, psychosis, intoxication) and the analysis of speech for evidence of deception or intent. Smaller, and secondary, areas include the overlap with linguistics (especially psycholinguistics), psychoacoustics and audio engineering (especially with respect to the analysis of recorded signals). The fuzziness of these boundaries is understandable since phoneticians are experienced only secondarily in these other specialties. Nevertheless, collaborations often result.

Signal analysis Recording speech As has been implied, good recordings are important to operations and groups such as law enforcement agencies, the courts and the intelligence services. The effectiveness of most of these agencies would be reduced by a magnitude if suddenly they could no longer utilize recorded spoken intercourse and related events for surveillance, interrogation and/or other operations. Indeed, it is quite possible that analysis of such information

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ranks among the more powerful of the tools investigators have at their disposal. Yet, the storing, processing and analysis of messages, events and information has become so common that many investigators, attorneys and agents tend to overlook the myriad of problems faced here.

Problems Even now, the recordings used for surveillance and related purposes are rarely of studio quality and the utterances found on many of them will have to be enhanced before they can be used. Other than those problems induced by the speakers (e.g. overlapping speakers, effects of stress, drug/ alcohol usage), the primary sources of speech degradation are related to input and/or internal system noise and distortion. Both can result from inadequate equipment, poor recording techniques, operator error or the acoustic environment in which the recordings were made. It should be noted here that, even currently, a proportion of the signal storage devices employed by personnel in the criminal justice and intelligence systems involve analogue tape recorders. While most of the billions of them that are in use are being phased out, their complete replacement will take time. Better equipment now is becoming common (i.e. digital tape recorders, computers, CD systems, etc.). Yet, many of these are quite bulky and/or fragile. It can be difficult to use them in a rough field environment or in stressful situations. Nonetheless, information storage of all types has much in common when degradation of speech is considered. That is, problems can result from (1) limited signal bandwidth (see Figure  6.1), (2)  harmonic distortion, (3) noise and (4) intermittent reduction/elimination of the target sounds. These problems result from the use of limited transducers (microphones), some cell phones, inexpensive or very small recorders, inappropriately used equipment and ultra-slow recorder speeds. Obviously, long recording times often are desirable in forensics and slow recording speeds permit a great deal of information to be captured before the medium is saturated. However, such an approach often results in packing so much information into a small space that the system cannot support good intelligibility. Also, they can lead to speech dropouts, reduction in signal strength and print-through (if it is tape). The remedies here – other than skilled decoders – are mostly found in the recovery programs.

Environmental factors A common form of speech degradation results from the masking of signals being recorded along with the target speech. These unwanted sounds include noise, competing speech, music, and so on. They may be (1) broadband, (2) narrow band with a natural frequency (or frequencies), (3) steady-state

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Figure 6.1  Transistor frequency response. The curves of four microphones are based on laboratory measurements. or (4) intermittent. A typical steady-state noise is that of 60 cycle hum (and its multiples of 120, 180 Hz, etc.), a signal which can be induced into a system from any 60 cycle (AC) electrical source or AC–DC converter. While noise of this type tends to mask speech, its effect often can be reduced or eliminated by notch filters. Another type of noise, broadband in nature, can result from such friction sources as the wind, fans/blowers, radio/TV transmission, vehicle operation, clothing movement, and so on. Some of the effects of this type of noise may be mitigated by the elimination of that part of the total noise spectrum which exists outside the functional speech range (i.e. frequencies below 350 Hz and above 3500 Hz). Other types of noise are produced by mechanisms which have ‘natural frequencies’ (i.e. the cited motors, fans and blowers). They tend to exhibit peak frequencies and relatively narrow noisebands. Sometimes, intelligibility can be enhanced if a portion of this narrow band energy can be filtered out even if it is located within the speech range. Perhaps the most difficult ‘noise’ to eliminate from any recording – that is, without simultaneously removing or distorting the speech of interest  – are music and the speech of other talkers. Judicious filtering can be of some help here. However, it usually requires relatively sophisticated software that is capable of seeking and eliminating (digitally, of course) certain types of repetitious sounds. Software for the separation of utterances of two individuals also are available but, as yet, most of

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them are marginal in their effect. Finally, intermittent or impact noise can take many forms, that is, gunshots, pinball machines, video games, bells, horns, explosions, doors closing, and so on. Noise of this type is of short duration and tends to obscure speech only intermittently; while it can mask a particular utterance it usually does not degrade most of them. Since these impact noises are extremely variable, it is not practical to describe all of the potential remedies that could reduce their effects upon speech; however, digital filtering and energy seeking software often can be useful.

Speech enhancement As indicated above, a variety of techniques exist which can be utilized to enhance the intelligibility of stored discourse (Blain 1980; Dean 1980; Hollien 1990, 1992; Hollien and Fitzgerald 1977). Some of the techniques include bandwidth compression, cross-channel correlation, mean least squares analysis, all-pole models, group delay functions, linear adaptive filtering, varying speed recorders, cepstrum techniques, deconvolution, and so on (e.g. Bloch et  al. 1977; Lee 1998; Lim and Oppenheim 1979; Wan 1998). Most have to be adapted to the speech task but this is possible if the phonetician is able to match the particular software or procedure to the specific degradation of the speech. They sometimes can be helpful when distorted speech samples do not respond to filtering or other simpler remedies. In any event, they will not be reviewed here; rather, the procedures to be described will be some of the more practical and easily applied approaches. The initial step in the enhancement process should be to protect the original recording by making a good quality digital copy. It is not desirable to work on an original because repeated playing could result in signal deterioration or other damage. Indeed, it is especially important not to accidentally erase, overrecord or otherwise damage any part of it. It is not difficult to imagine the problems which would arise if important evidence were thusly destroyed or compromised. Second, the examiner should listen to the recording a number of times before attempting to process it. This procedure permits development of a log plus a good working knowledge of the recording’s contents – plus information about interference and degradation. It is by this process that various problems and remedial techniques can be identified. One useful analysis approach is to digitize problem areas and apply software which can permit ‘visualizations’ of the relationships within the signal (spectra and waveforms, for example). Graphic illustrations of these types of plots can be found in Figures 6.2 and 6.3. Little, to no, noise is seen in Figure 6.2; the characteristics of a vowel (also with little noise) may be seen in the ‘waterfall’ spectrum shown in Figure 6.3. These graphs also can be used to obtain a great deal of quantitative information about the signal, and thus aid in identifying a speech sound, word or phrase.

Amplitude (in dB)

100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1,000 1,100 1,200 1,300 1,400 1,500 fo* HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP** 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Frequency (in Hz) * or the first partial (p-1) ** HP = harmonic partials

Figure 6.2  An energy-by-frequency (or ‘instantaneous’) spectrogram. It provides information about the amount of energy at each frequency and each area. Indeed, an envelope could be created by ‘connecting’ the peak of the F0 with those of each of its partials.

STARTING FRAME = 1, NUMBER OF FRAMES = 35 C:\KH\KH4010. MAGNITUDE

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Figure 6.3  A digital spectrogram of the ‘waterfall’ type. Here frequency is plotted against time, with the energy levels represented by the height of the peaks. This plot is one of the sustained vowel /a/.

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Several types of frequency filtering techniques can be applied to reduce noise and enhance speech intelligibility. They may be best understood by observation of Figure 6.4 which illustrates some of the basic concepts about filtering. They now are nearly all accomplished by digital software; hence, most of the inadequacies associated with the old analogue systems are no longer a problem. Nonetheless, the concepts are easier to understand in this form. That is, the figure provides information about the effects of various types of filtering on a signal; specifically the frequency response of a series of stylized and simplified low-pass, high-pass, bandpass and notch filters – with varying slopes. Each curve relates to one or more of the filtering techniques described. For example: if a spectral analysis shows that a noise source is producing a relatively narrow band of high energy at or around a specific frequency, a notch filter centring on that frequency (pattern E) may be employed to reduce its debilitating effect. Other things being equal, reasonable quality speech (for decoding purposes) can be achieved when the passband is 350–3500 Hz (pattern C). Another relationship which must be understood involves how certain acoustic energy patterns can affect human hearing. It has long been 10 5

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Figure 6.4  Filtering patterns. This figure illustrates the filtering capabilities of low-pass (A), high-pass (B), bandpass (C) and notch (E) filters. Also shown are filtering slopes which are shallow (upper C), moderate (A, B), steep (left side of C, E) and those (D–C) which exhibit the rebound in those which are not digital.

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known that energy at a lower frequency will mask both those near it and at higher frequencies, whereas energy at higher frequencies will not tend to mask lower frequencies to as great an extent. Figure 6.5 is a simplified plot of these relationships. As can be seen, a sine wave of 500 Hz will mask frequencies around itself plus those which are higher. The masking effects of narrow band noise also centred near 500 Hz  – a case more relevant to the forensic model  – operate in a similar fashion. The implications of these effects can be best understood when the passband for speech (roughly 350–3500 Hz) is considered. The masking effect of frequencies up to 350Hz can mask speech while those above 3000 Hz will ordinarily be only annoying. These relationships should be kept in mind when the problem of enhancing speech on noisy recordings is considered. The most important classes of filters are digital; they come in two forms: hardware and software. The hardware types are self-contained and usually limited only to a filtering function, while the software programs require access to a computer which, of course, can do many other tasks. Basically, filters of this type digitize the signal a set number of times each second

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Figure 6.5  Masking of sounds. This plot shows how certain sounds can mask others. Both centre frequencies (of the maskers) are near 500Hz. Note that there is a strong tendency for low-frequency sounds to mask higher frequencies but not so much the reverse.

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(say 20k) determine the energy (especially that which is steady-state) in the frequencies above, below and between the predetermined limits, remove these values and either store what remains or convert it back into some sort of analogue form. While the actual process is somewhat more complicated, these approaches bring a great deal of power and flexibility to the problem.

Speech decoding and transcripts The second phase of extracting utterances and messages from difficult recordings involves speech decoding. If recordings made under various types of degraded and poor conditions are to be useful, the speech they contain must be comprehended. Thus, the specific problems must be first identified and speech enhancement techniques applied. At that junction, formal decoding procedures can be initiated. This is an instance where linguists and phoneticians often work together. Decoders face not only the channel or system distortions described in the previous section but also speaker-related problems. Difficulties of this type include (1) disguise, (2) dialects/foreign languages, (3 variation in speech rate, (4) effects of stress/fear, (5) effects of alcohol/drugs/health states and (6) multiple speakers and/or interruptions by other speakers. While the mere existence of these conditions may not be a problem, any of them can degrade speech intelligibility and make decoding difficult. Hence, efficient and accurate decoding requires specialized training primarily in phonetics and linguistics (Hollien 1990).

Noise and masking While the masking effects of noise on speech must be first mitigated insofar as possible, it may be a little surprising to learn that noise alone is not always as debilitating as might be expected (Hollien 1984). This phenomenon is largely due to the internal redundancy of language and the structure of an utterance. For example, if a competing broadband or thermal noise is only twice as intense as the speech, the spoken message often will remain intelligible or nearly so. Moreover, other compensatory factors exist to mitigate noise and other problems. Of special importance to decoding are (1)  foreground–background processing, (2) binaural listening and (3) auditory illusions (especially those related to speech). This process involves a person’s ability to attend selectively to particular elements within a heard stimulus (i.e. the cocktail party effect; Bronkhorst 2000). In the case of speech in noise, the human auditor can focus on the speech, and relegate the noise to the background  – at least to some extent. As would be expected, much of this processing occurs at the

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cortical level; it is aided by binaural listening (listening with both ears) and ‘directional’ hearing (Bronkhorst 2000). It also is one of the reasons humans usually make better speech decoders than do machines. All that is necessary to appreciate the binaural procedure is to alternately listen to some speech first through a single earphone and then through two. The speech decoder also is aided by auditory ‘illusions’. What appears to happen is that the listener ‘intuitively’ learns to fill in those parts of speech which are distorted or missing, and properly decode the degraded elements by attending to coarticulation and the environment within which utterances are heard (Hollien 1984, 1990). For example: (1) a vowel and its transitions alone often can provide enough information to permit a decoder to correctly ‘hear’ the missing consonants (i.e. the entire word), (2) certain speech sounds within a word can be obliterated then replaced by thermal noise and understood and (3) a talker’s fundamental frequency is perceived even though it has not been provided to the listener due to limited frequency response (e.g. a telephone). Actually, there is no mystery about these auditory illusions as their nature is lawful.

Phonemes, boundaries and lexical stress Basic knowledge about vowels, consonants and other speech elements is mandatory of course. So, decoders must be familiar with word structure and the characteristics of word boundaries. Linguistic rules exist for word structure (just as they do for sentence structure) and these rules provide important information about what a word might be (or should be) when it cannot be heard clearly. Knowledge about word boundaries is just as important; it bears especially on spectrography when this technique is utilized to provide a visual ‘picture’ of the utterance. Analysis of the linguistic stress patterns exhibited by a speaker are also helpful. So too are the many non-linguistic gestures a person uses to enhance the meaning of a message. These paralinguistic elements include variation in speaking fundamental frequency, phoneme/syllable/word duration and vocal intensity. Familiarity with these features can provide important clues when transferring heard discourse into written form (Hollien 1990).

Coarticulation Coarticulation is so important, it is considered separately. It describes the phenomenon that each speech sound uttered affects the others near it. An appreciation of the effects this process will have on perceived speech can aid the decoder with his or her processing. Specifically, when an individual moves from one speech sound to another, the position of the articulators for the first modifies the placement for the second, and these modifications extend out several phonemes in both directions. These differences can be

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exploited to enhance decoding efficiency. Several of the concepts/methods previously discussed relate directly to coarticulation.

The mechanics of decoding In order to understand how the speech from noisy and distorted recordings is decoded and turned into a written transcript, it is necessary also to understand something about the mechanics of the decoding process. First, the method utilized by the decoders must be based on a thorough and structured approach. If it is not, major textual errors can be expected and additional hours will have to be spent by someone in an attempt to find and correct them. Specifically, decoders must produce a well-ordered transcript, a log of their work and multiple (and enhanced) copies of the recordings of interest (Hollien 1984). They must first listen to the entire recording on good quality equipment. Doing so permits (1) particularly difficult material to be identified, (2) proper names learned and (3) any idiosyncratic characteristic of the recording noted. At that juncture, transcript development may begin. A set of codes is used to indicate where questions exist, a second one where decoding may be possible but is questionable and yet a third when the words are found to be inaudible or unintelligible. It is necessary for the decoders, and their supervisors, to continue this process until no further improvement in the written transcript can be made. Once the listening procedure is complete and a reasonable transcript has been developed, it is necessary to apply the cited codes to identify the talkers and problem portions of the transcript (Hollien 1984, 1990). For example, it can be expected that the decoder will identify each talker by number, name and/or sex. It also is necessary to record questionable words/phrases, inaudible words, pauses, competing speech and similar events. Specialized systems of this type have been developed and their use is mandatory. For example, if sections are found where speech is audible but not intelligible (or where the speech of multiple talkers’ interferes with decoding), brackets are used and the approximate number of missing words listed (e.g. ‘[* 2–3 words]’ or ‘[* 10–14 words by speaker C]’). This approach provides far more information than does the word ‘inaudible’. Another way the flow of events can be documented is by including a description of the occurrence: ‘footsteps, door closing, two gunshots, loud thump’. Of course, any relevant set of codes is acceptable provided all events can be identified, they are utilized in a consistent manner and an appropriate index is provided for them. Once the decoding process has been completed and the confusions resolved, it should be carefully evaluated for errors. If careless errors (even simple typing ones) are present, the transcript may be impeached. It will certainly lose its general credibility and perhaps unfairly so.

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Authenticating recordings Recordings are vulnerable to manipulation. Some individuals have even contended that it is possible to modify one by methods that cannot be detected. Indeed, discovery of editing would be most difficult if a team of specialists were to digitize a large corpus of some person’s utterances and then create dialog from it. Indeed, they probably could have that person ‘saying’ almost anything they wished and with only a modest chance of detection by examiners employing current techniques. On the other hand, procedures have been developed which can aid a neutral examiner in discovering if a recording (audio or video) has been modified in some manner and/or if it can be considered authentic. The problem of recording authenticity is a rather serious one as any challenge of validity suggests that someone has tampered with evidence or falsified information. Such a challenge can arise at any time: when the recording is being made or monitored, when its contents are being processed, during court proceedings, and so on. Indeed, this issue is one that must be met systematically and thoroughly (Aperman 1982; Hollien 1977). A number of the problems which exist in this area seem related to the definitions and standards employed (or the lack of them; Hollien and Majewski 2009). For example, some practitioners suggest that, as long as the recording was not ‘tampered’ with after it was made, it is valid. Others do not carry out authentication of an entire recording. These approaches can be hazardous. Thus, it is necessary to establish guidelines as to what is and what is not an authentic recording and what procedures and techniques permit these questions to be satisfactorily answered. First, the guidelines. To be authentic, a recording must have captured all of the events which have taken place during the entire target period. It cannot be started at some point after the interchange has been initiated or terminated before all of the dialogue/events have been completed. Second, it must be shown that it was not interrupted in any manner, with no omissions and nothing added to it  – at any time during the recording period or subsequently (Hollien 1977, 1990). It is also important to remember that no one can specify anything about a recording other than it is complete or not complete, or that it has or has not been modified by some process. Even if one appears to have been altered, there is nothing the examiner can specify about the intent of the person who was responsible for (somehow) modifying it. There simply is no way to determine if he or she did so innocently or for nefarious purposes. Second, the reputation or presumed integrity of the individual or agency that made the recording should have no bearing on the thoroughness of the process. Indeed, only a painstakingly rigorous and objective examination will insure that the above cited standards will be met. Moreover, a subsequent stage of the process requires that

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an equal effort be made to explain each questionable area or event encountered. Indeed, events often can be found which appear suspicious yet are not caused by alterations. Thus, the actual reason for each of these occurrences must be determined. It is just as important to avoid the identification of an innocuous event as a modification as it is to miss an alteration. Finally, the analysis for authenticity should only be carried out on the original recording and on the actual equipment used. Violence to this rule permits only partial or inconclusive deductions to be made. Finally, while evaluations are conducted in two parts, that is, the physical examination and signal analysis, the first requirement is to initiate a log and make one or more digital copies by direct coupling (for both safety and signal analysis).

The physical examination A physical examination must be made of the recording equipment and the recording medium. If an analogue or digital tape recorder was employed, it is necessary to consider (1) the amount of tape on the reel, (2) the condition of the housing, the reel or cassette, (3) the presence of splices and (4)  the equipment used. It is at this stage that initial attempts are made to determine if the recording in question is an original or a copy. Finally, while the physical examinations of the materials/housing of digital recordings (CDs, DVDs, video, etc.) provide much less information; they also should be checked. So too, it is desirable to evaluate the history of the recording itself. Relevant questions include the following: Has the evidence pouch been opened? Are there inappropriate identification marks on it? Does evidence exist that it has been used previously? One of the more critical modifications that can occur to a tape (of any type) is splicing; if they are found, the possibility of tape editing must be considered. There are two major types of splices: adhesive and heat. With an adhesive splice, the two ends of the separated tape are placed together, and a piece of splicing tape applied to the back. Note: if the ends are cropped, the process is more suspicious than if they are jagged and match. With a heat splice, the two ends are overlapped and melted together. Sometimes the presence of a splice is revealed by an audible click as it is passed over the playback head; other times, it can be seen or felt.

Originality of the recording The determination as to whether a recording purported to be the original actually is an issue of some importance as only an original can be fully authenticated. Such determinations often are possible. Unfortunately many courts accept ‘originality’ on the basis of an unbroken chain of custody

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but that is hazardous. A better judgement of originality often can be made independently by an examiner. First off, the electronic signatures captured when the recorder is operated can be used to evaluate status. Establishing that only one recorder was used provides evidence of originality. These data become yet more meaningful if it is found that the recorder purported to have been used was the one actually employed. However, other evidence can degrade this relationship. For instance, if (1) ‘hum’ is present on a recording made on battery-powered equipment, (2) multiple hums exist but cannot be explained or (3) several recorder signatures are found, originality must be questioned. In turn, not being able to establish a recording’s originality makes it more difficult to demonstrate its authenticity.

Equipment evaluation There are a number of ways to examine the equipment used in making the recording. First, its switching ‘signatures’ can be obtained. The procedures utilized for these purposes involve making a series of test recordings under conditions of quiet, noise and speech and repeating them while serially operating all switches associated with the system. Second, in the case of tape, they can be examined simply by observing their oxide side. Appropriate examination often can reveal if: (1) the tape recorder has been stopped and restarted, (2) portions of the recording have been erased or (3) an overrecording has been made. Note however, if any recorder has been stopped and restarted, there is no positive way to tell just how long the recording was interrupted. An additional procedure involves observation of the magnetic recording patterns themselves as application of certain solutions, powders or manufactured devices permit them to be visualized (Bouten et al. 2007). However, this procedure can be so time consuming, it is a method which is best utilized on a selective basis. Finally, it must be conceded that, while the procedures described above work best for tape recorders (both analogue and digital), it is far more difficult to examine CDs or direct transfer to a computer hard disk. While some of the concepts reviewed are applicable, others are needed (Brixen 2007). For example, examination of time codes on any recording is useful. More importantly, visual analysis of the signal is often essential for proper assessment of the relationships described. Software is available for analysing these events; some are described as follows.

The laboratory examination The second phase of the authentication process involves an intensive analysis of the signals captured on the recording. Of course, the examiner should

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first start with a careful auditory monitoring of the recorded material. This procedure is carried out both for familiarization purposes and to identify (and log) problem areas/events. For example, such events often take the form of heard clicks, thumps, clangs, crackles. All occurrences of this type are potentially indicative of alterations and must be evaluated. However, they can result from many different events, only a few of which might be due to the modification of the recording itself. For example, clicks can result from (1) operations occurring anywhere in the system (e.g. short circuits, operation of motors, switch activation), (2) operational changes of other units in the system (i.e. an automatic turn on, switching, telephone hang-ups), (3) events external to the recording system (door closing, environmental thumps, pencil click) and/or (4) operation of switches, relays, and so on within a telephone network. Their presence need not reflect alterations but, since they usually occur if modification has taken place, each must be thoroughly examined. A second category of suspicious events involves the loss of sound, changes (especially abrupt ones) in the recording level and ambient noise shifts. However, these incidents also can result from (1) artefacts in the recording procedure, (2) operation of related equipment or (3) a sudden shift of the pickup microphone. In addition, an altered recording sometimes can be identified by other aberrations in the heard signal, such as perceived echoes, impressions of multiple recordings, fade-outs, and so on. All must be examined. It also is important to visually examine the signals on the recording. They involve (1) observation of the signal trace on a computer monitor or video screen, and (2) listening and observing the heard patterns (or acoustic analyses) of fundamental frequency, spectra, time–amplitude relationships, intensity levels/shifts. In short, analyses of these types can provide both primary and supplemental information about questionable sections. For example, spectrography can provide visual impressions of an event’s acoustic patterns. The abrupt change in the frequency–amplitude pattern (of a waterfall spectrum) as seen in Figure 6.6, identifies some sort of stop–start. Finally, noise analyses can be used here also. For example, if one background melody abruptly changes to another, it suggests that the recording was interrupted or edited. Other indications of manipulation would include relatively abrupt changes in the level of an ambient noise or a shift in its spectral characteristics. The clicks made by the ‘off/on’ operation of a recorder also can be digitized and studied. While these clicks usually can be clearly heard, it is not so easy to identify them as being different from similar ‘signatures’ created by other machines. One approach here is to digitize the click and its environment and provide a wave characteristics display. Of course, if this technique is to be utilized, the assumption must be made that each recorder has its own electronic signature and that this signature is unlike those produced by other units. While that conclusion is based on somewhat incomplete data, our experiments have led us to be comfortable with this

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STARTING FRAME = 1, NUMBER OF FRAMES = 102 C:\KH\KH4010. MAGNITUDE

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Figure 6.6  Waterfall plot of a rerecorded interrupt (such as a splice). Note the very abrupt break in the serial spectra. hypothesis as it often holds (Hollien 1990). However, no matter what is discovered about these variations, it can be assumed that a given unit should be reasonably identifiable as itself.

Coarticulation Coarticulation also is an important element with regard to the authentication process. Discontinuities resulting from breaks in the coarticulatory stream often can be heard when the normal speech flow is interrupted by some form of editing. While the application of this type of analysis will permit the examiner to identify relevant sections, situations sometimes will arise where an interrupt can be heard but not easily explained. However, spectral analysis techniques then can be applied which are designed to study the relevant phonemes and vowel transitions – that is, those which occur prior to and following the suspected modification.

Digital recordings As has been suggested throughout this section, authentication of digital recordings is more difficult than for tapes. Some specialized techniques are being developed for this purpose (Brixen 2007) and many of the approaches described above have been successfully adapted. For example, a physical examination still can be conducted by appropriate software. Moreover, analysis of the speaker/speech characteristics, which can be identified by dialog study, can be effective, as can (linguistic) topic analysis. In short,

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while the analysis here usually involves quantitative signal analysis, it also should parallel those for analogue recordings and speech/language techniques.

Authentication of video tapes In some ways the evaluation of video recordings is a little easier than that for audio-only. For one thing, the audio portion can be assessed in parallel with the video but, even more importantly, modifications (if made) often can be ‘seen’. Nonetheless, the initial phase here should parallel techniques used for audio evaluations. That is, the procedures employed should be based on the physical and audio evaluations described earlier. Once the physical examination has been completed and working copies made, many of the cited analyses for digital recordings can be applied. The next stage would be to directly assess the video channels. A successful evaluation here requires the availability of appropriate equipment and the use of, at least, some specialized techniques. First, it is important to examine and test the equipment on which the original video recording was made as there is at least some evidence that electronic signatures unique to each unit can be recovered. In addition, if the noise that can be ‘seen’ on a previously unrecorded video is different from that which is generated by the target unit’s erase heads, a spectrum analysis can be employed to quantify and assess these ‘impressions’. Also, when a second video sequence is recorded over the initial one, a series of (very brief) irregular flashes should occur. And . . . abrupt ‘turn ons’ and ‘turn offs’ (of the video picture) also suggest that editing may have taken place. Perhaps the most relevant evidence of all is that the visual sequence will shift abruptly when modifications have been made. Finally, a specialized device that can be used to evaluate video recordings is easily procured. It has a capability which somewhat parallels the frame-to-frame viewing systems utilized in motion picture film processing. While a video is not created in a strict frame-to-frame mode, the observation of ‘stills’ – coupled with very small advances of the sequence – often can reveal interruptions and/or disparities in the video portion of the recording. Finally, it should be remembered that authentication of video recordings is twofold: that is, both audio and video. These systems should be analysed separately and the findings merged.

Behavioural analyses As stated, the behavioural analysis area constitutes the other major domain of forensic phonetics. In turn, it breaks down into speaker identification

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(earwitness, aural–perceptual, computer-based) and speech behaviours (emotions, psychosis, stress, intoxication, deception).

Speaker identification Almost every adult with normal hearing has had the experience of recognizing some unseen speaker (usually someone familiar to them) solely from listening to his or to her voice. It probably was from this common everyday experience that the concept of speaker identification was born. However, references to such attempts in novels, television and the media have resulted in a distortion of its basic nature. Indeed, many people believe that voice identifications can be accurately and easily carried out. In reality, these opinions are pretty much exaggerations. Yet, there is some basis for a rational view of speaker identification. Indeed, while it is not known if every one of the billions of people in the world produces voice and speech which is so idiosyncratic that it is unique to each one of them, it often is possible for people to discriminate between and among different speakers. Hence, the notion that some sort of speaker identification actually can occur is probably accurate (Hollien 1990, 2002).

Definitions and problems Speaker identification is one of two types of speaker recognition, the other being speaker verification. Specifically, speaker identification is defined as the task of identifying an unknown speaker from samples of his or her voice. This task can be a rather difficult one (Dallasarra et al. 2010; Hollien 2002) primarily because of (1) channel/system distortions (telephone bandpass, noise, interrupts, etc.), (2) speaker distortions (stress, disguise, fear, health, emotions) and (3) uncooperative individuals. Speaker verification, on the other hand, involves (1) subjects who want to be recognized, (2) the use of only high quality equipment, (3) sophisticated processing techniques and (4) availability of many reference samples of the talker’s speech. Speaker verification is employed to (1) permit a person access to secure areas, (2) bank by telephone and/or (3) identify personnel in space capsules or other remote locations. Since speaker verification poses a much less formidable challenge than does speaker identification, the verification problem would cease to exist if valid speaker identification procedures could be established (Hollien and Harnsberger 2010). Yet, it can be said that substantial evidence exists that identifying people by voice may be possible. This statement is based on the postulation that speaker-specific characteristics result from idiosyncrasies related to the person’s anatomy, physiology and motor control (Abbs and Gracco 1984), the habituated speech patterns they employ, plus social, economic,

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geographic and educational factors. Maturation level, psychological/ physical states, sex and intelligence also affect the process (Hollien 2002). Obviously, taken together, all these factors can lead to a fairly unique cluster of speech and voice features (Hecker 1971; Tsai and Wang 2006). In turn, they provide for the possibility that, while there may be no single attribute within a person’s speech which displays sufficient strength and uniqueness to permit differentiation from all other talkers, the structuring of a group of features can permit successful recognition (Hollien 2002; Hollien and Harnsberger 2010). This concept forms the basis of many approaches to speaker identification. They will be presented in three sections: earwitness, aural–perceptual and machine.

Background At least primitive efforts in voice recognition probably antedate recorded history; they have continued down through the subsequent millennia. Consideration of the issue occurred in the English courts several hundred years ago and the admissibility of testimony about a heard voice may be traced as far back as the late nineteenth century in the United States (Hollien 1990). Currently, some courts will permit a witness to testify about the identity of a speaker only if he or she can convince the presiding judge that they ‘really know’ that person. Other courts permit testimony by professionals. All this leads to three types of speaker identification as follows.

Earwitness identification Earwitness line-ups (or ‘voice parades’) are often found in the forensic setting; they usually are carried out by law enforcement personnel. Unfortunately, this approach has come under fire and for a number of reasons (Broeders 1996; Hollien and Majewski 2009; Van Wallendael et  al. 1994). For example, witnesses are sometimes asked to pick the suspect’s voice out of a pool of voices wherein all the others (i.e. the foils) sound quite different. Other times reasonable standards are not followed or inadequate administrators are employed. However, earwitness ­l ineups can be conducted with precision, as good procedures are now available. The definition of an earwitness line-up is where a person who has heard, but has not seen the perpetrator, attempts to identify him or her by listening to voice samples. Samples by the target speaker (or suspect) are presented in a field of (other) voices – usually 4–5 of them – and the witness is asked to identify which of the utterances ‘belongs’ to the suspect (Bull and Clifford 1984; Clifford 1983). Sounds something like an eyewitness

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line-up doesn’t it? Well, it is to some extent; but, since the two procedures actually are not all that similar, nearly as many problems are created by this ‘relationship’ as are solved. But, first, some background. There is little question but that eyewitness identification can be quite important to the conduct of criminal investigations or trials (Loftus 1979; Wells 1993); the same is true of earwitness line-ups (Hollien 2002). Unfortunately, however, neither of these procedures are as robust as would be desired. For example, there is a large literature about eyewitness examinations and it has been found that witnesses with poor eyesight, inadequate memory, and so on can make serious mistakes; poor line-of-sight or lighting plus very brief encounters also create problems (Loftus 1979). That line-ups can exhibit bias also has been claimed – with biasing factors including (1) race, (2) sex, (3) attractiveness, (4) distinctive features, (5) age, (6) nature of presentation, and so on. On the other hand, it also recognized that reasonably accurate assessments can be expected if conditions are favourable. Second, eye and ear witness approaches, while seemingly similar, are quite different in many ways; mostly with respect to (1) how the different classes of memories (i.e. auditory vs visual) are processed, (2) how a voice is analysed as opposed to how visual features are assessed, (3) the differing ways by which fear or arousal can affect the processes, (4) the ways in which poor eyesight and hearing disabilities differ (DeJong 1998) and so on. Also, other problems exist: (1) latency is always present, (2) witnesses’ emotions may be a factor, (3) the witness may feel the suspect is guilty simply because he is being tested, and so on (Broeders 1996; Van Wallendael et  al. 1994; Yarmey 1995, 2003). However, if competent personnel are used, and the line-up is well structured, experiments have shown that the results can be robust and accurate (Hollien et al. 1983).

Line-up structure Basically, two different line-ups can be employed (Hollien 1996; Hollien et al. 1995). The first is the ‘simultaneous’ approach. It is one where the suspect’s voice, plus samples of foil talkers, are heard as a ‘set’ (i.e. one right after the other) and the procedure is repeated a number of times. Specifically, a speech sample produced by the suspect is embedded within a group of samples spoken by foils or ‘distracters’. The sets are played to the witness a number of times with the replications containing a sample by the suspect and the same foils but with these utterances placed in different positions. The witness attempts to pick out the perpetrator from each set (usually about 20). The witness then is asked if he or she can make an identification. The second, or ‘sequential’, procedure can be best understood by consideration of Figure 6.7. Here the witness sits at a desk in the examining room with a recorder. The administrator, who faces him or her, provides

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A

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Figure 6.7  ‘Sequential’ approach to earwitness identification. This graphic display shows A – the witness, B – a CD playback, C – the recordings, D – the administrator, E – a videocam, F – the TV monitors and G – shows observers.

numbered recordings containing the voice samples produced by the suspect and each of the foils. Incidentally, the administrator is not permitted to know which of the recordings contains the suspect’s voice. The procedure: (1) the witness calls out a number, (2) the administrator gives that recording to him or her and (3) the recording is played. The witness then hears, in turn, the rest of them in any numerical order desired. Once all the recordings have been heard, the witness is permitted to relisten to any of them and for as many times as is desired. Ultimately, the witness is asked if any of the voices is identifiable and if so, which one. Of course, he or she is not required to make a selection if unable to do so. This procedure is the one recommended.

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Protocol. Standards are now available for application of either of the procedures described earlier and include the following: Parity. Earwitness line-ups should be scrupulously fair to both the witness(es) and the suspect(s). Guidelines have been established and should be rigorously followed. Records. All aspects of the procedure should be properly recorded and include records of (1) the witness(es)’ background and statements and (2) the source of the suspects and their characteristics. Witness. It is important that the witness demonstrate reasonable competency in carrying out the task. He or she should be able to establish that they attended to the perpetrator’s voice at a level which would permit it to be remembered, have adequate hearing and possess the ability to make aural–perceptual identifications. Pretests may have to be administered in order to establish these relationships. Instructions. Clear instructions should be provided to the witness(es); that is, they should be told that: (1) only one suspect will be present in the line-up and (2) this ‘suspect’ may or may not be the perpetrator. The witness should be told not to guess if an identification is not possible. Test structure is as follows: Samples. All of the speech samples should be equal in length and of the same fidelity. They also should be long enough to provide witnesses with a reasonable repertoire of the suspect’s (and each of the foil’s) speech. All samples should consist of similar material. Stimulus materials. It is desirable that two classes of speech be included among the samples. They are neutral, text independent speech plus text dependent words, phrases and sentences (often read material). Repetition of the phrases reported by the witness as having been heard in the original confrontation also can be helpful. Foil talkers. Between four and six foil (or ‘distracter’) speakers should be employed. They should be roughly the same age, social, economic and educational status as the suspect and generally exhibit the same dialect/accent. The use of actors, or individuals who speak quite differently from the suspect, should be avoided. The suspect’s voice may be described to the foils but they should not be allowed to hear it. Test of procedure. A set of mock trials or evaluations should be carried out once the earwitness line-up recordings have been

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developed. That is, they should be presented to 4–6 dispassionate listeners who are told to either select the person who is ‘different from the others’ or ‘who sounds like a criminal’. If the judges consistently identify either the suspect or one of the foils, the materials should be considered ‘biased’ and restructured. These guidelines, while not all-encompassing, nonetheless include most of the criteria and procedures necessary for the development of an acceptable earwitness line-up. A model such as this one also can be used to signal personnel working in the field that they must take cognizance of, and practice, rigorous well-structured procedures.

The aural–perceptual approach The focus of the preceding section has been on lay listeners who either attempt to identify familiar speakers or participate in a formal earwitness line-up. The concentration now will shift to the specialist who carries out the speaker identity task on a professional basis. The focus will be on attempts to match – or not match – the speech/voice of a suspect with that of a perpetrator and on methods which permit this task to be carried out accurately. There are two relevant approaches to professional speaker identification: (1) aural–perceptual techniques (considered first) and (2) computer-based methods.

Background One of the first studies in the aural–perceptual (AP) area was carried out by a psychologist named McGehee (1937). She became interested in the subject from her observations of Charles Lindbergh’s voice identification of Bruno Hauptmann (the man who was convicted of kidnapping/killing the Lindbergh baby). Her procedure was to have auditors listen to a male speaker (unknown to them) and then identify him within a group of other talkers of the same sex  – and at various latency times (one day to five months). McGehee reported that the percentage of correct identifications was quite high initially and that falloff in accuracy was gradual but steady – from 83 per cent correct identification the day after exposure to only 13 per cent after about five months. To a great extent, contemporary research substantiates McGehee’s findings (Hollien 2002; Hollien et al. 1982; Koester 1981; Nolan 1983; Pollack et al. 1954; Shirt 1984; Yarmey 1991). Indeed, many hundreds of speaker identification (SPID) experiments have been carried out between that time and the present. It is not possible to review very many of them here but two relationships have emerged: (1) that there are speaker-specific elements residing within

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the speech/voice signal which permit effective speaker identification and (2) that available strategies and methods permit forensic phoneticians to conduct successful identifications. In order to do so, the elements and conditions that permit SPID – and the conditions that degrade the process – must be understood. Some of the pluses can be found in the segmentals and suprasegmentals of spoken language; others are embedded in the processes and environment involved. Among the speech features that can be helpful – and, indeed, are used daily by ordinary people for identification – are the ‘natural’ suprasegmentals of (1) speaking fundamental frequency, including level, variability and patterns, (2) voice, especially general quality, vocal track turbulence, vocal fry, (3) speech prosody with speech rate, timing, nonfluencies, stress, (4) intensity, primarily variations and (5) complex relationships such as inflections and transitions. There are many others. Segmentals both overlap, and add, to this list. For example, variation and patterns in consonant and vowel production (formants especially) – in consonant clusters – and in language usage, dialect, coarticulation, nasality, speech disorders, and so on. An excellent early review of many of these features is provided by Stevens (1971), and later by Hollien (2002). There also are a number of other relationships that can be positively associated with the identification task as follows: (1) large speech samples, (2) good quality samples, (3) exposure to a talker’s speech, (4) listener talent, (5) phonetic training and (6) structured and validated analysis techniques (Hollien 1990, 2002; Hollien and Majewski 2009). On the other hand, some relationships that tend to degrade SPID are as follows: (1) multiple speakers, (2) whispered or falsetto speech, (3) multiple speaking conditions, (4) text independent samples, (5) disguise or stress, (6) differing health states, (7) alcohol, drugs, (8) differing dialects, (9) sound-alikes and (10) noise (Broeders 1996; Campbell et al. 2009). As suggested above, some of the features found within a person’s speech which can be organized into protocol for aural–perceptual speaker identification are as follows: 1 Speaking Fundamental Frequency (SFF) or heard pitch. The focus here is on general pitch level (high, medium, low) as well as on the variability and patterning of pitch usage. 2 Articulation. The nucleus here is idiosyncratic vowel or consonant production, and vowel formant levels and ratios. To be useful, an individual’s phoneme production must be in some way different from that of others. 3 Voice qualities. There is little doubt but that the general quality of a sound-producing mechanism aids in its identification. For example, differentiation between two types of musical instruments is possible even if the same person plays the same note at the same intensity, first on one and then on the other. Quality would be the controlling

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factor in that case. Other voice qualities (e.g. vocal fry usage) also can be used. 4 Prosody. A person’s speech timing, or temporal patterning, can be employed in identification. It is well known that auditors can listen to how slow, or fast, a person talks; how smooth or choppy the presentation, and so on. Thus, timing and melody can provide cues to identity. 5 Vocal intensity. It is difficult to assess absolute intensity because even small environmental changes or varying distance between the speaker and the microphone can result in large variations in energy level. Nevertheless, evaluation of intensity variability patterns have proved useful. 6 General speech. Several general speech features also are important. They include attributes such as (1) dialect, (2) the unusual use of linguistic stress, (3) idiosyncratic language patterns, (4) speech impediments and (5) idiosyncratic pronunciations. A rather substantial number of forensic type studies (e.g. Hollien et  al. 1982; Huntley 1992; Koester 1981; Nolan 1983; Shirt 1984; Yarmey 1991) have been conducted that attempt to evaluate the human auditory and cognitive processing of a heard signal. Almost all of them were based on subjects having but brief encounters with very limited stimuli and under circumstances that were quite challenging. Consider how difficult it would be for a listener to identify a person ‘known’ to them only from hearing a brief utterance (by the speaker) presented in noise and embedded within a group of voice samples spoken by other individuals. Many of the experimental tasks upon which research of this type was based are as challenging for the auditor; few are markedly easier. Yet it is clear that, even under such circumstances, many of the forensic type experiments demonstrate just how discriminative the auditory mechanism is and how sensitive it can be in identifying speakers – even within the sharp limitations of the forensic model. An experiment that provides pivotal information here (Hollien et  al. 1982) is one where three groups of listeners were used: (1) individuals who knew the talkers very well, (2) those who did not but who received at least 2 hours of training in recognizing their voices and (3) a group who neither knew the speakers nor the language spoken (but who also were trained briefly). The talkers were 10 adult males who produced phrase-length samples under 3 speaking conditions: (1) normal speech, (2) speech uttered during shock-induced stress and (3) disguised speech. The listeners heard a recording of 60 samples of the 10 subjects presented randomly (each of the 3 speaking conditions included twice) and had to name each talker. The results are best understood by consideration of Figure  6.8. As may be seen, the accuracy of the listeners who knew the speaker approached 100  per  cent  – and for both normal and stressed speech. Further, they

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108

100 A B

90

C 80

Percent correct identification

70

60

50

40

h

h

t L

30

t L

h t

20

L

10

Chance

0 N

S

D

Speaking condition

Figure 6.8  Speaker identification. This figure provides correct identifications of a group of ten talkers speaking under three conditions: normal (N), stress (S) and disguise (D). Group A knew the talkers very well; groups B and C did not know the talkers but were trained to task; group C did not know English. could tell (80% accuracy) who the talker was even when disguise was attempted. The university students did not do as well, but their native processing abilities and the limited training they received, allowed them to succeed in correct identifications from double chance to four times better. Even a general population of non-English speaking Poles exceeded

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chance  – and for all conditions. These data can be considered yet more impressive when it is remembered that the presentation procedure was extremely challenging. That is, all 60 samples were presented in a single trial and listeners had to rapidly identify the talker, find him on a list of names and, then, place a corresponding number on an answer form before the next sample was presented. Although, the material now being covered is a review of aural–perceptual SPID in general and justification for a speech-based computer analysis, it also provides the basis for an aural–perceptual identification method for use in the forensic situation  – that is, one carried out by forensic phoneticians when their judgements are based only on heard stimuli. They will ordinarily succeed if they (1) are well trained, (2) experienced and (3) employ structured analysis techniques. Of course, they should have graduate training in the phonetic sciences, especially forensic phonetics, and be required to validate their efficiency and/or specify their identification rates. They also should be able to take accurate exemplars of the type used in AP-SPID and other identification analyses. That is, exemplars of the suspects should be made with good quality equipment; they also should include test recordings and complete documentation (logs, labels, etc.). Three types of speech usually are necessary to ensure that (1) an adequate sample is obtained, (2) it is appropriate for all analysis procedures and (3) (especially) it counters any attempts at disguise. To be specific, the first segment should be extemporaneous; it should reduce stress and ensure ‘natural’ speech. Second, the subject should read (or utter) words and phrases found either on the evidence recordings or having been reported as being spoken by the perpetrator. Moreover, it is important to prevent the suspect from speaking in a monotone or using voice disguise; it is also useful to excite or stress the subject. Finally, it also is desirable to have the suspect read aloud. Of course, these suggestions cannot aid in controlling the material on the evidence recording if one exists, as channel distortions (noise, telephone frequency, etc.) or speaker problems (excitement, stress, multiple speakers, overlapping speech, etc.) may have occurred there. However, it is important to recognize these challenges and counter them if possible. Of critical importance in the AP-SPID analysis is how the speech samples are judged for matches or non-matches and how the responses are quantified. The present author has developed a highly controlled structure for this purpose (Hollien 2002; Hollien and Hollien 1995; Hollien and Köster 1996). Its focus is on suprasegmentals (assessment of voice, prosody, frequency patterns, vocal intensity, voice quality and others) supplemented by segmental analysis. This approach (Figure  6.9) permits reasonably precise quantification, rigor and a stable confidence level. Specifically, it requires multiple speech samples of the unknown speaker (U) to be placed in pairs with those from an exemplar recording. These 25–30 pairs are played repeatedly and comparisons made of one speech parameter at a time; up to 20 parameters (potentially) may be compared.

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As stated, the procedure is to assess one parameter at a time (e.g. pitch patterns), evaluate it and continue to do so until a judgement can be made. The next parameter then is assessed and the process replicated until all possible comparisons have been completed. At that time, an overall judgement is made. The entire process is independently repeated two or more times over a period of days. Figure 6.9 also presents the form used for recording the scores resulting from the cited AP-SPID evaluation. Each parameter is rated on a continuum ranging from 0 (the samples were definitely provided by two different individuals) to 10 (both the samples were spoken by a single person). The scores are then summed and converted to a percentage, which can be viewed as a Confidence Level estimate. If the overall mean falls between 0 and 3, a match cannot be made and it must be concluded that the samples undoubtedly were produced by two different people. If it falls between 7 and 10, a reasonably robust match is shown. Scores between 4 and 6 are generally neutral but actually are a little on the positive side as such scoring would hardly permit the argument to be made that the samples were produced by two different people. Incidentally, if foils are used in the process, the Confidence Level is raised substantially. This approach has been used in field studies and contrasted against machine methods with effective performances noted.

Voiceprints The ‘voiceprint’ problem pretty much originated in the United States. However, it will not be reviewed here. This ‘approach’ has been shown to be totally inadequate and, hence, their use has been discarded. Accordingly, it is considered inappropriate to describe or discuss an invalid technique in a short review such as this one.

Machine–computer approaches The speaker identification issue changes radically when efforts are made to apply modern technology to the problem. Indeed, with the seeming limitless power of electronic hardware and computers, it would appear that solutions are but a step away. Yet, such may not be the case. For one thing, most systems have been developed by engineers for speaker verification, not identification. Many attempts were made in the past (Anonymous 1976; Atal 1972, 1974; Bricker and Pruzansky 1966; Pollack et al. 1954); work in the area continues (Beigi 2011; Campbell et  al. 2009; Fredouille and Bonastre 1998; Hautamäki et al. 2010; Kovoor et al. 2009; Onellet et al. 1998; Tsai and Wang 2006). Even today, they tend to use algorithms to develop circuits which they then operate rather than experimentally test.

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Figure 6.9  An aural–perceptual speaker identification evaluation form.

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112

When the devices do not work very well, they modify their approach and again attempt application. Not a very productive approach even though it is one that works very well with the incredible expansion of many other types of systems. Perhaps it is because they do not take into account the endless vagaries of human behaviour. On the other hand, authors such as Hecker (1971) insist that there are no machines which are both as sensitive and as powerful (for these purposes) as is the ‘human ear’. What Hecker means by ‘the ear’ is, of course, the entire auditory sensory system coupled to the brain with all its sophisticated memory and cognitive functions. This concept has provided the basis for the present author’s system development – and the research on it.

Perspectives The best way to develop a machine-based speaker identification method is to structure a system and then test it. For example, a group of vectors or relationships might be chosen and then researched on the basis of protocol found in Figure 6.10. As can be seen, the first step would be to formulate a vector and the second to test its ability to discriminate among

PHASE A: Single factor analysis Vectors*

Analysis under laboratory conditions

VECTOR A

A

Analysis with distortions

Decision phase

SPEAKER SYSTEM

VECTOR B

B

SPEAKER SYSTEM

VECTOR C

C

SPEAKER SYSTEM

VECTOR D

D

SPEAKER SYSTEM

SELECTION AND MODIFICATION OF VECTORS FOR PHASE B RESEARCH

*plus others PHASE B: Multiple factor analysis** VECTOR A

A, B

VECTOR B

A, B, D

A, B, C, D

VECTOR C VECTOR D

C, D

A, C, D

ANALYSIS OF ALL COMBINATIONS IN PRESENCE OF SPEAKER AND SYSTEM DISTORTIONS

‘SIMUCRIMES’ ALL LEVELS

**Illustrative only as each vector will be studied in all possible combinations.

Figure 6.10  Computer-based speaker identification. This figure illustrates a structured research approach for the development of computer-based speaker identification systems.

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a fairly large group of speakers. If successful, the work could proceed; if not, changes could be made (as needed) in the parameters that make up the vector. The next stage would be to combine vectors, then experiment on distortion, such as limited bandpass, noise and/or speaker variations. The fourth phase would be to test the procedure in the field. Solution of simulated ‘crimes’ generated under field-like conditions or application of the system to ‘real-life’ cases would provide information about the validity and efficiency of the method; however, both have their limitations. For example, even well-designed (simulated) ‘cases’ are a little artificial and real-life investigations are limited as they permit only non-scientific confirmations of the results (i.e. confessions, convictions). Nonetheless, the data obtained from these many experiments would provide information as to the merit of the procedure or if it is lacking. Finally, while there may be no single vector which is so robust that it permits efficient identifications to be made under any and all conditions, a profile approach should be effective (Hollien 1991).

Research The foundations for most of the computer-based SPID procedures are signal processing algorithms. An exception to this trend is a program being carried out at the Institute for Advanced Study of the Communication Processes (IASCP), University of Florida. It is both extensive and long term and is referred to as SAUSI or Semiautomatic Speaker Identification (system). It should provide both a good example as to how the procedures discussed earlier can be applied to research of this nature and to an operational approach to speaker identification (Hollien 1995, 2002).

Natural speech vectors The first step in system development was to identify and evaluate a number of parameters found within the speech signal, which would make effective identification cues (Hollien 2002; Hollien et  al. 1990). The reasons for doing so were to obtain data on basic relationships and discover if any of the parameters could be used in the identification process. It was discovered very early that traditional approaches to signal processing appeared lacking (due to the many variables and distortions associated with speakers and forensics) but, natural speech features were not (Doherty and Hollien 1978). Hence, several found within the speech signal were adopted and clustered into vectors. This decision was supported by the results of early experiments, the aural–perceptual literature and the realization that people routinely process heard sounds using such features. Finally, it quickly became apparent that no single one of the chosen vectors would be able to

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provide usefully high levels of correct identification for all of the many types of speech comparisons encountered. In response, those being researched were combined into a single unit – that is, into a combined set or profile. But, first, what were the vectors (Hollien 1991; Hollien et al. 1990)?

The SAUSI vectors Stevens (1971) has catalogued a number of speech features which, when applied, should lead to the successful identification of talkers. Agreement with several of the features Stevens proposed was established by our early studies and a basic group of vectors chosen. They were selected on the basis of their probability to exhibit (1) generally high sensitivity for discrimination among speakers, (2) utility when combined with other parameters, (3) resistance to distortion, (4) availability and (5)  compatibility with computer processing. Of the several features studied, four appeared most useful as speaker identification cues. The first one, Long-Term Spectra (LTS), is a vector that reflects general voice quality. A substantial amount of relevant research has been reported on LTS and it has been found to be a reasonably robust identifier (Gelfer et al. 1989; Hollien and Majewski 1977; Jiang 1995; Kraus et al. 2009; ­SteffenBatog et al. 1993; Zalewski et al. 1975) – especially where distortion is present (i.e. noise, band pass, speaker stress). It is best understood by consideration of Figure  6.11. Here LTS curves for two individuals are compared mathematically (via Euclidean distances) in order to determine if they were produced by one speaker or two. The second of the vectors (Temporal Analysis or TED) is based on a compilation of prosody comparisons (Bricker and Pruzansky 1966; Gelfer et al. 1989; Jacewicz et al. 2010; Jiang 1995; Johnson et al. 1984; Kraus et al. 2009); it attempts to identify speakers by means of a mixed time–energy analysis. That is, a 33 parameter vector (see Figure 6.12) is constructed of the number and length of the speech segments in a sample: (1) total speech time, (2) number of silent intervals, (3) length of silent intervals, (4) speech-pause ratio, (5) speech-total time ratio, (6) total time and (7) syllable rate. The TED vector has proven to be the least robust of the four vectors selected but research has demonstrated that its individual hit rate is reasonable and it tends to strengthen the process when added to the other three vectors. The third vector involves Speaking Fundamental Frequency (SFF) measures (Atal 1972; Hollien et  al. 1975; Iles 1972; Jassem et  al. 1973; Jiang 1995; Kraus et  al. 2009; LaRiviere 1975). It is based on comparisons among the geometric means (level), phonation ratios, the standard deviation (variability) and the individual instances of Fo sorted into semitone intervals (see Figure  6.13). Selection of this particular SFF vector was based on a substantial amount of aural–perceptual and machine-based evidence.

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Spectral density level

50 40 30

A

20 B 10 0 0.1

0.2

0.4 1.0 2.0 Frequency (in kHz)

4.0

10.0

Figure 6.11  LTS vector. This graph is a plot of all the frequencies produced by two talkers while reading 30 sec. of prose material (A and B). As seen, all evidence of the individual phonemes produced has been obliterated. LTS becomes an identification cue when curve A is compared to curve B; it is thought to reflect basic voice quality. Highest intensity of signal - - defines upper border of highest level

100 dB Level 10

Rectified and Integrated speech signal

Level 9 Level 8 Level 7 Level 6 Level 5 Level 4 Level 3 Level 2

B

Level 1 35 dB

A Noise floor, set with DCL command Default is 35 dB

B

B A

Time

Figure 6.12  TED vector. A display illustrating how the TED data are collected. All parameters are measured at ten equidistant levels from the calculated noise ‘floor’ to the greatest peak. Finally, the fourth vector has proven to be one of the more robust ones (Bachorowski and Owen 1999; Iles 1972; Jiang 1995; Koval and Krynov 1998; LaRiviere 1975); it is that of Vowel Formant Tracking (VFT). Indeed, it competes with LTS as the most sensitive test for speaker-specific differences. It is based on studies within both the aural–perceptual and

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Figure 6.13  SFF vector. Fundamental frequency data for a single male speaker are provided by FFI-10. The values used in the SFF comparisons are found in the line above the distribution table and the table itself. computer related domains which suggest that elements residing within the vowel formant structure can create important speaker identification cues. When considering Figure  6.14, the pattern should be visualized as being replicated a number of times.

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F-1 Amplitude

F-2 F-3

100

200

500

1,000

2,000

5,000

Frequency (in Hz)

Figure 6.14  VF vector. Line spectrogram of a speaker producing a long vowel. Please note, while the intervals are labelled in Hertz, the scale function is geometric. VFT comparisons are based on the formant data calculated Log2. The final step in the development of vectors is to normalize all values as proportions on a 10-point scale. This approach prevents those vectors which result in larger absolute measurements (than the others) from disproportionately biasing the analyses. Since this process equalizes the impact of each of the vectors, they can be combined without one or more of them biasing the results.

Validating the approach As stated, when many developers structure a procedure, they simply place it into use and then attempt to figure out why/how it works or does not work. An approach of this type does little to validate a system – or, for that matter, provide a responsible solution of the targeted problem. Rather, it is necessary to establish the legitimacy of the approach by means of laboratory experiments and, later, by field experiments (Figure 6.10). The process by which SAUSI has been evaluated over the years can be summarized as follows (see also Figure  6.15). First, a sample of the unknown’s speech is established as the referent (U1), then it is compared to a second but different sample of his voice (U2); that analysis should result in a match since U1 and U2 are known to be the same talker. Then, the known voice (K) and the foils are added and the analysis continued. The unknown also should match the referent whenever it is the same speaker. Further, none of the foils should match the referent because they are different speakers. That process permits the K-referent comparison to be made – that is, match or no match – U = K or U ≠ K. Next, the entire process is repeated but with yet different samples for U, K and all F. But please note, they are all kept in the same order with respect to each other. The three summations are then combined for a more robust analysis display of this type.

Figure 6.15  Printout of normalized SAUSI data. This figure results from a printout of the normalized data from a SAUSI run involving an unknown talker, a known talker and 11 controls (foils). Note that the system correctly ‘picked’ U and K as the same talker (the known and the unknown talkers were indeed the same person).

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Table 6.1  Results of SAUSI experiments carried out in the 1990s Conditions and study

Vectors TED

LTS

SFF

VFT

SUM

Hollien 1988

62

88

68

85

90

Hollien et al. 1993

63

100

100

100

100

Jiang 1995

82

100

80

100

100

Hollien et al. 1993

64

90

77

92

100

Jiang 1995

76

94

76

96

100

Hollien et al. 1993

55

92

90

88

98

Jiang 1995

58

100

90

96

100

A. High fidelity

B. Noise

C. Telephone passband

A summary of several SAUSI experiments can be found in Table  6.1. The first of these (1988) involved high fidelity samples of a large number of subjects. None of the individual vectors provided 100 per cent correct identification. The second part of that project (not shown) was designed to test the proposition that SAUSI would eliminate a known speaker if he was not also the unknown; it did so at a correct level of 98.6 per cent. The second set of experiments (1993) involved separate replications for high fidelity, noise and telephone passband. Here the upgrading of the vectors resulted in a marked improvement for all conditions. Next, the 1993 experiments provided correct identifications that were strikingly higher for all conditions and the correct identification level reached 100 per cent for all summed rotations. Finally, yet newer field research (2009) further supports the position that machine-based approaches of speaker identification are feasible and those vectors based on natural speech features are most robust.

Interpretation As would be expected, the values resulting from the various analyses cited above can be (and have been) subjected to statistical analyses. In addition, the normalized approach used in the cited research can be employed to

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U 1

K 2

F3 F6 3

4

5

F1

F5 F7 F8

F4

F2

6

7

9

10

8

Relative Placement of the Unknown, the Known and the Foils

Figure 6.16  Two-dimensional continua from normalized data. These continua were generated by a summation of the normalized data from four vectors. Note that the comparisons would suggest that U and K are the same person. scale the results. This approach may be best understood by consideration of Figure  6.16. Here the values of U, K and 8 foils were placed on 10-point continuum. As can be seen, U closely matched the referent (i.e. these samples are from the same speaker), hence, the system appears to be producing valid ‘judgements’. Second, the known talker’s values also place him very close to a match (and to U). Thus, it appears that the judgement that K = U can be made confidently. It also should be noted that in these experiments, no foil speaker has been erroneously identified as the unknown. Thus, it appears that the speech vector approach results in robust speaker identification.

Detecting behaviour from voice Many of the behaviours felt or exhibited by humans can be detected by analysis of their speech and voice as follows: (1) emotions (stress, anger, fear, contempt, sadness, depression, excitement, elation, happiness), (2) states induced by external conditions (ethanol intoxication, drugs), (3) certain intentional behaviours (deception, untruths, disguise, insolence, avoidance, other intent) and (4) health states (cold/flu, positive/negative health, fatigue). There are too many of them to review here. Hence, a major issue from each of the first three categories will be described; specifically, they are stress, intoxication and deception. Each will be addressed in turn.

Psychological stress in voice To understand how a person is feeling just by listening to their voice is not a simple task. Yet, there are times when an individual has little else to go on except by interpreting the sounds produced by another’s voice. For example, it can be important to monitor the levels and types of stress present in personnel who are physically separated from the monitoring or control site (such as pilots, astronauts, aquanauts, police officers and counter-intelligence agents) irrespective of the message content of the spoken interchange. It can also be desirable for a worker at a crisis

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control centre to be able to tell if the caller actually plans to commit suicide or merely wants to talk about it. Similarly, there may be vocal cues that will aid a patrolman in quickly determining if a perpetrator is about to attack – or those which would alert an officer to a specific danger during a household disturbance. In short, there are many instances where information about a person’s stress level or emotional state would be helpful to the auditor. But, what is psychological stress  – fear, anger, anxiety? Scherer (1981, 1986) suggests that, in general, stress appears to result from ‘the lack of a precise specification and description of the emotional state underlying the vocal expression, independent of whether it is induced, posed or studied naturalistically.’ Others define it differently (Appley and Trumbull 1967; Howard 1991; Lazarus 1993; Murray and Arnott 1993). We define it a little more precisely: stress is ‘a psychological state which results as a response to a perceived threat and is accompanied by the specific emotions of fear and anxiety’ (Hicks and Hollien 1981; Hollien 1980). But, how is ‘it’ studied? In laboratory experiments, stress often is identified in terms of the applied stressor (Murray and Arnott 1993), or it is simulated by actors (Fairbanks and Pronovost 1939) as it is rarely possible to record a person’s speech while they are experiencing real-life stress states and then (to provide a baseline) under normal speaking conditions. However, these definitions are not very useful in the real world because, even though the stressor is described, the emotion(s) actually being felt are unknown. A still more serious problem relates directly to the level of stress. The question is not just whether stress is present but also its level of severity. No matter how research on stress is approached, both its presence and level should be assessed (Atwood and Hollien 1986). It is little wonder, then, that some contradictions and variability exist among research data here and its presence is a little difficult to describe. On the other hand, it is possible to integrate the results of a number of studies and use them to describe how most people would sound when they are experiencing stress. It has long since been accepted that listeners can identify some emotions (including stress) from speech samples alone and do so at reasonably high accuracy levels. For example, several authors have reported correct identifications in the 80–90 per cent range (Fairbanks and Pronovost 1939; Hollien 1980, 1990; Scherer 1986). Once identified at this level, utterances can be acoustically analysed. So can others where stress was judged present by various types of external confirmation (shock was applied; a stressful environment existed) (Atwood and Hollien 1986; Hollien and Harnsberger 2006). Thus, it can be argued further that, if it is possible to discover felt emotions simply by listening to a speaker’s voice, it also should be possible to identify the relevant acoustical and temporal parameters (within the voice signal) which correlate with these precepts. A summary of some of them follows.

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Speaking fundamental frequency Changes in heard pitch or speaking fundamental frequency (SFF or F0) appear to correlate with stress when it is experienced. For example, back in the 1930s, Fairbanks and Pronovost (1939) found that the SFF level was raised for the emotions of fear and anger but lowered or remained the same for grief, contempt or indifference. This relationship tends to be supported by most current studies (Hicks and Hollien 1981; Hollien 1980, 1990). Other researchers have analysed the real-life emotions of pilots when in danger and control tower operators under pressure (Kuroda et  al. 1976; Williams and Stevens 1972). According to some reports, these speakers also exhibited a rise in SFF as a function of increased stress. Even though these observations are not universal, it does appear that, in most cases, moderate to substantial increases in F0 level can be associated with the presence of psychological stress. However, if this relationship is to be functional, baseline data should be obtained for the subject of interest as the shift actually is from the norm. On the other hand, fundamental frequency variability appears to be a much poorer predictor of stress. Data in this regard are not very orderly as SFF variability appears to increase for anger but less so, if at all, for fear. Moreover, if SFF variability is linked directly to stress, almost any position can be argued; hence, this metric probably cannot be developed for use by legal, law enforcement or intelligence groups.

Intensity of voice Vocal intensity is another acoustic parameter that can be measured and correlated with the presence of psychological stress, at least to some extent. However, only one group of researchers has reported measurements of absolute intensity; they found positive correlations. Other authors (Hicks and Hollien 1981; Hollien 1980) basically agreed even though they used relative measures. In still other reports, either vocal intensity seemed not to correlate with stress or the differences were inconsistent. Nevertheless, the best evidence (and the greatest amount) is that vocal intensity often is increased for stress and anger. Again, however, it would seem desirable to compare these values to those from the speaker’s neutral speech.

Speech timing Identification of the prosodic speaking characteristics related to stress is a fairly complex process. For example, fear and anger appear to be typified by rapid speaking-rates as well as by short phonatory pauses (Hicks and Hollien 1981; Williams and Stevens 1972). One temporal pattern that appears to be fairly universal is that fewer speech bursts occur if a person

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speaks while experiencing stress. Hence, stressed individuals (as well as those who are angry or fearful) appear to speak in longer utterances than they would ordinarily. Finally, a rather important finding reported in this area is that nonfluencies appear to correlate highly with stress, and, with only one exception, all of the authors who have conducted research of this type have observed that characteristic in the speech of their stressed subjects.

Vocal correlates of the stress model As stated, the focus of this section is to use stress-related emotions as an example rather than try to cover all possible emotions. This approach was taken because stress is an emotion of primary interest to law enforcement agencies as well as to legal, military, intelligence and related groups. Based on a review of the available data, a predictive model of the vocal correlates of stress has been developed (Hollien 1980, 2002) as found in Figure  6.17. These patterns can be used to better understand what probably happens when a person speaks under conditions of psychological stress. Specifically, several changes in speech/voice production ordinarily

SFF

NF Increase VI

+

Rate

Shift 0 in parameter

0

–

SB

Decrease Low

Normal stress level

High

Figure 6.17  Voice and speech shifts – psychological stress. This model shows the most common shifts in the voice and speech of a person who is experiencing psychological stress. SFF is speaking fundamental frequency, NF is nonfluencies, VI is vocal intensity and SB refers to the number of speech bursts per unit of time.

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can be expected: (1) speaking fundamental frequency will be raised, (2) nonfluencies will be increased, (3) vocal intensity will rise moderately, (4) speech rate will tend to increase slightly and (5) the number of speech bursts will be reduced. It is important to note that, while these stressrelated shifts will occur for most people, there are some individuals who will not exhibit them. Moreover, since the observed characteristics take place as shifts from the speaker’s ‘neutral’ patterns, information of this type will be of greatest value when it can be contrasted with a reference profile obtained from that person’s normal speech.

Alcohol–speech relationships The second area within the ‘speech behaviour’ section – that of behaviours induced externally – will be illustrated by reviewing the effects of ingesting ethanol on speech and voice (Chin and Pisoni 1997). Here, it can be expected that almost anyone who is asked to do so probably will describe the speech of an inebriated talker as ‘slurred’, ‘misarticulated’, and/or ‘confused’. But, do these commonly held stereotypes square with the results of studies found in the research literature? More importantly, are there data which suggest that it is possible to determine a person’s sobriety solely from analysis of his or her speech? At this juncture, a review of the general intoxication biometrics would appear relevant as it will provide a basis for understanding the speech– alcohol relationships that follow. First, it has been demonstrated that the consumption of even moderate amounts of alcohol can result in impaired cognitive function (Arbuckle et  al. 1994; Hindermarch et  al. 1991; Pihl et  al. 2003) as well as reduced sensorimotor performance (Abroms and Fillmore 2004; Hill and Toffolon 1990; Kalant et al. 1975; Schwiezer et al. 2004). Since the speech act represents the output of a number of high level integrated systems (sensory, cognitive, motor), it is legitimate to assume that this process also is susceptible to the influence of extraneous factors such as alcohol consumption (Goldstein 1992; Kalant et al. 1975; Wallgren and Barry 1970). In all fairness, research on the effects of intoxication on human behaviour is somewhat difficult to conduct (Hollien 1993). Indeed, most of the investigators who have researched the correlations between motor speech and ethanol consumption have experienced substantial problems in designing and conducting studies which exhibit acceptable precision. Nonetheless, some relationships appear to be emerging from these efforts. For example, some investigators have focused on the quality of the speech produced by their subjects on an ‘intoxicated-sober’ continuum (Kalant et al. 1975; Trojan and Kryspin-Exner 1968). When they had their subjects speak first when sober and then when intoxicated, they found that articulation

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tended to be distorted, speech rate often was slowed, perception of intoxication states increased, and/or morphology and/or syntax degraded. However, both variability and contradictions have been found among these and related studies; research precision certainly was lacking. In sum, and prior to the work of this author, the relationships between speech and intoxication appeared to be that (1) speaking fundamental frequency (SFF) level was often lowered and SFF variability sometimes increased, (2) speaking rate often slowed, (3) the number and length of speech pauses often increased and (4) speaking amplitude or intensity levels sometimes was reduced (Chin et al. 1996; Cooney et al. 1998; Klingholz et  al. 1988; Pisoni and Martin 1989; Trojan and Kryspin-Exner 1968). Again, however, virtually all of these alcohol–speech relationships were quite variable. One group of investigators (Klingholz et al. 1988) attempted to account for the noted inconsistencies by indicating they resulted from inadequate and/or differing research designs. It also was observed that variation probably was due to non-objective measurements of blood alcohol level (BAL), excessively high BAL, the use of too few (intoxicated) subjects and/or analyses which were only qualitative. Most of their observations probably were correct. However, they did not include all of the problems found in the research – that is, few if any of the cited investigators controlled for drinking habits, intoxication level, increasing versus decreasing BAL, or effort. Further, it might not be possible to make such a determination in the first place unless the target utterances could be compared with a profile of that person’s speech when sober. Having recognized the confusions associated with the intoxicationspeech dilemma, a team at the Institute of Advanced Study of the Communication Processes (IASCP), at the University of Florida developed a research program designed to resolve these conflicts and hopefully provide remedies. The program itself was divided into several parts consisting of (1) pilot studies, (2) methodology, (3) primary studies, (4) research on severe intoxication and (5) simulated intoxication/sobriety (e.g. see Hollien et al. 2001, 2009). The approach employed (Hollien et  al. 2001, 2009) was designed to upgrade the traditional procedures used to induce acute alcohol intoxication. That is, instead of administering heavy doses of ethanol – based on body weight, sex, and so on – the subjects received lighter doses (80 proof rum or vodka) mixed with a soft drink (orange juice, caffeine free cola) plus Gatorade (a key ingredient). The subjects drank at their own pace but breath concentration levels (BrAC) were measured at 10–15 minute intervals during the entire trial. Efficiency was increased by this procedure, with instances of nausea and discomfort sharply reduced and, due to the serial measurements, intoxication level could be highly controlled. Moreover, large groups could be (and were) studied. Figure 6.18 graphically portrays how the intoxication level was tracked for one of the subjects. The ‘windows’, or intoxication levels (ascending or descending) included (among others)

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BrAC 0.00 (sober), BrAC 0.04–0.05 (mild intox), BrAC 0.08–0.09 (legal limit or moderate) and BrAC 0.12–0.13 (severe). A yet more intense level (BrAC 0.16–0.17) was also studied but only on ‘binge-drinkers’. Subjects were carefully selected on the basis of 27 behavioural and medical criteria. After training, they were required to repeatedly produce 4 types of speech samples under a variety of experimental conditions and intoxication levels: (1) a standard 98 word oral reading passage, (2) an articulation test (sentences), (3) a set of diadochokinetic gestures and (4) extemporaneous speech. Standard drinking practice evaluations were employed to classify them as light, moderate and heavy drinkers (Cahalan et al. 1969; Pokorny et al. 1972). As may be deduced from the above descriptions, very careful and precise procedures were carried out for all experiments, conditions and levels. Analysis included auditory processing by listeners (drunk-sober, intoxication level, etc.), acoustic analysis of the resulting speech signals, suprasegmental/segmental analysis and various classification/sorting (behavioural) tests.

GRANT AA09377:PILOT STUDY

M108: AS–4A:Rinse

BrAC(mg.Alcohol/100ml.Blood)

0.2

X = Recording 0 = Alcohol adm.

0.15 0.12–0.13%

0.1 0.08–0.09%

0.05

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0

1

2

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Time (in hours)

Figure 6.18  Change in intoxication level as a function of ingesting ethanol. This plot depicts the changes in intoxication level as a function of ingesting alcohol. The curve demonstrates a subject’s progress relative to increasing and decreasing levels of intoxication from the beginning to the completion of the experimental portion of a trial (BrAC was not routinely recorded after the run). Note that the speech samples were recorded when the speaker was in each of the windows. The smooth curve is a second-order polynomial.

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The first of the findings resulted from the completion of 26 aural– perceptual experiments where listeners attempted to estimate the presence and/or the level of intoxication when listening to samples selected from the extensive database (see Hollien et al. 2009). It was found that the data from all of the relevant investigations supported the opinion that people could recognize (from listening to speech) the presence of intoxication when this condition existed. Indeed, the scores obtained (i.e. 74–86% correct) were consistent with those from earlier studies. Second, the various populations of listeners studied also were able to appropriately order the severity of the states of intoxication; that is, they were able to systematically gauge when intoxication was increasing. However, and as can be seen from consideration of Figure  6.19, they were not as well able to correlate their estimates of intoxication level with the actual physiological involvement. For example, most subjects tended to overestimate severity at lower inebriation levels and underestimate them at the higher levels. Thus, it appears that evidence of impairment (and its recognition) occurs very early in the speech of individuals who ingest ethanol whereas severely intoxicated individuals do not exhibit the impairment severity which is actually occurring physiologically. Finally, our results also demonstrated that speech tasks of increasing difficulty result in greater impairments to speech and this finding was expected.

Perceived intoxication level

0.12 * ** *

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** *

0.04 0.02

0

0.02

0.04

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Actual BrAC

Figure 6.19  Perceived intoxication levels versus measured levels. This figure shows perceived intoxication level contrasted to the physiologically measured levels (45 degree line with circles) from sober to severely intoxicated (BrAC 0.12 to 0.13). Four studies are combined for the top set (35 talkers, 85 listeners) and two studies for the lower set (36 talkers, 52 listeners). Note the overreaction to the speech of people who are mildly intoxicated and underrating of those who were seriously inebriated.

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200%

100

(in percentage)

75

50 F0 (SFF) Duration Nonfluencies

25

0 0.00 BrAC Level

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–25

Figure 6.20  Shifts resulting from increasing intoxication. This figure documents the shifts in several parameters as a function of increasing intoxication. The increase in F0 and reduction in speaking rate (increased duration) actually are statistically significant. However, they are dwarfed by the dramatic shift in nonfluencies. The largest group of experiments involved analysing the speech acoustics associated with increasing intoxication and, in a very large group of subjects of both sexes. A summary of the results of these experiments may be found in Figure  6.20 where data for shifts in fundamental frequency (SFF), speaking rate (durations), vocal intensity and number of nonfluencies are presented as a function of increasing

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intoxication level. As can be seen, shifts occurred for all of the speaking characteristics measured excepting vocal intensity. Note also that speaking fundamental frequency (heard pitch) is raised (not lowered) with increases in intoxication level; this is a relationship noted by clinicians but not by previous researchers. Second, perhaps the most striking relationship was between nonfluencies and intoxication level. The correlation here is a very high one and the pattern seen in the figure has been confirmed by other of our studies. It also was discovered that actors were able to accurately simulate rather severe levels of intoxication. In addition, nearly all of them were also able to modify their speech to sound sober (or nearly so) when they actually were quite drunk. When physical/acoustical analyses of the relevant speech samples were carried out, it was found that each speaker consciously modified their acoustic/temporal patterns as they had for actual intoxication (see Figure  6.20) in order to simulate it. It also was found that they reversed the process in order to mitigate the effects of ingesting large amounts of ethanol – and to ‘sound’ sober. Finally, it was surprising to note that none of the aural–perceptual shifts or changes in speech acoustics appeared to correlate with subjects’ drinking practices (i.e. light, moderate, heavy). Nor did sex prove to be a discriminating factor when intoxication level was rigorously controlled as it was in these experiments. What was unexpected was that 20–25 per cent of the subjects (and the same group of subjects) accounted for nearly all the variability noted. That is, a group numbering about one in five of the subjects accounted for nearly all of the deviations and trend reversals noted in this research program (note also that this type of finding also occurs in most other research on speech). In any event, these studies aided in the clarification of the speech-intoxication issue.

Detection of deception The third behavioural area to be reviewed is that of the detection of lying. In this case, obviously, the intelligence, law enforcement and related agencies would benefit greatly from the availability of an effective method in determining when a person is being deceitful. However, a preliminary issue that must be considered here is whether or not lies can be detected by any means at all and if there is such a thing as a lie response. Lykken (1981) seems to have articulated the key concept here. He argues that, if lies are to be detected, there has to be some sort of a ‘lie response’, – a measurable physiological or psychological event which always occurs when a person lies. Lykken correctly suggested that, ‘until a lie response has been identified and its validity and reliability have been established, no one can claim to be able to measure, detect and/or identify falsehoods on

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anything remotely approaching an absolute level.’ Yet, the consequences of its existence would be virtually overwhelming. For example, consider what would happen if it were possible to determine the beliefs and intent of politicians simply from hearing them speak. There would be no need for trials by jury; the guilt or innocence of anyone accused of a crime could be determined simply by asking that person: ‘Did you do it?’ Consider also the aid such a system – or such skills – would provide the intelligence and counter-intelligence communities. But, has research been conducted in an effort to discover the physiological or psychological correlates of lying? A great deal of research has been carried out on deception (DePaulo et al. 2003). Studies of physiological responses abound – especially, those assessing the polygraph, how to use it and how to interpret its product. So does research on pupil response, brain wave analysis, facial gestures, and so on. Indeed, literally thousands of studies have been reported. And has anyone found the universal ‘lie response’? How about analysing speech and voice? Perhaps, this would be a more fruitful endeavour (Anolli and Ciceri 1997). After all, hasn’t research on speech resulted in reasonably good information about how psychological stress can be detected? Unfortunately, relatively few of the experiments carried out in this area actually have been on the basic speech-deception relationships; most have focused on assessing ‘truth machines’. Consequently, this area is not well developed – a condition primarily due to the lack of support for basic research and, especially, because it has been dramatically overshadowed by the controversy about the voice stress type lie detection devices. Hence, virtually all of this section will have to be about them. The cited ‘voice analysts’ argue that their ‘psychological stress evaluators’ can be used to detect both stress and lying from voice. At present, many such devices exist (e.g. PSE, VSA, CVSA, LVA). In all cases, their manufacturer’s claim that their ‘systems work!’ But, upon what criteria or theories are these ‘analyzers’ based? Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to answer that question as explanations about them are quite vague. One is that they somehow assess the microtremors in the laryngeal muscles. Such microtremors do exist in the body’s long muscles (Brumlik and Yap 1970; Lippold 1971) but data confirm they do not exist in the larynx (Shipp and Izdebski 1981). And, even if they did, they could not affect the actions of the complexly interacting respiratory, laryngeal and vocal tract motor units. Another manufacturer (i.e. LVA) claim they use an individual’s thoughts or ‘intent’ in their analysis. And, nearly all of them appear to rely on the presence of stress. But, is stress somehow equivalent to lying? A myriad of such questions can be asked but, at present, the manufacturers offer no valid support for their claims. As a response to the above, research on these devices has been carried out by a number of independent investigators (Hollien 1990; Horvath 1982). A few studies were inconclusive but nearly all of the rest refute the manufacturer’s claims. That is, while some authors appear to suggest that these devices might possibly detect stress  – at least under certain

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circumstances – none of the relevant research supported even that position (Barland 1974; Hollien et al. 1987; Horvath 1982; Kubis 1973). In short, it appears that there is little evidence to suggest that any of these devices are capable of validly detecting psychological stress, truth and/or lying from cues embedded in motor speech. By 2000, many professionals believed that the ‘voice analyzers’ had been discredited and, hence, had disappeared. Unfortunately, that was not true. At least two devices: The National Institute for Truth Verification’s (NITV) Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) and Nemesysco’s Layered Voice Analyzer (LVA) are being sold in substantial numbers. Until recently, neither had been evaluated in any meaningful way, that is, has been the subject of extensive and comprehensive – but fair – assessment. Accordingly, highly extensive and controlled procedures were generated to impartially test the ability of the CVSA and LVA devices to identify people when they were (1) speaking the truth, (2) telling a falsehood, (3) talking while highly stressed, (4) producing unstressed speech, plus (5) combinations of these and other conditions. This project was carried out by the present author and his associates at the University of Florida (Hollien and Harnsberger 2006). Both systems were tested in a large double-blind laboratory study which, in no instance, permitted the examiners to directly observe the on-scene events or the human subjects when providing the speech materials. It was only through the use of these controlled approaches that their characteristics could be evaluated in a fair, thorough manner. The protocol employed were as follows.

Subjects A large and diverse subject population of 78 adult volunteers, both male and female, were screened as subjects. Their ages ranged from 18 to 63 years and they represented a demographic sample of the US population. They ranged from policemen to students, from US Marines to housewives, from ministers to businesswomen, and so on. Further, they had to hold very strong personal views about some subject (e.g. politics, religion, taxes). They were screened by the project’s psychiatrist who first excluded any with medical conditions or past history of psychological trauma. Subsequently, many other potential exclusionary mental and physical health criteria (the use of drugs, for example) also were assessed and used in the selection process.

Procedures Those volunteers selected were recorded in a quiet (but ‘live’) room with laboratory quality microphones coupled to a DAT recorder, a computer (via a digitizer) and video. Mindful of the problems associated with the

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external determination of internal stress level, four methods established as appropriate for the measurement of psychological arousal and/or stress were administered. They included two tests of anxiety/stress level based on self-reports and an anxiety test plus continual body response evaluations consisting of galvanic skin response (GSR) and pulse rate (PR).

Speech samples Seven different types of utterances were produced by each subject-speaker. That is, following a familiarization procedure, the first was elicited for baseline calibration and the six others for experimental or equipment assessment purposes. Each passage consisted of 5–7 content sentences (over 30 sec. total) with a 17–25 word ‘content-neutral’ phrase embedded near the centre of each. It was inserted there so it could be uttered at the same stress level as was the full passage yet (later) removed for analysis. These ‘content-neutral’ phrases prevented the system operators from being exposed to language-based clues as to the nature of the speech being produced. Each of these speech samples were uttered multiple times with only that sample meeting all experimental criteria used in the equipment evaluations as follows: 1 Low-Stress Truth consisted of a passage about a predesignated unemotional topic. 2 Low-Stress Lies were created in a similar fashion except false statements were made. 3 High-Stress Lie consisted of the untruths produced under high jeopardy. Since subjects had been selected from groups that were known to hold very strong personal views about some issue (i.e. gun control, sexual orientation, religious faith, etc.) each subject was required to utter statements that sharply contradicted these views. Moreover, they were required to do so while under the impression that their friends and/or other peers would hear (and see) their performance. 4 High-Stress Truth consisted of subjects reading neutral, truthful material while conditioned to respond to the highest level of electric shock that they could tolerate. 5 Very High-Stress Lies resulted from combining the two preceding procedures. 6 Other conditions involved simulations: they are not relevant here. The speech-sample procedure employed (within a subject-trial) grouped the samples that involved stress together (e.g. Procedures 3, 5 and 4 in that order), and then, following a break, those that did not involve stress.

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Of the 78 human subjects processed, 48 (half-each males, females) completed both the protocol described above and met all criteria for final inclusion. The stress shifts used for selection were computed by averaging the four cited (stress) measures after they had been converted to a common scale and weighed equally. Only those subjects were included whose mean stress level, when lying, was actually more than double their baseline. The mean shift observed for all speakers was 141 per cent with a mean rise of 129 per cent for male speakers and 152 per cent for the females. Subsequently, the cited speech materials were organized into a variety of sets for analysis.

Evaluations The CVSA processes very short speech samples (i.e. such as ‘yes’ and ‘no’) and its output can be described as a two-dimensional chart displaying the duration of the speech signal on the horizontal axis, and some sort of undefined information on the vertical axis. Care was taken to follow the manufacturer’s instructions so that the samples selected would meet with their approval. The same basic approach was applied to the LVA system excepting certain procedures unique to that equipment had to be applied. That is, the LVA approach requires that a ‘balanced’ portion of the subjects’ normal speech be added for calibration purposes and this was done. The resulting individual audio files were assigned code names and submitted for assessment.

Evaluators The cited processing was carried out by two teams of examiners for both CVSA and LVA. The first was a team of two evaluators drawn from the author’s research group who first attended the NITV school and were certified as competent to conduct CVSA analyses and, then, to the LVA school where they also were certified at a similar level. The second team in each instance was provided by the manufacturer. The NITV evaluation team consisted of three highly experienced operators and the LVA team was made up of two of their senior instructors. The resulting data were evaluated by means of a number of techniques designed to explore the possibility that these systems might be sensitive to stress, truth and/or deception. In all approaches, four rates were calculated: true positive, false positive, false negative and true negative. The true positive rate (or ‘hit rate’ in Signal Detection Theory), refers to the proportion or percentage of the time that deception  – or one of the other behaviours  – is said to be present when in fact it actually is present. That is, true positive rates measure how often a device accurately

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classifies a deceptive utterance as deceptive, truth as truth, high stress as high stress, and so on. Equally important is calculation of the false positive rates (also known as the false alarm rates in Signal Detection Theory). They correspond to the percentage of times the target behaviour is said to be present when in fact it is absent. False positive rates must be compared with true positive values in order to determine a device’s ability to correctly discern the presence of deception or stress. For example, an examination of the true positive rate alone does not provide system accuracy for deception since a high true positive rate could result from either accuracy or simply operator bias to classify speech samples as deceptive regardless of the actual presence or absence of that behaviour (e.g. if you are a hammer, everything looks like a nail). An accurate device would show true positive rates that are both high and significantly different from the false positive ones which would be low. On the other hand, a device that performs at chance would show relatively equal true and false positive rates. Only illustrative data will be furnished in this section. In order to avoid redundancy, only parallel figures will be provided for different systems/ teams. First, both sets of teams (IASCP/NITV and IASCP/LVA) performed in a very similar fashion for all of the different evaluations of the four conditions (deception, truth, high–low stress) as well as for the particular system tested. Thus, only a sampling of the evaluations will be presented here; however, they should be sufficient to support the conclusions drawn. And, please remember, each examiner’s judgements were given to an independent investigator (i.e. author of this chapter) who had a technician collate them for the statistical analyses. That is, these experiments were double-blind in nature. The complete set of all analyses is available (Harnsberger et  al. 2009; Hollien and Harnsberger 2006; Hollien et  al. 2008). The data for both systems were tested by d’ (d prime) (for sensitivity) and then by ANOVA (for strength of differences). All were significant  – that is, they demonstrated that the two devices operated only at chance levels and that statistic alone can provide credence for the statements to follow. In addition, sensitivity was evaluated by d’, a procedure commonly used in such cases. In assessing a sensitivity relationship, the d’ values will fall from below 0 to 4 or more – with 0 referring to no sensitivity at all, 1 to minimum significance and 4 (and upwards) to very high sensitivity. In this case, the d’ measures were used to determine if these two devices actually could detect the presence and level of deception and truth. First, the values obtained by both teams for the CVSA are shown on the left panel of Figure  6.21; as seen, they are quite similar. Note their very low sensitivity (the same was true for all other comparisons). In short, the sum total of all results appear to demonstrate only chance scoring for CVSA (Hollien et al. 2008). Second, the evaluators of the LVA output also were two teams of trained, certified operators (see the right panel of Figure 6.21). Again, both teams performed at about the same level. Note that they too performed only at

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CVSA

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Figure 6.21  Sensitivity measures. This chart provides sensitivity measures (d’) for both the CVSA and LVA devices. The left panel provides the sensitivity levels for both teams (IASCP and NITV) for deception (contrasted to truth). The right-hand panel provides parallel data for the LVA as a result of the efforts of the IASCP and LVA teams. The minimal acceptable sensitivity level is 1; various levels of acceptable performance would be found above 1 and high sensitivity in the region of 4. levels well below significance. They too had only detected about half of the high stress lies and, on average, scored nearly as high (or higher) at identifying low-stress truthful statements as lies. Hence, it only can be concluded that the LVA was not sensitive enough to deception to be useful (Harnsberger et al. 2009). In short, it must be concluded that neither of these systems displayed an ability to detect the presence of deception, truth and/or stress levels for any of the extensive  – and highly controlled  – assessments described earlier. Indeed, while the observed true positive and false positive rates varied a little from team to team, and between the two devices, sensitivity, as measured by d’, remained around zero across all conditions; in no instance did it approach the cut-off level of 1. In any event, it demonstrated that their capacity to detect deception-truth and stress levels is only at about chance

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level. As it turns out, data from our, and other, field studies fully support the research described (Damphousse et al. 2007; Hollien and Harnsberger 2006). In short, these devices simply cannot provide any useful information to workers in forensics. If deception is to be detected, some other approach must be employed. Perhaps, the answer lies in the kind of procedures developed by phoneticians and linguists.

Forensic phonetics continues to develop The discussions found in this chapter attempt to provide descriptions of the burgeoning discipline of forensic phonetics. Some elements central to this field are well established; others operate to create somewhat fuzzy boundaries. As you now have discovered, those topics clearly within the scope of forensic phonetics are (1) the enhancement and decoding of speech on recordings, (2) the authentication of recordings, (3) speaker identification (if not verification) and (4) the detection of a number of behavioural states from voice/speech. Some of the dimensions where the boundaries are not well established include other types of signal analysis (especially with respect to machine, impact and other noises), speech content analysis, auditory perception, and the like. Admittedly, the breadth of the two subareas is more extensive than those parts of it which directly interface with the legal, law enforcement and intelligence communities. Yet, it is where they impact the needs and concerns of those groups that particularly useful contributions can be made.

Note 1 The research carried out by the author of this chapter was supported primarily by the US Department of Defense (Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office, Counter Intelligence Field Activity), the National Institutes of Health, the US Justice Department, the National Science Foundation, the Dreyfus Foundation and the University of Florida. Grateful thanks is extended to all of them.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Cybercrime

The public streets and highways of the internet have become like neighborhoods where it is no longer safe to venture. Hackers, scammers, virus builders and other Web predators are looming in the shadows. TINNIRELLO, 13 October 2003

Introduction Cybercrime, as a new subfield of investigation, includes many crimes traditionally carried out, but with an electronic dimension that is either (1) germane to the crime (such as stalking, harassment/bullying, deception and fraud, or extortion/bribery); or (2) electronic media in which forensically relevant information may have been conducted or kept (i.e. like others in society, villains do their bookkeeping and social networking with electronic means). The final category of cybercrime is unique to the new media: crimes against the computer (such as hacking, denial of service and computer virus infection). Almost all social activities today, and by extension all crimes, typically have a digital dimension (cf. Casey 2011; Lee et  al. 2001). Just as most members of society use computers, email and the internet in many or most aspects of their daily lives, so too are criminals using these media to carry out their crimes and to avoid being captured. And also like any other form of business, criminals use computers to maintain their records, meaning that nearly every criminal case, from child pornography to tax evasion, involves the seizure of computers or other digital materials (Blum 2012).1

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The global audience that modern communications have made possible is intensified by the freedoms that users largely enjoy to carry out any nature of social activities. In modern society, governments and citizens are dealing with the problems that have arisen from the basic incongruity between upholding every person’s right to basic freedoms (such as the freedom of speech, or more specifically, the freedom to convey views and attitudes without fear of prosecution) and policing the illegal activities that have thrived with electronic media, carried out by those who have shielded their illegal activities with those same basic rights. The freedom of speech, or the right to the ‘freedom of expression’ is recognized in a number of international declarations. 2 Within this right ‘Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference’ and ‘everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression’. These rights include the ‘freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice’ (ICCPR Article 19). 3 This necessarily includes not only dissenting views but also subversive ones, and while a society’s illegal acts will remain illegal when carried out, there is no crime in writing about them, or fantasizing about them. Cybercrime includes offences committed against both individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive, that may harm them or their reputation(s), whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, through the use of modern telecommunication networks such as the internet (chat rooms, emails, notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (SMS/MMS) (cf. Halder and Jaishankar 2011). In the following sections of this chapter, we will deal with three broad categories of unlawful conduct: (1) non-violent crimes that are sometimes referred to as ‘white-collar’ crimes, which include computer hacking and identity theft/fraud; (2) sinister crimes that cause emotional damage, such as bullying, stalking, blackmail and extortion; and finally, last but by no means least, (3) physically violent crimes and language crimes to conceal them, ranging from murder, assault, paedophile activities (including the grooming of future targets and negotiating with in-group members to carry out these crimes), child pornography, sex crimes in general, terrorism and drug trafficking.

Types of e-crime Non-violent, ‘white-collar’ cybercrimes The essential nature of this general type of e-crime is that they are forms of ‘cyber intrusions’ that are carried out to invade homes and offices by breaking into laptops, personal computers and wireless devices via hacks

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and bits of malicious code.4 Although these crimes are primarily investigated by computer techno analysts, there is scope for the involvement of forensic linguists in cases dealing with identity theft and fraud insofar as they may be asked to find linguistic evidence that the apparent perpetrator and the victim is or is not the same person. This form of cyber intrusion has proved very costly and is perpetrated by a range of user types, ranging from computer geeks looking to make a name for themselves, to businesses hacking competitor websites and criminals seeking to steal citizens’ personal information to either misuse it for themselves or sell it to other organizations for future crimes (Clarke  et  al. 2003; Kreider 1999). The latter crimes have financial motivations and are sometimes described as ‘white-collar’ crimes, although ‘white-collar’ crime was a term originally coined to refer to those crimes carried out by persons in the course of their work (Sutherland 1949). More recently the FBI has defined ‘white-collar’ crime as ‘those illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence’ (1989 in Clarke 1997a). In the following subsections, brief descriptions will be offered of the main types of white-collar e-crimes that law enforcement agencies have recognized.

Hacking Historically, ‘hacker’ was a term that carried a certain amount of admiration for the person doing the hacking, with regard to the skill that person must have had to do what was done. This was a person who had the computer programming skills to be able to break into a computer system to wreak havoc, often as a practical joke that would illustrate how their skills were greater than the original program, such as a program that converted arabic numerals into roman numbers, or one that played a musical piece when the user touched a particular key. The persons responsible were usually highschool or college students and sometimes juveniles under 13. The hacker ethic of the day is well captured by Levy who expressed the view that, ‘In a perfect hacker world, anyone pissed off enough to open up a control box near a traffic light and take it apart to make it work better should be perfectly welcome to make the attempt’ (1984/2010: 24). Since the 1970s, the term ‘hacker’ was used to describe someone who simply used computers without authorization from the owners (whether relatively benign practical jokes or more costly disruptions that would waste time and resources to resolve). From the mid-1980s however, when more government and business activity was conducted with computers, and also more civilians had acquired personal computers in the home, hacking became a useful tool to alter or steal a person’s identity and cause costly disruptions to a business’ daily operations.

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An example from this time is the hacking of the Riverside, California court system to alter police and court records (United States). William Grace and Brandon Wilson altered records relating to charges previously filed against Wilson to indicate that prior charges had been dismissed, as well as altering the records of family and friends. ‘By the time they were apprehended, they had gained unauthorized access to thousands of computers and had the ability to recall warrants, change court records, dismiss cases, and read the e-mails of all county employees’ (Casey 2011: 5). Because hacking is largely a computer-to-computer crime, a potential role for the forensic linguist is unlikely: unlike the more invasive crimes of identity theft and fraud that frequently follow from hacking, and the even more invasive crimes that follow from identity theft that fall under ‘insidious’ cybercrimes that follow.

Identity theft and fraud The crime of identity theft is defined as the illegal use (without consent) of another person’s personal information, including name, date of birth, address, mother’s maiden name, financial records and other personal information (Federal Trade Commission). In the United States, once criminals obtain a victim’s social security number, they can open or close bank accounts, apply for a loan and incur debt in the victim’s name, and any crime committed will become part of the victim’s criminal record. This crime affects both businesses and civilians around the world and is described as a ‘low risk, high reward’ crime, in that the average ‘take’ from identity theft is almost ten times greater than the return from an armed robbery. Perpetrators can either use this information themselves or sell it on the black market. An example case is a Canadian identity theft and fraud scam that involved a number of prepaid credit cards (with a value of $15 each), after posing as individuals initially approached by that credit card company. The criminals hacked the credit card company and increased the credit limits on each of those cards to tens of thousands of dollars, and over one weekend extracted around $1  million using ATM machines around the world. ‘Traditional bank robbers must be absolutely gobsmacked when they hear sums like this being hoovered up by cyber criminals week in, week out’ (Glenny 2011). The flip side of identity theft is identity concealment, where persons choose to hide the true identity of the sender in order to carry out crime, which is fraud. In such cases the identity is frequently a stolen identity (i.e. from someone who can later be held to account for the intrusion or crime), and depending on the amount of written material used in the crime, it may be in the victim’s interests to engage a forensic linguist to help find evidence of innocence. Also identity theft scams that involve

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persons being approached by email (i.e. ‘phishing’)5 can be open to language analysis.

Insidious cybercrimes The crime of identity theft usually precipitates other crimes, such as theft or fraud, but also more sinister and possibly violent crimes. In a certain sense all cybercrimes are insidious, but the crimes captured in this subsection are perpetrated intentionally to be so disturbing as to cause ongoing distress without actually being violent to the victim. These include cyber-bullying, cyber-stalking and electronic ransom demands. These crimes are another manifestation of recognized crimes (bullying, stalking and extortion) but have the additional component of being both global (i.e. the person sending these messages does not need to be nearby) and unrelenting  – that is, without the cyber element, although victims would still be bullied at work or at school, they are ‘safe’ when away from that bullying context, but with the cyber element, the victim is a victim everywhere. In cases of cyber-bullying, stalking and extortion (or bribery), individuals and organizations may seek the help of a forensic linguist, to prove their own innocence, construct an author/speaker profile, or help build a case to convict. An example case includes the email ransom notes that proved instrumental in the arrest of responsible persons for the murder of the journalist, Daniel Pearl. In this case, a linguistic profile was constructed of the author of the ransom demand, which described the author as a non-native speaker of English who had learned UK English. It was later established that the author was indeed a Pakistani national who had been educated in the United Kingdom. The Daniel Pearl case called for an author profile which cyber-stalking cases might also require, when victims feel they do not know who the sender might be. In contrast, other forms of cybercrime (such as cyber-bullying) although usually perpetrated by persons already known to the victim, it may not be clear exactly which bully is sending each individual message. It might therefore be of judicial interest to align specific messages/acts to specific perpetrators to enhance scope for prosecution success. In this way, the skills of a forensic linguist may prove invaluable for prosecutors to build a case to convict.

Cyber-bullying and stalking This is a form of relentless, psychological assault that takes bullying to a new level. Cyber-bullying involves one or more persons being cruel to another (with acts that may constitute any number of the following

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assaults: sexual harassment, racial vilification, denigration, threats or stalking), and sending or posting that harmful material using technological means. The modes of cyber-bullying include nasty emails, twitter and (telephone) text messages; ‘sexting’;6 prank calls and pager messages; and hate websites (including, ‘My Space’, ’Facebook’, ‘YouTube’, blogs and chat room websites) including those that give (un)popularity polls  – cf. Kowalski et al. (2008). ‘What makes cyber bullying so dangerous . . . is that anyone can practice it without having to confront the victim. You don’t have to be strong or fast, simply equipped with a cell phone or a computer and a willingness to terrorize’ (King 2006). Cyber-bullying, like traditional bullying follows from a situation where the victim has no power to prevent the assaults, and is subjected to repeated negative actions over a lengthy period of time. The range of cyber assaults they may need to endure often leave victims feeling terrified and socially ostracized, which has led some to self-injury and suicide. A landmark case of cyber-bullying is that of a 15-year-old girl (Phoebe Prince, United States) who hanged herself in her home after no longer being able to endure the relentless bullying at school and electronically in her home with postings on social networking sites, such as Facebook, Formspring and Twitter. She was also sent threatening text messages that called her ‘Irish slut’ and ‘whore’. Six offenders were charged (four girls and two boys who were also charged with statutory rape), and her death resulted in state legislature passing a law that brought anti-bullying into the curriculum of the state’s public schools. In cases such as these, a forensic linguist may be involved if particular messages need to be linked with particular (presumed) perpetrators, which with a group of known perpetrators and disposable cell phones is possible. However, there are other cases where the perpetrator is not truly known by the victim and the forensic linguist’s contribution may be to profile the sender assailant. An example case involves the 15-year-old Canadian, Amanda Todd (2012) who also committed suicide to stop the torment. Todd, used webcam chats to meet and talk to new people, including a man who pressured her to flash her chest.7 After allowing the man to take a photo of her, topless, he first attempted blackmail and when that didn’t work, he sent her ‘boob’ photo to everyone she knew. The torment on the internet resulted in bullying and loss of friendships at school. Then when she changed schools, the man continued his pursuit online, creating a new Facebook page in her name using the photo of her boobs as the profile picture. After her death, an internet activist group alleged that a particular 32-year-old man was responsible for the cyber-bullying who was then himself inundated with hate messages, although the police later determined that the allegations were unfounded (CBC News).8 Although the original bully is yet to be correctly identified, there is scope for the involvement of a forensic linguist in profiling and ‘identity tracking’. Not just web pages but easily disposable and replaceable cell

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phones and email addresses (e.g. Hotmail) can make it appear as though identities have disappeared when instead their hardware has been swopped out with replacement hardware. General features of talk and text will need to remain in place to ensure that the assailant will still be recognized by those they know and choose to interact with. There would naturally be a high involvement of computer specialists but forensic linguists with their arsenal of authorship attribution strategies would also be able to enrich this search. The case of Todd also illustrates that assailants seldom carry out just one type of invasion: in her case, the bully knew her personal details (her friends, her school, her home address, their surnames, etc.) which she had not provided to him and which (unless the original profile really belonged to someone who knew her and her family personally) evidences prior hacking into her personal site. Todd’s case also involved bribery, meaning that the posting of her photo to all her friends might have been motivated by a longer term intention to better ensure that future victims take their treats more seriously than she did.

Ransom notes: Extortion and bribery Cyber extortion and bribery (blackmail) involve threats of some nature, whether to civilians or a business, or to an individual or a company’s computers. Threats to computers/computer networks, such as data destruction, denial of service attacks, compromised or planted data, harm to a corporate network and copying confidential information, in order to extort huge amounts of money would ordinarily not concern the forensic linguist, but the communications conveying the threats made to particular individuals or a company. This involvement may be to offer a profile of the individual(s) making the threat/bribery, or, because these crimes may first involve an identity theft, help build a case for or against the accused. Forms of cyber extortion include computer crimes, such as (1) holding data itself hostage, which may involve stealing the most recent backup and wiping the original version from corporate servers, or changing the encryption key (similar to a complex password) within a database and holding the new key hostage, and (2) threatening to deny service which can cost online businesses millions. For example, in 2000, sites such as Yahoo, Buy.com, CNN, Amazon and eBay were all affected by these attacks because their trade is through the internet: when the system is down they cannot do trade. A third type of extortion has been seen earlier in the Todd case and impacts individuals. These are the attempts to extort money or specific deeds from victims after threatening to post photographs or videos of the victims online following a cybersex session over webcam (Singapore News).9

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Business crimes follow from an initial hacking into the corporate computer systems and forensic investigations into these kinds of computer crimes would rely on the services of an IT expert. In contrast, the cyber extortion cases that involve personal bribery, such as threats to disclose personal information, or a company’s corporate secrets can potentially involve a forensic linguist to assist with profiling (if enough language evidence is obtained) and the identity tracking process should potential suspects be identified. A final category of insidious e-crime will be considered here, and that is the incidence of offensive language on the internet. This may be a semantic matter that the linguist would be well able to offer potentially important insights regarding sociological variations across community groups. Although this is not necessarily insidious like the above types of e-crimes, postings online can be a substantial source of distress to some and warrant mention here, particularly as some of this conduct is akin to bullying and hate mail.

Offensive language and the right to free speech In most countries the law protects individuals’ right to free expression, although there are restrictions to that general right, depending on the specific cultural views of the country in question. The right to free speech however is not absolute, and in most countries there are qualifications that define what types of verbal activity would not be protected by that right, such as it is an offence to convey ‘obscene’, ‘indecent’, racist material or material that is discriminatory of a religion. In England and Wales, under section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986/2013, emailing, posting or tweeting something ‘grossly offensive’ is a criminal offence, punishable by up to six months imprisonment.10 The classifiers ‘obscene’ and ‘indecent’ are surprisingly flexible, and are potentially harder to prove. For example, in England and Wales, under section 5 of the Public Order Act, the law requires cases of ‘offensive’ material to be considered ‘as a whole’: therefore one or two sentences in an entire document or speech or interview that may be offensive to some is not likely to lead to prosecution if the whole is not consistent with that offensive tone.11 Other possible defences might also include the frame of mind the e-user12 was in at the time the offensive material was expressed  – that is, cursing at a time of stress and heightened emotion may be forgivable, but continual cursing could be problematic. However, continual cursing may be characteristic of the e-user’s normal, online language use – that is, the everyday vernacular of different social groups may allow for different assessments of what is ‘obscene’ or ‘indecent’. This final caveat has been taken into account in cases dealing with students, whose web pages often contain critical, vulgar or even violent content. In the United States, the courts have generally applied the ‘Tinker

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substantial disruption’ standard to determine whether the students in question should be punished for their website content. This standard is applied in courts in the United States, and allows schools to regulate speech ‘when student welfare is an issue’ (cf. Negrón 2008: 1222). Some excerpts from MySpace groups at various North Carolina High Schools (Soo 2008): Excerpt 7.1 School ‘totally sucks’

Excerpt 7.2 ‘ We used to have fuckin back massage days and nap days in her . . . class. Sometimes we leaned our chairs out of the back door of the trailer and smoke cigs and she wouldn’t care. Then she showed up at some fuckin big parties we had and hit the fuckin bong with us.’

Excerpt 7.3 ‘ There’s hardly ever any fights, or fights worth seeing, just stupid drama. Like “I slept with your boyfriend” . . .’ ‘ok yea so ___ is the gayest high school ever’ ‘But you know what teacher SUCKS?? _______ (ugh) I have him tomorrow too.’

Soo (2008) explains that when web pages are highly critical (even with crude and vulgar language) but no interference with school discipline and order has occurred, then the student’s right to free speech has been upheld (cf. Beussink v. Woodland R-IV School District 53). However, when student web page allegations can be proved to interfere with the education process and cause a disturbance to the learning environment, the student’s suspension from the school was upheld (cf. J.S. v. Bethlehem Area School District, which involved allegations that the principal had been having sex with another principal who was so distressed she required medical leave). A final case that evidences the ‘as a whole’ rule is the Mahaffey v. Aldrich case. In that case the student had created a web page called ‘Satan’s web page’, in which he listed people he hoped would die, including fellow students. However, on that web page he also included: ‘PS: NOW THAT YOU’VE READ MY WEB PAGE PLEASE DON’T GO KILLING PEOPLE AND STUFF AND THEN BLAMING IT ON ME. OK?’ The court found that the page did not constitute a ‘true threat’ ‘since a reasonable person would not regard it as a serious expression of intent to harm anyone’ (Soo 2008). Nevertheless, there are many examples where people’s vernacular choice of terms has got them into trouble. For example, Leigh (26) tweeted his friend Emily (24): ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and

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destroy America.’ The term ‘destroy’ is British slang for ‘party hard’ and both were detained upon arrival at Los Angeles airport. In 2010, Paul Chambers (28) tweeted that he would ‘[blow] the airport sky high!’ after his flight was cancelled following poor weather at Robin Hood Airport (UK) and he was found guilty of unlawfully sending a message that was deemed ‘grossly offensive’ and ‘of an indecent, obscene or menacing character’ (UK communications Act 2003).13 The court clearly did not accept that his frustrations justified his choice of expression; when it comes to airports and national security, justice systems have no sense of humour. In addition to the above, however, here is an important dimension to cyber communications in terms of offensive material that is relevant to cyber-bullying, in that some instances of email and web-based postings continue to post what can only be called ‘hate mail’ after the person in question has either died or is expected to be dead. Such mail, such as ‘I’m glad she’s dead’, continued to be sent after her death which must be very upsetting to family and friends as well as many onlookers. Another case that followed the disappearance of a 5-year-old child (UK) were the grossly offensive Facebook postings by Matthew Woods (19) that ranged from distasteful to sexually explicit. His postings caused public outcry and he was jailed for 12 weeks. Finally, there are also examples of the other end of the spectrum, such as in the United Kingdom until very recently, ‘insulting words or behaviour’ were banned, leading to people spending a night in jail for calling a horse ‘gay’; for uttering ‘woof’ to a dog; for articulating a religious view that ‘homosexuality is a sin’; and holding a placard in public saying ‘[scientology] is a dangerous cult’. In each of these cases that object of the criticism did not need to prove they were offended: the decisions were unilaterally made in the field by the police. In Australia, scope that material that may be deemed offensive is greater if uttered near a public place or school. In cyber terms, the consequence of this caveat is conceivably that if e-users can appropriately assume their communications were private (even if the receiver has made it public), then the original e-user should be ‘safe’ from prosecution.

Violent cybercrimes This subsection deals with those electronic communications that either facilitate or attempt to conceal violent crimes, and the most notable that have attracted forensic linguist participation include attempts to conceal a murder and sex crimes. We have seen above that some sex crimes are insidious but not violent, such as the blackmail attempts using recorded sex events, but others are designed to lure a prospective victim into the physical path of the assailant, which constitutes ‘grooming’.

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A notable case of grooming that became a murder is that of Peter Chapman (UK), a.k.a. the ‘Facebook killer’. Chapman used Facebook to lure a 17-year-old girl (Ashleigh Hall) to meet up with him, who he subsequently molested and strangled to death. In this case, it is language used by Chapman that made the assault/murder possible, and as such, this is a case where the language used is a substantial component of the crime, and is also why just ‘grooming’ is now recognized as a crime in its own right. Chapman at the age of 33, posed as a 19-year-old boy on Facebook – using the fake name ‘Peter Cartwright’ and a fake photograph. The linguistic relevance of this case was the manner in which Chapman managed to encourage Ashleigh to trust him when a much older man came to meet up with her. Chapman used two mobile phones, one that would text Ashleigh from ‘Cartwright’ the teenager she had been communicating with on Facebook, and another that purported to be from Cartwright’s father. With this ploy, Chapman used texting strategies that would be appropriate for a teenage persona from one phone, and then with a different phone, he would use language strategies more appropriate for an older person. In effect, the language analysis of the forensic linguist, to analyse the text messages sent earlier from Ashleighs phone and comparing those to when she was expected to be dead and those found on Chapman’s phone make the contribution of the forensic linguist a powerful piece of evidence linking the suspect with the victim.

Murder versus suicide? Language communications do not cause murder in a direct sense, but as seen in the cyber-bullying type of e-crimes, they play a distinct role in creating the situation in which death can occur with a more than average chance of occurring. Cases also present themselves where the electronic communications were designed to camouflage a murder by leaving the suggestion that that person has voluntarily gone away. For example, the Jenny Nicholl case (2008) where text messages were sent from her phone after she had gone missing. The analysis of Jenny’s texting style, in contrast with the texting style of David Hodgson, and finally with the suspect text messages, showed that the suspect messages used a user’s style that sooner resembled David Hodgson’s style than Jenny herself (Grant 2010, ms.). Although a body is yet to be recovered, she is presumed dead and Hodgson was convicted for her murder. In other cases, the parting note may not be electronic, but the evidence of what may have happened to that person may be mined from past electronic messages sent by the missing person, such as emails and web traffic. An example case is Victoria Couchman (see Chapter  8) whose remains evidenced how long she had been dead, although family members

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had received several text messages from her mobile phone after the point in time when she would have died.

Paedophiles, grooming and sex crimes Our work on these kinds of cases involves cases of grooming that has led to disappearance or murder, and communications between paedophiles. Both areas involve either attempts to sexually exploit children or create a situation in which they can gain access to children for their sexual gratification. There is a huge international market for child pornography with at least 200,000 websites that sell child pornography images and take in from $20–30 billion a year (Allen, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, United States). The FBI in the United States has since 2003 conducted a number of stings using real childrens’ identities and passwords, as well as custom software to uncover the extent of child pornography gathered from these chat rooms. Even though credit card companies and banks have resolved to inhibit such trade, Allen explains that the proliferation of such material through the internet is ‘exploding’. The ‘grooming’ process usually begins with paedophiles contacting children in web-based chat rooms, posing as a child of a similar age. They begin with being friendly and flattering, and slowly become friendlier to win the child’s confidence before introducing sexual chat to encourage the child to shed their inhibitions about sex. From this point they seek to sexually exploit the child with a number of ploys, such as bribing or blackmailing them (such as was the case with Todd); convincing them that they are in love with their molester; or offering money and/or opportunities for sexualized behaviours that they can record online.14 In some cases they seek to meet up with the child, which is not likely to end well for the child as he or she will then see exactly how old the molester is. The work done on email traffic between paedophiles, done by Olsson for the cases in question, as well as Luchjenbroers and Aldridge-Waddon (2011) has revealed that gleaning pornographic material is not an objective for all those involved in these paedophile groups. Much of the discussion centres only on the following: 1 Where the interlocutor/paedophile is physically located. Is it relatively near? 2 Whether the interlocutor/paedophile has access to children, and what ages? 3 Building a relationship with the interlocutor, paedophile to facilitate ‘sharing’. Unlike the assertions that paedophiles in custody have made about themselves, there is no evidence of romantic (intense love and affection) for the children they have access to, or of a benevolent companionship that is enjoyed by the child (Benneworth

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2006). These emails only describe children in terms of the age groups sought by respective paedophiles, and what they like to do to them. The function of the forensic linguist in these cases has included the question of measuring ‘intent’ – that is, the molester’s intent to carry out the deeds described. The field of forensic linguistics is somewhat divided whether linguists can offer an opinion in such matters (more a matter of psychology, not linguistics). Even though what each discipline can offer the forensic process is different in key ways, the linguistic conduct by these group members is key to how they quickly network to carry out desired deeds. This linguistic pattern relies on the in-group practices associated with this specific ‘community-of-practice’, which in itself is not unique to this group. Community of Practice (CofP) refers to shared socio-cultural practices that emerge and evolve when people who have common goals interact and strive towards those goals. Members of that speech community will signal their ‘in-group’ membership and values as a product of a need to be seen to belong to that group, as opposed to another, and the recognized means to do so include topic choices, lexical choices (and the meanings of those lexical choices) and the nature of the discourse sequences – see examples below (Luchjenbroers and Aldridge-Waddon 2011). Excerpt 7.4 hi, thanks for message on my board. where r u in the world? what r u into?

Excerpt 7.5  i, your site is top :)) im in the uk, im into any young, (-12) love babies, h xxxx(yum). where are u & wot u into?

Excerpt 7.6 Have you had any real experience or have access?

Excerpt 7.7 . . . if it works out i would like to share my b with u, as this is much hotter than solitary . . .

These examples capture the order in which these emails were sent, and also capture the beginning of this relationship. As such we have a clear view of exactly how quickly very provocative information is covered, which we suggest has a joint function: (1) it allows interlocutors to not waste their time with contacts that might not feed their personal needs, and (2)  will alert the user to dump that email address if the respondent does not respond appropriately for that CofP. For the analyst therefore, we have

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clear evidence of how the members of this CofP interact and that their communications are very objective driven. In fact, across the very modest dataset, these interactants waste very little ‘talk’ on subjects that do not pertain to the above three topic areas, with steps to ensure their ‘safety’ coming in a distant fourth. On these grounds the forensic linguist has good grounds to offer an opinion on speaker intent. Regarding the victims of such abuse, children and adolescents of any race, culture or economic status, appear to be at equal risk. Although there seems to be evidence that girls are more frequently the target than boys, the fact that boys and men are less likely to report abuse may affect the statistics. Unfortunately the findings regarding who the likely perpetrators are is even less clear, with no single profile accurately describing or accounting for all child molesters: there are many variables among individuals in terms of their personal characteristics, life experiences, criminal histories and reasons for committing such offences. The only consistencies are that child molesters will try to create a lifestyle that allows them access to children, whether by occupation or private interest (church, child organizations, media sources, etc.).

Cyber-terrorism and hacktivism The internet has become a strategic tool for terrorists and their violent extremist supporters. It is well known that Al Qaeda has specifically recruited persons with computer science background and has trained its operatives in computer sciences. The use of the internet by other terrorist groups such as the ETA is also extensively documented. The role of the forensic linguist in such investigations is akin to their role identifying CofP norms among paedophiles. The internet represents a formidable tool for inciting terrorism, recruiting, raising funds and potentially also conducting attacks on networked infrastructures. Since the early 1990s when more government and business activity has been conducted with computers, hacking was used to jam phone lines and networks, to release malicious codes (viruses and worms) that would affect any PC, to having a role in terrorist activities (also referred to as a ‘hacktivist’ – cf. BBC news).15 ‘Hacktivism’ refers to the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends. The conflict over Kosovo has been characterized as the first war on the internet. Government and non-government actors alike used the net to disseminate information, spread propaganda, demonize opponents and solicit support for their position. The internet today is user blind. As such it is a principal means for terrorist organizations to disseminate their propaganda, indoctrinate, recruit and train new activists (e.g. how to assemble an explosive belt, or create an explosive with every day materials). These websites glorify terrorist acts and make prominent terrorist literature readily available, and

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through these websites, terrorist leaders can directly interact with their supporters around the world: hiding in plain sight. The internet is also one of the principal means by which terrorists can raise and transfer funds and other material resources. The internet also allows for instant and almost secure communication among terrorist operatives and between terrorist cells, including for the planning of attacks (cf. Perl 2008). An example case involves the extradition of a Canadian citizen to the United States to face terrorism charges, based on information gleaned from intercepted phone and internet conversations (October 2012). Mr Sayfildin Tahir Sharif stands accused of conspiracy to kill American soldiers in Iraq, in a 2009 suicide bombing that used a truck filled with explosives. The conversation evidence seized show that Mr Sharif helped jihadists contact members of a terror network as they made their way from Tunisia to Iraq to make the attack.

Conclusion ‘computer forensics’  – ‘undertakes the post-mortem reconstruction of the (causal) sequence of events arising from an intrusion perpetrated by an external agent or as a result of unauthorised activities generated by an authorised user’ de Vel et al. 2001 This book is about forensic linguistics, and so justifiably little attention is paid to other, sister disciplines in the forensic endeavour, but it cannot be avoided in the field of cybercrime because the nature of the medium requires a substantial role for IT specialists to uncover the material that criminals seek to hide. Criminals may delete files and emails, hide files by encryption, password protection, or embedding them in unrelated files, and use Wi-Fi networks and cyber cafes to cover their tracks, but it is up to the IT specialists to uncover the language material that the linguist may be called upon to analyse. Although cybercrime is often an IT chase, the process of ‘identity tracking’ may also involve the skills of a forensic linguist. The paedophile case mentioned above involved group members switching Hotmail addresses which required a form of authorship analysis to track identities. Linguists need to identify features of contributions made earlier by the (presumed) criminal that compare or contrast with the primary data, as used for other cybercrime cases. Overall, the role of the forensic linguist in cases of cybercrime in many ways resembles their role in non-electronic media, such as authorship attribution strategies, but in other cases the skills offered by forensic linguistics needs to amend itself to the task at hand, such as the

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recent Kieron Bryan case (2012) that required Olsson to crack the code of a letter that used 23 random numbers (between 1 and 43) and punctuation marks instead of letters. The code revealed that Bryan was asking his sister to offer the deceased a £15,000 bribe to drop the case against Bryan. In this chapter we have shown how forensic linguistics can be used to track profiles, align the electronic messages with their true authors, and semantically process the information conveyed that assist with risk and threat assessments, as well as offer profiling information. We have also introduced a wider range of cybercrimes than would require the skills of a forensic linguist, in order to make readers aware of the context in which the forensic linguist may be invited to offer analyses. The biggest difficulty for forensic linguistics with cyber media is that the dataset made available to forensic linguists is often very small because that is all that is available. Unfortunately, the police is also often reluctant to release more data than they think the linguist needs to perform the required analyses, making the task of offering the judiciary the clear statements they prefer all the more challenging. In forensic science, nothing can be certain and we can only present possibilities based on limited information. However, in cyber world, although criminals may feel they cannot be seen, they are often proved to be wrong.

Notes 1 Cf. computers played a role in the planning and subsequent investigations of both World Trade Center bombings: Ramsey Yousef’s laptop contained plans for the first bombing and, during the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui’s role in the second attack 2 Cf. Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 3 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 4 FBI site – www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/cyber/computer-intrusions 5 ‘Phishing’ is where individuals are approached by email, with claims of being a legitimate company (such as a bank and possibly the organization that the individual works for) and are invited or directed to a website in which they will need to update their personal information. 6 ‘Sexting’ refers to ‘Inappropriate pictures being distributed on camera phones’. 7 Amanda’s silent YouTube posting that outlines the course of her abuse – www. youtube.com/watch?v=KRxfTyNa24A [accessed on 4 February 2013]. 8 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/10/15/bc-amanda-toddtormentor-anonymous.html 9 www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1253939/1/.html [accessed on 14 February 2013].

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10 Standard Note, SN/HA/576 (January 2013) ‘Insulting words or behaviour’: Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986. 11 In Brief, Free legal opinion: www.inbrief.co.uk/media-law/freedom-ofexpression.htm 12 Luchjenbroers and Aldridge-Waddon (2011) refers to e-users as ‘spauthors’, in an attempt to capture the to and fro of communications that has much in common with speakers but also like authors, communications can also be more strategic and users can polish drafts before sending. 13 The guilty verdict was overturned on appeal. 14 Chandigarh Police, India – http://chandigarhpolice.gov.in/cyber.htm 15 www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13686141 [accessed on 17 January 2013].

Part Two

Dealing with linguistic evidence Introduction to Part Two This section includes a number of chapters that deal with a range of more recent cases for the beginning forensic linguist to consider. The first chapter in this section, Chapter Eight, ‘Forensic texts’, discusses important aspects of real suicide texts and threat texts. The following chapter, Chapter Nine, ‘Forensic transcription’, provides the reader with important advice about how to deal with authentic materials when contacted by a client to work on their case. Then, Chapter Ten, ‘Forensic authorship in practice’, discusses two recent cases: Victoria Couchman, a murder victim whose death was concealed by texts sent from her phone after her death; and James Earl Reed, a murder suspect. In Reed’s case, the suspect’s police statement is the area of concern for the forensic linguist. Chapter Ten also includes a number of exercises for the reader as well as exercise commentaries. The following chapter, Chapter Eleven, ‘Investigating author variation in naturalistic data’, illustrates a small-scale, comparative corpus analysis performed by the first author, to be able to verify the arguments made in court with regard to textual variation as used in telephone, text messaging; and the final chapter of Part Two offers a discussion of another suspicious disappearance from whom telephone text messages were received after her disappearance. This chapter offers a consideration of the materials received for this case, together with a consideration of the oral evidence that was tended during the trail of her (suspected) attacker.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Forensic texts

At a theoretical level any text is potentially a forensic text in the sense that anything said or written can become of evidential importance in an investigation or a case, criminal or civil. This includes language whose authorship is in question; language where the meaning is at issue; language generated in the course of a crime or as part of a crime; language used in court  – whether in examination or cross-examination, a witness or defendant statement, or as part of a judge’s summing up, or the language of a statute.

What types of forensic text are there? Forensic texts exist in all forms and probably cover almost every topic imaginable. There are suicide notes, ransom demands, threat texts, defendant and witness statements, anonymous hate mail: texts are found as mobile phone texts, letters, emails, videos, instant messages, and so on.

What are typical features of different types of forensic text? It is not easy to give a ‘set’ of features for different types of forensic text. There are no ‘hard and fast’ rules about the typical content found in different types of forensic text, such as suicide notes and ransom demands.

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Suicide texts An interesting way to approach the linguistics of suicide texts is to compare genuine texts with simulated ones. The suicidologists Shneidman and Faberow (1957) carried out an analysis along these lines. A question often asked by bereaved relatives is ‘why’: why has the person committed suicide? The question is often more important than the answer. It often reveals a gap between the deceased and their families. Condemnation often follows puzzlement, and it is not unusual for those commenting on a suicide victim to refer to that person as a coward or as insane. Interestingly, writers of fake suicide notes use the same terminology and exhibit the same attitude. Shneidman (2004a, 2004b: 59) refers to the mental state of the suicide as similar to a kind of tunnel vision. Linguistically, we may think of the language of the suicide note as ‘insider’ language. Suicide victims are within a tunnel and their view of life is constricted. This has inevitable consequences for the language they use. By contrast, the fake suicide is not constricted, but sees suicide from the outside. For these reasons, fake suicides will use language which reflects an outsider status, referring to their ‘act of suicide’ as ‘crazy’, ‘insane’, the action of a ‘loser’ or ‘the coward’s way out’. These comments reflect the populist attitude to suicide. Once we know the popular view of suicide we can to some extent predict what a fake suicide note will look like: it will reflect popular attitudes: to a large extent that is what a linguistic analysis of a note purporting to be a suicide note is often about – separating popular views from ‘inside’ views: the view the suicide victim has and then looking for how the language of suicide texts reflects this. In doing so, however, we need to be aware of several complicating factors regarding the suicide landscape. First, we should not assume that we know what suicide is. Does a mother who sacrifices herself to save her children commit suicide, or should we describe her action in some other way? Does a terminally ill patient in extreme pain commit suicide or should this form of euthanasia be exempt from classification as a suicide? There are other examples, for instance, the soldier who dies while saving his comrades. At a practical level, we should observe that not every suicide leaves a text, that relatives may conceal a suicide text, or that texts can be suppressed for other reasons, for example, for insurance purposes, or the desire to avoid shame. Also, a murder or an accident may be misreported as a suicide and vice versa. Conversely, a text can be simulated to conceal a crime. Crucially, it is important to bear in mind that the suicide text is only a part of the suicide act. Shneidman notes that the prelude to suicide is often ‘the constriction, the concentration, the tunneling of vision, the pathological narrowing and focus on the Self’ (2004a: 162).

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Table 8.1  Expressions of negativity, chaos and disorder Words/phrases

Genuine

Fake

sorry

13

13

forgive me

7

9

I have loved

6

1.5

wonderful*

6

1.5

can’t stand, take, etc.

6

1.5

bad

5

0

hurt someone

4

0

fault

4

0

*in genuine texts it is other people who are ‘wonderful’ – usually the addressee

When we compare genuine with fake suicide notes we notice several differences in the content, as the data from 33 genuine and 33 Shneidman suicide notes (as reported in Shneidman and Faberow 1957) show (Table 8.1). Although expressions of apology and requests for forgiveness occur more or less evenly across genuine and simulated texts, references to ‘the end’, to being ‘tired’, to having ‘tried’ and to being ‘deceased’ or ‘dead’ are much more common in simulated texts. Expressions reflecting a populist view of suicide, such as being ‘weak’, suicide being ‘an easy way out’, and the subject being ‘crazy’, ‘mad’, ‘cowardly’ or even ‘confused’ are much lower in genuine texts than in simulated ones. A remarkable feature of simulated texts is their lack of intensity when compared with genuine texts. Terms of praise, affection and endearment are much more frequent in genuine texts, as are expressions of intolerance of a situation, especially the loss of a relationship or somebody’s affection. However, while simulated texts often contain populist views on suicide there is no automatic way to tell the difference between a genuine and a simulated text. There will always be exceptions to a general observation, and an observation is not a ‘rule’.

Appeals in murder and related cases Textual substance refers to the relationship between content and subject. How direct is the relationship? Dees the content reflect the apparent purpose of the text? Some years age in Britain a police news conference was held

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during which the police informed the public of the robbery of an elderly couple during which the husband was killed. The widow was then given the opportunity of making a televised appeal. She said: During the early hours of this Friday morning two men came into my home and ruined my life. My husband Eric did not deserve this. This was the sum total of what the widow said, but what is wrong with it? For a start it is not an appeal. The speaker is not asking the television audience to do anything, for example, look for the perpetrators, or help identify the two men. At the end of the appeal we know no more about the two men than we did at the beginning  – what they looked like, hew old they were, how they spoke – in fact nothing at all. The phrase ‘ruined my life’ is a curious euphemism. She means, apparently, that her life was ruined because her husband was killed. But instead of saying so, and making an appeal to catch the killers, she simply says they ‘ruined my life’. The focus is entirely on the effect on her life, not on what happened to her husband. All in all, this appeal completely lacks substance. It later turned out that she had murdered her husband and fabricated evidence to suggest the presence of intruders. As one would expect there had been no DNA or other evidence to support such a claim. Susan Smith, the apparent victim of a carjacking, also made an appeal. This is what she said to national television audiences six days alter her children ‘disappeared’: I have been to the Lord in prayers every day with my family and by myself with my husband. It just seems so unfair that somebody could take such two beautiful children. Susan Smith eventually confessed to having drowned her children in a lake by allowing her car to slide down a ramp with the children strapped into the back of the vehicle. Contrast the above quote from Susan Smith with that of her husband, at the same news conference: Please do not give up on these two little boys in the search for their return safe home to us. This does have some textual substance – the husband is appealing to people not to give up on the children. The husband, who was separated from his wife, knew nothing of his wife’s murderous plans. Some years ago a policewoman was murdered outside her home in London. Her husband made the following ‘appeal’.

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Excerpt 8.1 Susan Smith’s appeal

O

bviously someone’s got a guilty conscience. They’ll be worrying about what they done or shocked or maybe it was an accident or mistake or whatever, you know. Someone has got to know something who lives around them, a neighbour, or seen some blood or someone acting suspicious or nervous, might not be important just give us a call and let us know.

As the reader will readily appreciate, there is no appeal content here. The speaker is simply feeding into popular conceptions about how guilty people might act or feel. In reality, he is focusing on the killer’s feelings, which seems remarkable, until one realizes that, in fact, he is the killer. In summary, then, fake appeals tend to be appeals to conscience, religion and fairness. There is a tendency to minimize the crime’s gravity, to avoid describing it in any detail, and there are references to the speaker’s own feelings. By contrast, in genuine appeals, the entire focus is on the victim, what they might have suffered or be suffering, and an actual appeal for their safe return.

Threat texts In most hostage communications there is a threat to the hostage, either an implicit threat, or one which is explicitly stated. Of course the hijacking/ kidnapping act itself is a direct threat to the life of the hostage, but in a sense the forensic linguist must disregard this point and focus exclusively on the language of the hostage communication. We also need to look at the reciprocal question to that of threat – namely promise. Is a promise stated in each case, and if so, how? Consider the letter below. It concerns the taking of hostages at the OPEC Conference in Vienna in 1975.

Excerpt 8.2 OPEC ransom demand

T

o the Austrian Authorities We are holding hostage the delegations to the OPEC conference. We demand the lecture of our communiqué on the Austrian radio and television network every two hours, starting two hours from now. A large bus with windows covered by curtains must be prepared to carry us to the airport Of Vienna tomorrow at 7.00, where a full- tanked DC9 with a crew of three must be ready to take us and our hostages to our destination.

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Any delay, provocation or unauthorized approach under any guise will endanger the life of our hostages. The Arm of the Arab Revolution Vienna 21/XII/75

What is the threat in the case of the OPEC communication? It seems fairly clear: failure to cooperate will endanger the lives of the hostages. Note that there is no corresponding promise to free the hostages, though it may be argued that this is implied. Now consider the text below, a demand from the kidnapper in the Michael Sams case.

Excerpt 8.3 Michael Sams ransom demand

Y

our employee has been kidnapped and will be released for a ransome of £175,000. With a little luck he should be still O.K. and unharmed, to prove this fact to you will in in the next day or so receive a recorded message from him. He will be released on Friday 31 January 1992, provided: On Wednesday 29 January a ransome of £175,000 is paid, and no extension to this date will be granted. The police are not informed in any way until he has been released. On Wednesday 29th at 4pm (on line 021 358 2281) you will receive a short recorded message from the hostage. To prove he is still alive and O.K. he will repeat the first news item that was on the 10am, Radio 2 news. He will then give further instructions. A second and more detailed message will be given at 5.05 pm the same day. Your watch must be synchronized with the 5pm pips on Radio 2. The location of the second call will be given at 4pm, so transport with a radio must be available. The money must be carried in a holdall and made up as folows, precisely; £75,000 in used £50. £75,000 in used £20. £25,000 in used £10 packed in 31 bundles, 250 notes in each. Kevin Watts (if not the hostage) mst be the person to receive all messages and carry the money to the appointed place. However, please note that all messages will be pre-recorded, so no communication or negotiations can be made. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. HIS LIFE IS IN YOUR HANDS.

Here we do see a kind of promise that the hostage will be returned on payment of the money. However, the phrase ‘With a little luck he should be still ok and unharmed’ is at least equivocal. What has luck to do with it

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163

if this is a straightforward transaction of money in return for the hostage? In passing, observe that although the Michael Sams text is much longer than the OPEC text, both are remarkable for their focus on topic. There is no ‘small talk’, there are no asides. The issues are stated in what could be described as fairly clear terms.

Ingredients of threat texts and ransom demands Essentially, there are four ingredients which we routinely find in texts of this nature. Writers will almost always state the leverage they hold, for example, that they have control over a hostage. This leverage in turn ‘entitles’ them to make a demand. If the recipient does not accede to the demand a threat is made. If the demand is met, then at the least the threat will not be carried out and, by contrast, a promise for the safe return of the victim is made. However, not every ingredient is stated clearly, but may instead be implied. For example, in the OPEC letter, we see that no direct promise to return the hostages is made.

CHAPTER NINE

Forensic transcription

The text is the evidence The task of transcribing forensic texts is frequently underestimated by professionals in the legal profession, law enforcement authorities and even among forensic linguists themselves. It is often assumed that linguists, by virtue of their extensive training in language, are automatically effective at the task of transcription. The complacence that exists about transcription often results in poorly transcribed text, text which is summarized rather than transcribed, and text which is not faithful to the original. There can be no more important task within forensic linguistics than the rendering of a text to a high standard of accuracy. All further analysis of forensic text depends on the care and precision with which that text was initially transcribed. This is beginning to be recognized by some professionals and specialist services are starting to emerge. It is suggested that in the future the forensic scribe will be a specialist in high demand by law enforcement and the legal profession, as well as by some forensic linguists. All of these professions will require the services of highly trained and experienced scribes. Employment opportunities are limited at the moment, but as the importance of this service is realized it is suggested that new opportunities will occur. Ultimately, it is believed, the contribution of the forensic scribe to forensic linguistics will be substantial. Just five years ago, few could have predicted the degree to which forensic linguistics itself would be in demand within the justice system today, nor the interest that it would generate as an area of academic study. As an integral part of forensic linguistics, forensic transcription is set to fulfil a significant role within the justice system.

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What should a forensic transcriptionist aim to achieve? There are at least five aims the transcriptionist should attempt to achieve. 1 To be able to transcribe audio files of varying degrees of difficulty, including broadcasts, telephone calls, conversations, covert or surveillance recordings, and recordings of non-native or distinctive, disabled, inebriated or other speakers of varying dialect and regional groups. 2 To be able to render transcriptions of a variety of written documents to a high standard of accuracy, whether produced in handwriting, on a typewriter, printed, word-processed, or originating as image files. 3 To be able to recognize particular difficulties attached to specific text and audio types, including the difficulties of transcribing conversations containing overlapping speech, distraught or indistinct speakers or speakers in difficulty, the transcription of barely legible handwriting, the problems associated with various types of electronic text. 4 To develop proofreading skills to a high standard to enable (among others) the proofreading of documents in foreign languages (in the Roman alphabet), the proofreading of transcribed audio files, the proofreading of transcribed handwritten texts, the proofreading of documents for security and disidentification purposes, and the proofreading of scanned documents. 5 To score transcriptions on the basis of confidence in the transcription. It is necessary to do this because in cases where there is illegible or inaudible or ambiguous material, the user of the transcription may need to know the degree of confidence reposed in the transcription by the scribe.

What kinds of transcription are there? There are two main types of transcription. The transcription of a written document and the transcription of a video or audio record. Each type of transcription presents its own special problems. For example, a handwritten document may contain illegible handwriting, deletions which render it hard to comprehend, illustrations and drawings which could prove difficult to describe, unusual spellings which result in ambiguous meanings. Scanning typed or printed documents is not always easy either: you will have to ensure that the scanned version does not alter anything from the original. When asked, as a forensic scribe to scan a document, you are always doing

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more than that: you are really undertaking a transcription task, to ensure that the final document is a correct rendition of the original. It is often no easier scanning a short document than it is typing it in yourself: in other words, scanning is not necessarily an easy option. Audio or video recordings also present problems: very often speakers mumble or are indistinct, repeat themselves, hesitate, speak nonsense, and so on. They may also produce non-linguistic sounds, such as laughter, crying or other noises which cannot easily be transcribed. Audio recordings vary enormously with regard to quality: either quality of equipment or quality of the recording process (distance of speakers from microphone, ambient room noises, echoes, etc.). Sometimes the linguist is called on to transcribe using phonetic characters from the IPA (the International Phonetics Association). This is a specialist task you will have learned about on any (advanced) phonetics courses you have undertaken. This is a different task from most forensic transcription work, but even so the forensic scribe or linguist with expertise in phonetics may be called on to do this as well, if it is a matter of some importance how a word is pronounced, or whether a word or utterance is disputed in a criminal or civil case. It is not the case that the scribe will be asked to give an opinion on a disputed utterance, but that his or her findings may assist the linguist or phonetician to arrive at an opinion in a particular case. Conversation analysts (CAs) also have a highly specific way of transcribing conversations. This can be very detailed and demanding work, but in general the forensic scribe’s task is somewhat easier than that of the CA, although there may be occasions when a forensic scribe will need to call on the services of a CA in order to clarify a transcription task, or to improve a transcription. Finally, we should consider the task of the sign language speaker or interpreter who may be called on to write out what a deaf person is saying through BSL (British Sign Language), ASL (American Sign Language) or any of the other sign languages. Phonetic, conversational and sign transcription work is, for the most part, quite separate from forensic transcription work. Most forensic transcription work deals with the transcription of spoken recorded language or of texts such as ransom notes, suicide notes, and so on. The main requirement is accuracy, and implicit in the task is the necessity to make clear the limitations of the transcription: in other words to note where the task was difficult or impossible, due to such matters as illegibility or inaudibility, difficult handwriting or unclear diction, and so on. The scribe should indicate clearly those words or expressions which are ambiguous, or doubtful in some way. Note that it is not the task of the scribe to give a view on the meaning of a text or recording or the psychological state of the writer or speaker. The scribe’s task is to render the text into a written or typed (word-processed) record.

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Transcription exercises of audio material Exercise 9.1 Listen to the tape ‘Huntley looks east’, available at www.bloomsbury. com/forensic-linguistics-9781441170767. Transcribe the tape, correctly identifying the male and female speakers.

Exercise 9.2 Listen to the tape ‘jonny gammage police pull over’, available at www. bloomsbury.com/forensic-linguistics-9781441170767. It is not immediately apparent how many speakers are on this tape – how many can you identify?

Exer cise 9.3

L

isten to ‘Hello hello I’m drowning’, available at www.bloomsbury.com/ forensic-linguistics-9781441170767. Try to transcribe as much of this as possible and score your transcription. Do not be disappointed by the amount of material which is inaudible. There are ways around this problem available to phoneticians and sound engineers, and in such cases the services of these professionals may be requested.

Transcription of written language A text may need to be transcribed for a number of reasons including (1) measurement of the text (word length average, sentence length average, punctuation density, etc.); (2) to enable a linguist to undertake an analysis of its content; (3) to enable a corpus search of words and/or phrases within the text; (4) to add the text to an inquiry corpus for comparative and authorship attribution purposes.

Exercise 9.4

Y

ou will find three .html files called ‘Jon-Benet Ramsey Note 1.htm’, ‘. . . 2.htm’ and ‘. . . 3.htm’ (www.bloomsbury.com/forensic-linguistics9781441170767). These pages together form a handwritten ransom note, or a text which purports to be a ransom note. There are some interesting difficulties in transcribing this note, but you should attempt it.

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Exer cise 9.5 Transcribe the handwritten note ‘BT Suicide I have looked at our 18 years’ (www.bloomsbury.com/forensic-linguistics-9781441170767). Be very careful not to ‘correct’ the writer’s grammar, spelling or punctuation. That is a major danger in transcription of written language.

Exerc ise 9.6

L

ocate the text ‘Will of Mrs K Grundy’ (www.bloomsbury.com/forensiclinguistics-9781441170767) and transcribe it. You will see that there are particular problems in transcribing texts produced on old typewriters. Pay particular attention to the spacing in the doctor’s name. This is exactly how the doctor, who forged the note, wrote his own name and was a clue in the authorship determination of this text. Always pay attention to punctuation and spacing. It can be crucial.

CHAPTER TEN

Forensic authorship in practice

Introduction In this section a number of different types of authorship cases will be discussed. These mainly centre around imitation and fabrication, two common, but underexplored themes in the literature. The orientation of this section is largely practical, but all of it can be related to the theoretical section which precedes this. There are exercises within the chapter, and further exercises at the end of the chapter.

Notes on preliminary procedures On receiving an inquiry, the first task is to separate the texts into their different subcorpora: the questioned texts, and the texts from each suspect (or candidate) author. If the texts have been transcribed by someone else, the transcriptions need to be checked very carefully. The smallest mistranscription can be significant. This book contains a chapter on transcription matters, both from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Particular care needs to be taken to avoid inadvertent correction of a writer’s spelling or punctuation errors. The analyst should also attempt to ascertain that the samples being presented are either complete or representative of what is available. It is not unknown for a person commissioning an authorship examination to be selective as to what is presented for analysis. If this is suspected the work should be declined. In one case a defendant was charged with blackmail. The material which was submitted indicated that he was the likely author of the questioned letters. When this was mentioned to his lawyer the lawyer claimed that the material had been submitted in error and was confidential. Other material was substituted, but it was evident

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that this had been selected from emails with entirely different topics and in a different linguistic register. There were lengthy time intervals between the submitted emails. Clearly, in these circumstances no meaningful analysis could be carried out. It is important when undertaking an analysis to remain completely impartial. The expert should observe both similarities and differences between the questioned texts and each of the candidates. In one case, the first author reviewed a report from another expert and found that that expert appeared to stress the similarities between the suspect’s texts and the questioned texts, and did not fairly point out the differences. It is very important for experts not to fall into this kind of trap. A prosecution witness does not ‘work for’ the prosecution, any more than a defence witness ‘works for’ the defence. Experts are there to assist the court with their expertise. It is not their task to advocate a cause or to ‘get justice’. Those are issues for the court, not the experts. Experts should not research witnesses, victims or defendants on the internet while working on a case. Nor should they take into account what they may have been told or heard about a particular witness or defendant. Such matters are of no concern to the expert witness. It is also important not to be hasty in reaching conclusions. In this section, we will put into practice some of the theory discussed earlier. The examples are all from actual criminal cases. Where possible, all the data are given, though in some cases material has been anonymized.

An example of imitation Victoria Couchman In October 2008, children playing in woods near Hastings in Sussex made a gruesome discovery: a human skull. Police were called and a forensic team conducted a search of the woodland area. Further remains were found and eventually the deceased was confirmed as 19-year-old Victoria Couchman, formerly of Lewes, Sussex, where she had lived with her father. Ms Couchman had never been reported missing by her family, even though she had a young child, cared for by her mother. After Ms Couchman’s disappearance the family received several mobile phone texts from her mobile phone. However, the scientific evidence suggested Ms Couchman would have been dead for some considerable period prior to when the texts were sent. The father came under suspicion and phone texts in the case were submitted for analysis. These are given in Tables 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3.

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Corpus In this case a mobile phone corpus, previously prepared, was used for comparison purposes. This corpus was referred to in the earlier section on theoretical aspects of authorship.

Table 10.1  Questioned texts Hi mum hope you and grandad r ok x my phone is not working but you can still tex me on it mum i no its.been a long time since i tex u mum but i am with steve mum and i am so happy we have a flat and money mum i can go back 2 that life at home mum it was getting me down and i cant de Hi mum x how u and grandad give him my love .iv tex dad to let him no im ok.im gettin a new number soon and i will send it 2 u all .im ok and happy steves so good to me mum. I will tex soon mum love you loads vick.boo.lol.x

Table 10.2  Victoria Couchman texts 1

alrite mum, wot u up 2? send my love 2 grandad. tb love u x x x x x

2

cant wait 2 c u! teletubey lol love u so so much love vick n brat bag rachel x x

3

hi mum, how u doin? Have u got ur results back from the doctors yet? cant wait 2 c u 2moz x x x x love u loads n loads tb

4

go mummy go go mummy text u in a bit eating dinner at mo x x

5

i live in hasting they all wonna b a dealer, just like a gangster, all the girls r up the duff iv had a nuff. Yer blood ave it. X

6

i may b mad but ur sad bet that one then x x x x x x

7

were haveing a roast wot r u like! X x x love u laods x x x x x x x

8

thats wel freky were just text eachother at the same time we love and miss u loads 2 mum x x x

9

hi mum iv had some sleep i feel o.k now thanks 4 ringing i give u a text when lauren gets here o.k love u lodas love all us brates x x x x

10

hi mum, how r u and grandad today? say hi 2 grandad 4 me please, if i dont get a reply in 10 minites than i no u aint got eney credit i try and ring u later love u loads x x x x x

11

u got 2 dail 4444 then liesten 2 ur opstions and when u here then say bolt ons press the the botton i think it 2 u got 2 press and just listen 2 the deals and choice wot u want either free calls but there only free 2 other o2 numbers or get free 1000 text u should go 4 the text 1 its a better deal thanks 4 phone love u loads night x x x x x

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

12

hi mum, hope ur o.k and had a nice day! say hi 2 grandad. were all o.k me and rachel have just made a lion out of plaster wiv a latex moulder she just finished paintin it and now where decorate some gingerbread men wiv some paint iceing and smarties, she loves it bless her. mum u should get a o2 sim card when u put £10 on it u get 1000 texts free its reli good. lauren comein back 2nite eneyway i try and ring u 2morrow take care we love u ldz n ldz x x x x

13

Hi mum, how r u and grandad doing? were all o.k, lauren staying over christians and dad asleep he was up alnite he went wales wiv mark load a van of his mums stuff me and rachel r at dads house chilin out, wot u up 2? love vick and rachel x x x x tb x

14

Hi mum, how u doing? Wot have u been up 2? Me and rachel just been house hunting again 2day, i havent got eney callin credit iv only got free texting but i get joe 2 get some cred 2moz so i can call u. I got my lip done 2day it look nice its only a little stud. Missin u ldz tb love u ldz 2 vick x x x x x

15

Hello mum howare u? Tb x x

16

Hi mum its vicky hope ur o.k miss and love u loads i try and ring u in a min love u loads x x x

17

Good morning mum and grandad. Hope ur both o.k what are your plans for 2day x x vick

18

Hi mum i have 2 get sme more credit iv only got 2op left it was lovely 2 hear u vioce i cant wait 2 c u im lookin forward 2 it so much speak 2 l8r have a nice evenin love u loads loads of kisses and hugs frm all x x x

19

Hi just texin 2 c if ur o.k hope u had a good weekend i miss and love u loads mum thinkin of u loads x x x

20

I love u so much cant wait 2 c u mum. I love and care about u so much have a nice day i ring u in a bit x x x x x x x x x x x x x

21

Hi mum how r u hope ur o.k me, joe and rachel r off to derby now i dont fell that good got a hang over i will ring u later love u loads mum love frm evey1 x x x

22 Morning mum and grandad hope ur both o.k i ring u later have nice day love u both dearly vick x x x X x x x x x x x x 23 Night mum and grandad sweet dreams thinkin about u both loads lots of love frm 24

me,joe,rachel and lauren x x x x x x x x x x x x

25

Mum plz pick up i want 2 know ur o.k and speak 2 u dnt stop speakin 2 me plz i love u mum x x x x x x pick up

26

Mum i love and care 4 u so much its heart breaking that its turned out like this i havent rang u so u can have sme time 2 think about things i got loads of pic of u i always look at them im missin u so much theres not 1 minite when i dnt think bout u and dean i love u so much I wish things wore diffent i rng u in 5 mins love u vick x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

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Table 10.3  Tony Couchman texts 4

She told me she has not gave u it yet as she needs time with out us lot bugin her ok Ill show u tex when u come up X dont take it the rong way she just needs her space x

2

Ok night night x

3

U 2 big hug x

4

Sorry if i upset u. U get some sleep fish lips x

5

Please dont cry u make me upset . Lets talk about happy things x

6

There is not any think any one can do. I want u all 2 be happy that will make me happy .X

7

I dont wont u to feel that way be happy 4 me x

8

Thank u. I have always wonted 2 and im sorry i have not x

9

I dont wont 2 upset u but i need 2 no .If i had longer would u of come back if i ask u 2.Don’t lie 2 me x

10

Can i ask u some think

11

Thats ok i forgive u because i still love u the way i hàve always loved u

12

I now u will. U hàve a good hart

13

We love u 2. It may seem 2 u the kids are not closé 2 you but i no thay want 2bx

14

What u thinking about. Cän i help. I want to b there 4 u 2 x

15

I wish you was here to. U must be sleepe so i will not kéep u up .

16

Thats nicé u think that way . I still love u the way i always did.

17

Thank u 4 today. Sorry if it got u down .I hope u can work it out with kids in time i no thay luv you so dont think thay dont ok.X hope u get hòme ok x

18

Potatos or chips mrs fish

19

Forgot to say its the day vicks baby was due shes ok

20

Ring. Ring......Ring ring......Ring.Ring,....Ring.Ring can u pick up

21

Did the call wake you up ha

22

Boo was you almost asleep ha

23

Its ok shadow. She wont hert u

24

Boo raaa boo raaa

25

Ill huf and ill puf and blow them off

26

My spit will melt them

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27

I will get u in the same eye

28

You cant beat my green giants

29

Boo båck and raaaa

30

Ok night.. . . And u but and heels,x

31

What u up to now. And weres my cup of tea fish face

32

Thats ok .We had fun. Ill tb in mor.Night x

33

Your lips are so big you could make a brige

34

Your the one with heels like bolts

35

Is my tea done fish lips

36

Thay tel me you but is to blame for global warming because of all the gas u let out

37

Ill have one.Why cant u sleep is you but takeing all the blanket x

38

By the way i have rented a 2 setter just for your ass you can sit on the floor x

39

Well now u r coming over we will have to get a big one so your but dont fil out of place

40

I forgot to say to u i need to make a mold for a turkey tra can we use you but x

41

I have not had so much fun in ages thank x

42

Good ñight. Remember keep away from the edge of the platform as the train drive will think

43

your bum hole is the tunål to france

44

What do u mean its real x

45

Its good we can joke like this but now take that joke bum and heels off

46

Pot your feet in the cats bum when u go back up the stairs

47

Dont knock your heels on the stairs as your dad will think your cracking eggs

48

Stop it or you will shit the bed then your dad will have to call the army in

49

Maybe but it would not lift your but x

50

You can sweet the road with a ass like yours x

51

Fish lips .Frog toes . No heel

52

I would like to pay it as i ask u down.So u shut uuuuuuuup alion head

53

If u dont it will upset me so let me pay or leve it you stubbon cow bag

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Analysis The first stage is for you to transcribe each of the above text sets carefully, proof read them and then make notes on the features found in the respective text sets. You may want to work in small teams to do this. Below is an outline of the kind of description one could make in relation to the texts in this case. It cannot be stressed enough that the analyst should be sure to look for all the similarities and differences between the text sets. It is also important to delineate both those features which the candidates themselves share and those which they do not have in common.

Description of candidate features in relation to the questioned texts Victoria and Tony Couchman share a number of features which we also find in the questioned texts, including ‘i no’ for ‘I know’, ‘2 u’ for ‘to you’ and ‘im’ for ‘I am’. It is not unusual to find texters of the same family with shared features, especially if they habitually text each other. Victoria Couchman’s texts shares the following significant feature with the questioned texts: she uses ‘iv’ for ‘I have’, which is rare. There are no instances in the mobile phone corpus of this form and Mr Couchman does not have this feature. Tony Couchman shares ‘ok’ with the questioned texts, which is not in itself rare. However, Victoria Couchman always uses ‘o.k’ with the full stop between ‘o’ and ‘k’. This is very rare in texting. Tony Couchman also shares ‘you’ in its full form with the questioned texts. He also uses ‘u’. The usage of both ‘you’ and ‘u’ is shared with the questioned texts. However, Victoria only uses ‘u’ and not ‘you’. Tony Couchman shares ‘tex’ for ‘text’ in common with the questioned texts. This is a rare form. The closest form to this that Victoria uses is ‘texin’. For ‘text’ she invariably writes the word in full, ‘text’. Tony Couchman uses ‘with’ in its full form, which is also found in one of the questioned texts. Victoria uses ‘wiv’ several times and does not use ‘with’. In the mobile phone text corpus consulted in this case ‘wiv’ is very rare compared to ‘with’. The punctuation style of the questioned texts has more in common with Tony Couchman than with Victoria. Mr Couchman typically either (1) inserts a space before a full stop, for example, ‘u make me upset .’, ‘that will make me happy .’, or (2) leaves no space between letters which are interpolated by a full stop, for example, ‘Ill have one.Why cant u sleep’, ‘mor.Night’. Both of these forms occur in the questioned text, that is, the space before a full stop and the omitted space after a full stop, for example, ‘its.been’, ‘give him my love .iv tex dad’. There are no instances of either phenomenon in Victoria’s texts. The first feature, the space before the full stop occurs in about 8 per cent of users, while the second, the lack of a space after a full stop occurs in about 10 per cent of users. The feature of several

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words connected with a number of full stops which occurs in the questioned texts, that is, ‘vick.boo.lol.x’ does not occur in Victoria’s texts at all, and in a slightly different form in Mr Couchman’s texts: ‘ring. . . . . Ring.Ring’. Although the full form ‘is not’ occurs in both Tony Couchman’s texts and in the questioned texts, no form of ‘is not’ occurs in Victoria’s texts and a comparison cannot be made. Victoria typically signs her texts off with a number of x’s, which is very common. She always leaves a space before the first ‘x’ and between x’s. Mr Couchman usually signs off with just one ‘x’. This is found in one of the questioned texts. The unusual feature of a full stop before an ‘x’, that is, ‘.x’ occurs in the questioned texts and in Mr Couchman’s texts. It does not occur in Victoria’s texts. Victoria usually signs her texts ‘vick’ or ‘vicky’. The second questioned text is signed ‘vick’, but it includes what seems to be a nickname, that is, ‘boo’. Victoria does not use this word at all in any of her texts. However, Mr Couchman uses it on a number of occasions, for example, ‘Boo was you almost asleep’, ‘Boo raaa boo raaa’.

Tabulation of similarities and differences So far we have done no more than describe the principal similarities and differences. It would be premature to reach an opinion on the above basis. It is suggested you prepare three tables: a table showing the features of the questioned texts with columns also showing which features are shared by each of the candidates. Next, prepare a table for each candidate showing the questioned text’s features and which of those are shared. This table needs columns for each of the following headings: Q forms not used by the candidate, Forms used by the candidate not in the Q texts, Rare forms shared by Q and the candidate, and whether the complete range of variation for each feature is the same between Q and the candidate. The features referred to in Tables 10.4, 10.5 and 10.6 have been selected on the basis of those words and expressions in the mobile phone text corpus which have variant forms, for example, YOU, I HAVE, AND. First prepare your table showing the features of the Q texts, with relevant entries for each candidate (Table 10.4). Next, prepare a similar table, but just for each candidate (Tables 10.5 and 10.6). Next, prepare a table summarizing the above findings (Table 10.7). From Table 10.7, we observe that Tony Couchman matches Q forms in all but 2 cases, that he has only 5 forms not in common with Q, that he uses 4 rare forms in common with Q, and that he has 17 out of 24 features with the identical range of variation found in Q. By contrast, Victoria Couchman fails to match Q forms in 7 cases, has 9 forms not in common with Q, uses no rare forms in common with Q and has only 11 features with the same range of variation found in Q.

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It is also important to view, side by side, the extent to which the two candidates share features exclusively with each other and the extent to which they each share exclusively with the Q texts (Table 10.8). Note that Victoria shares only one feature exclusively with Q, and this is a rare feature. By contrast, Tony Couchman shares seven features exclusively with Q, and four of these features are rare or very rare in the corpus. We also see that Q has only one exclusive feature not found in the candidate texts.

Table 10.4  Q features with candidate features Questioned texts

Victoria Couchman

Tony Couchman

and

And, n

and

r

r, are

are, r

back

back, tb [text back]

back, tb [text back]

but

but

but

Can [used instead of ‘can’t]

can

can [used for ‘can’t]

cant

cant

cant

have, iv [as in ‘I’ve’]

have

have

I, i

I, i

I, i

I am

im

im

iv

iv

I have

I will

I will, but auxiliary often omitted

I will, Ill

no

know, no

no, now

love

love

love, luv

my

my

my

ok

o.k

ok

tex

text, tb, texin

tex

that

that

that

time

time

time

was

was

was

you, u

u

you, u

-ing, in-

-ing, -in

-ing, -in

180

Table 10.5  Q features with Victoria Couchman’s features Victoria Couchman

Q forms not used Forms not found in Q

Rare forms in common

Range

and

and, n

n

x

r

r, are

are

x

back

back, tb [text back]

tb

x

but

but

can [possibly erroneously used once for ‘can’t]

can

cant

cant

y

have

have

y

I, i

I, i

y

I am

im

iv

iv

y

I will

I will, but mostly auxiliary is omitted, e.g. ‘I try and ring u later’

x

y can for can’t

I am

x

im

x

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Questioned texts

know, no

know

love

love

y

my

my

y

ok

o.k

ok

o.k

x

tex

text, tb, texin

tex

tex

x

that

that

y

time

time

y

was

was

y

you, u

u

-ing, in-

-ing, -in

with

wiv

with

space before full stop

no space before full stop

space before full stop

no space after full stop

space after full stop

you

x

x y wiv

x x

no space after full stop

FORENSIC AUTHORSHIP IN PRACTICE

no

x

181

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Table 10.6  Q features with Tony Couchman’s features Questioned texts

Tony Couchman

Q forms Forms not Rare forms in Range not used found in Q common

and

and

y

r

are, r

are

x

back

back, tb [text back]

tb

x

but

but

y

can [erroneously can [erroneously used used once for once for ‘can’t] ‘can’t]

can [used for ‘can’t]

y

cant

cant

y

have

have

y

I, i

I, i

y

I am

im

I am

iv

I have

iv

I will

I will, Ill

no

no, now

love

love, luv

my

my

y

ok

ok

y

tex

tex

that

that

y

time

time

y

was

was

y

you, u

you, u

y

-ing, in-

-ing, -in

y

with

with

y

space before full stop

space before full stop

space before full stop

y

no space after full stop

no space after full stop

no space after full stop

y

x I have

x

Ill

x x

luv

x

tex

y

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Table 10.7  Summary of findings Tony Couchman

Victoria Couchman

Q forms not used

2

7

Forms not found in Q

5

9

Rare forms in common with Q

4

0

17

11

Features with identical range of variation

Table 10.8  Features shared exclusively across Q and the candidates Q only T. Couchman only

I am

V. Couchman V. & T. Q & T. only Couchman Couchman

Q & V. Couchman

I have

n

im

cant (for can)

iv

Ill

know

are

ok

now (for ‘know’)

o.k

tb

tex

luv

text

you

wiv

with no space before full stop space after full stop

Taken all in all, therefore, it seems that Tony Couchman’s texts are more consistent with the Q texts than Victoria’s are. The similarities between Mr Couchman’s texts and the Q texts appear to be significant.

Observations There is a tendency for writers who communicate with each other frequently to converge styles, particularly if there is a close relationship between them, either a family relationship or a friendship. It is entirely natural for speakers to ally themselves to those closest to them. As communication accommodation theory (CAT) proposes: ‘individuals use strategic behaviors to negotiate social distance’ (Shepard et al. 2001: 34). Conversely, language behaviours between those in close relationships are likely to reflect the opposite, namely a certain lack of social distance.

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Unless one factors this tendency to converge into an analysis, the danger is that one would not be able to assess the relative importance of the similarities and differences of the various candidate authors in a case. In the Couchman case it was particularly important to take into account the close family relationship between father and daughter, and to realize that this would inevitably play an important part in the analysis. Identity and identification issues are closely related. Speakers use language, inter alia, to construct identities (Sahlstein and Duck 2001: 377). Where there is an attempt to imitate the style of another speaker, the imitator assumes, pro tem, the identity of that person. This will be a lot easier to carry out successfully if there is a close relationship – because of the natural tendency of family members, close friends and even political allies, to converge styles. Because there is an effort to merge identities, the problem of identification can be more difficult. However, in the Couchman case there are both age and gender barriers for the imitator to overcome. To state the obvious, the father is nearly 30 years older than the daughter and is male. Both of these factors will limit the imitator’s ability to carry out a successful convergence in style. However, there are further issues in relation to convergence, as the next section shows.

Sociolinguistic observations It is fruitful to look at authorship issues in the broader framework of sociolinguistics. There is a clear style-shift between Victoria’s known texts and the questioned texts. Separating the texts written to her mother from those written to others, we note the unusual presence in the questioned texts of ‘you’ in its full form. The use of ‘u’, instead of ‘you’ in Victoria’s known texts is not accidental. In her texts to her mother, this is accompanied by frequent expressions of affection, by statements that she misses her and by current news. Other than ‘love you loads’ at the end of the second questioned text we see these topics are less in evidence in the questioned than in the known texts. The ‘love you loads’ at the end of the second text appears to be an afterthought, whereas in the known texts such expressions of affection are integral to the message, and there is a clear desire to include her mother in her life – as evidenced by the news type items, such as mention of the child making a lion out of plaster, running out of phone credit, her father sleeping after driving, and so on. The style shift not only includes changes of variables such as ‘u’ to ‘you, but also topic changes. If Mr Couchman were the author of the questioned texts, he would have had to change certain sociolinguistic parameters in order to present a convincing imitation. The imitator has the task of accommodating to the imitatee’s in-group even though, in cases like the one under discussion, the imitator no longer has access to the particular interlocutor who exemplifies

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the style of that group. While the imitator in this case is familiar with the task of accommodating to the addressee, that is, Victoria’s mother, he is not part of the mother–daughter in-group. The imitator’s usual access to the mother is now being modified by a lens, namely that of having to assume the mantle of the daughter in attempting to make the accommodation. Thus, the barriers to a successful imitation in this case are not merely age and gender, but the limitations of audience design where the imitator is outside of the in-group. In this regard, see Bell (1984) with respect to audience design, and Goffman (1981) regarding participation framework. Imitation is more than copying a person’s style  – it is designing the imitatee’s style for the imitatee’s audience: it depends on adopting the perspective of the imitatee towards the addressee. It is not a purely linguistic operation of altering individual lexical items but requires sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic adjustments.

Textual fabrication It sometimes happens that the signs of textual fabrication are barely apparent. For example, in a recent Scottish case, the defendant was presented by prosecution as having been involved in a VAT fraud. Emails were exhibited which bore her name. The defendant, who was charged with her husband (a non-native speaker of English), denied having authored the emails and nor was she able to suggest how they originated. One of the emails contained the following two phrases.

Excerpt 10.1 Comparative structures 1 Where I can give you the power of Attorney to act on my behalf 2 As I am needing this company urgently

On examination these two phrases appear not to be native speaker like as they are used here. Internet searches reveal that the where ‘the’ occurs immediately before ‘power of attorney’, as in (1) above, the author is often a non-native speaker:

Excerpt 10.2 Textual fabrication 1 Her stepfather gave me the power of attorney on this girl. 2 Since February 2012, my boss was incarcerated and gave me the power of attorney for the company and its financials.

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FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

3 He gave me the Power of Attorney Papers to handle his legal affairs, This come in handy . . . 4 She gave them more than a year She gave me the power of attorney over all medical and legal issues. 5 Prior my departure my father and I went to a notary public which gave me the power of attorney I was talking about earlier.

In excerpt 10.1 (2) ‘As I am needing this company urgently’, the tense used would not always be ungrammatical, as the progressive form (needing), rather than the stative form (need) can be used under some circumstances, for example, in situations where emphasis or contrast is required. However, neither of these is indicated by the content of the questioned email at this point in the text. Item (5) of 10.2 above would be possible, but only one power of attorney is applicable in a given case. In addition, the questioned emails contained the spellings appriciated and appraciated. The defendant was a well-educated native speaker of English. At court, the prosecution dropped the charges against the defendant, and the husband was later found guilty of attempting to defraud Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs of over £5 million.

Collusion In 1992, at the age of 18, AB of County  – in the Republic of Ireland was walking home when he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary. According to witnesses he had assaulted 92-year-old Mrs M at a house in County Dublin at about 3.30 or 3.45 on the morning of Friday 3rd July. Mr B claimed that he did not assault Mrs M, but that she had apparently fallen and, on hearing her cries, he had gone to her and attempted to assist her. According to Mr B, Mrs M had appeared frightened and began shouting at him. Finding he could give her no assistance he then left the scene, after which he was arrested, charged and later convicted of assaulting her. There were many statements in the case, from a variety of witnesses, including police officers who attended the scene. Two statements in particular, those of a brother and sister, are of interest, and are given below.

Excerpt 10.3 Statement of F, a male (aged under 21)

O

n Friday the 3rd of July, 1992 I was awoken by my sister G at approximately 3.30 a.m. She told me that there was somebody beating up a woman outside our front door. I got up out of bed and went

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downstairs. My mother was on the upstairs landing and my dad was in the kitchen. As I arrived in the hall I heard a male voice outside say ‘get down bitch’ and ‘how do you like that bitch’. I went to open the front door but my mother stopped me. I then went back upstairs to the front bedroom which overlooks the front of our house. I looked out the front window and I saw a male standing about ten feet away from our front door. I would describe him as being about 18 years old, about 5’8” and with short black hair. He was also clean shaven. He was wearing dark trousers and he had a black jacket and black shoes. He then walked away about three or four steps and he stopped. He looked back towards our front door and seemed to be thinking about something. I looked down and I saw what I thought was a pair of legs. I thought the legs belonged to a young girl as they were very thin. The male then walked back over to the person lying on our porch and he started to beat her with a piece of wood which he had in his hand. He had this piece of wood in his hand all the time that he was in our driveway. As he was beating her with the wood he said ‘get down, you bitch’ and he hit the person very hard several times. He then poked the person with the piece of wood and said ‘how do you like that, you bitch?’ He reached right back with one particular blow and brought the piece of wood down very hard. He then walked out of our driveway and brought the piece of wood with him. He put the piece of wood on the ground outside our wall and walked past our neighbour’s driveway. He then stopped and came back and picked the piece of wood up and brought it with him. He walked away from our house towards J Ave. I didn’t see him again. I then came back down to the hall and I opened the door after talking to my mother and father and I saw a person covered in blood. The person was calling out ‘Mr. F’. After a few seconds my mother said ‘Oh my God, it’s G___ M____’. We stayed with Mrs. M until the Guards and the ambulance arrived. Mrs M appeared to be badly injured in her left arm as it was covered in blood.

Excerpt 10.4 Statement of G, a female (aged under 18)

O

n Friday 3rd July, 1992 at about 3:45 a.m. I was awoken by what I thought was a growling noise outside. I sleep in the front of the house, overlooking the front porch and driveway. I went to the window and I peeped out. I saw a hand with a piece of wood in it. I then noticed that it was a man holding the wood and that he was beating a woman on the ground. The woman was lying on the ground in our porch. The woman was

188

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

saying ‘you’re crazy’ and ‘stop’. The man then said ‘shut up, you fucking bitch’ and ‘keep your head down’. I then went into the hall and I saw my dad and I then went into my brother F’s room and woke him up. I sat at the top of the stairs and I looked out the window beside the front door. He then stopped and said ‘Are you satisfied now, you bitch?’ I would describe him as about 18 yrs old. He was wearing a black shiny jacket. He had nice, dark trousers on. He was about 5’8” tall. He had dark hair and dark leather shoes. He then walked out the driveway. I did not see him again. F then opened the door and I saw that it was my neighbour from two doors up. I then stayed with her until the Guards and Ambulance arrived.

Chronologically, G is the first witness to the alleged assault. According to her statement she was awoken by a noise outside her house. She describes her bedroom as being at the front of the house, overlooking the front porch and the driveway. She says that she went to her bedroom window and peeped out. She saw a hand with a piece of wood in it. She noticed that it was a man holding the wood and that he was beating a woman on the ground. She says the woman was lying on the ground in the house porch. She says the woman was protesting and the man shut her up by swearing at her and telling her to keep her head down. Later in her statement G describes the alleged assailant in some detail, including his age and height, the colour of his hair, the colour of his trousers and jacket, and the colour of his shoes. She even specifies that his shoes were made of leather. Experience teaches forensic linguists to be extremely cautious about statements which purport to offer precise descriptions, especially when the information given includes claims that the witness saw details which were probably not visible at the time. It is a matter of fact that on 3 July 1992 the sun in County Dublin did not rise until 5.03 a.m. One wonders how a witness would be able to see that a person’s shoes were made of leather in the dark from more than 20 feet away. Strictly speaking, however, this is not a matter for forensic linguistics. However, what is of concern to the linguist is the appearance of several significant similarities between the two statements.

Exercise 10.1

N

ote identical and similar phrases used across both of the above statements and comment on them. Comment on any other matters of linguistic interest in the statement.

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James Earl Reed In 1994, a horrific murder occurred at Adams Run, Charleston, South Carolina. A suspect, by the name of James Earl Reed, was soon discovered and charged. The first author was requested by Reed’s legal advisers to comment on his alleged statement and the investigative report made by the detective working on the case, Detective D. R. Hale. The statement, given below, is an approximately 1,500 word text in the handwriting of Detective D. R. Hale of the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, Charleston, South Carolina, and is dated 19 May 1994.

Excerpt 10.5 Statement of James Earl Reed

O

n Monday, May 16th, 1994, I was in Greenville, South Carolina. I had gotten out of Federal Prison in Manchester, Kentucky on April 22nd. I didn’t know much about Greenville, but I asked around, ended up in a bad area of town, and bought a gun from a black guy there in Greenville. I paid $45 for the gun, which was a silvery colored, somewhat rusty 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. I don’t remember the brand name, but it was a heavy gun. The magazine held 9 rounds and I bought 10 rounds with the gun. The bullets were ball-point rounds. On Monday night I hitchhiked1 down to Charleston. I caught rides with with different people and spent Monday night, Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon on the road. I ended up in Charleston at about 6:30 PM on May 17th, 1994. When I got in town, I telephoned Barbara Lafayette, who lives in Adams Run. Barbara is the mother of Laurie Camberlen, who is my ex-girlfriend. I had a good conversation with Barbara for 10 or 15 minutes. I told her I was out of prison and that I would drop by some time. I called Barbara from the Circle K store at Highway 17 across from the Mazda dealer. Also a BP Gas Mart is next door. On Tuesday night I stayed around the Circle K for a while, then I walked to Citadel Mall and walk through the mall for about 2 hours. Then I walked to the shopping center that has Advance Auto Parts, then I went back to the Circle K. Tuesday night, I slept in the bushes behind Circle K. On Wednesday morning, May 18th 1994, I left my nylon carry bag, (which contained some personal items) and my jacket in the woods behind the Circle K store. I hitch-hiked to Adams Run on Wednesday. I called to rides and got there about 1:00 PM, although I don’t know what time it was because I don’t have a watch. I went straight to the Lafayette’s house. I knocked on the front door, but nobody was there. I got Joseph’s coat off the clothesline and waited in the woods behind the house. I went to the house and I wanted to talk to both Barbara and Joseph about the anger and hurt I felt after spending 2 1/2 years in prison. I waited for a few hours, then

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both Barbara and Joseph pulled up in their small two-door red car. Barbara was driving. She was very surprised to see me. Joseph was non-chalant about seeing me and he shook hands with me, then he went to feed the dog. Barbara opened the door and invited me in. Barbara went in and put her purse on the kitchen table. She asked me if I wanted anything to drink, but I told her no. We went back to the TV room and Barbara turned on the TV. Barbara sat on the couch and I had a seat in a chair to Barbara’s right. Barbara told me that her daughter (Laurie) had remarried and that Laurie’s son, J.R., was doing well. He (J.R.) should be for a half years old now. Barbara and I talked for 20 or 30 minutes. Barbara asked why I got out of trucking (driving a truck) and I explained that I got out of it because of her daughter, Laurie. I was standing near the entertainment center. I told Barbara that I wanted to explain to her and Joseph how angry I felt after being in prison for 2 1/2  years. I told Barbara that I didn’t want to make small talk. I asked Joseph to come into the room; she was in the bathroom and he told me he would be there in a minute. At that point I pulled the gun out. I was standing 6 or 7 feet from Barbara facing her. I was holding the gun in my right hand; it was pointing at Barbara. The gun had 10 rounds it, 9 rounds in the magazine and one round in the chamber. The hammer was cocked and I think the safety lever on the left side of the gun was broken off. I told Barbara ‘See how angry I am’ and gestured at home with the gun. Barbara said something in a panicky voice, and Joseph came out of the bathroom. Joseph said ‘James, what are you doing?’ And he had began with his right hand. My finger was on the trigger. The gun fired and a bullet hit Barbara. I don’t know where Barbara was hit first, but the gun kept going off and Barbara was shaking like she was having a seizure as the bullets hit her. Joseph ran back into the bathroom and I shot at him. He came back out of the bathroom like he was coming at me and I shot him again. Suddenly Joseph was on the hallway floor and the slide on the gun was not back and it was out of bullets. I picked the shell casings up off the floor because I was panicky and didn’t want the evidence lead to me. I put the cases in my right from pants pocket. I ran into the kitchen and dumped Barbara’s purse on the kitchen table and got Barbara’s car keys. As I left the house, Barbara were still sitting on the couch. She was slumped down, her eyes were open, but she wasn’t moving. Joseph was lying in the hallway and he was in a fetal position and his muscles were twitching. I was too scared to telephone help. I went outside and went to the woods and Joseph’s coat, then I went to their car and drove off. As I drove down Laurie Street, I drove past for black males and I stopped the car near them. One of them approached the car and started asking me questions. He was in his late 30’s or early 40’s. He was medium-complexioned, about 5’ 06” to 5’ 08”, and had a medium build. He was asking what was all the shooting about, what was I doing in their car, etc. I just took off and turned

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right onto I74. I drove past the little store on Highway I 74 sort of near the post office in Adams run. A boy about 16 or 17 named Cahajoh tried to wave me down because he recognized me. I kept going. I drove straight onto Hwy I64, then onto Hwy I62 towards Charleston. My intent was to get the hell out of there and drive to downtown Charleston. I passed two police cars with their blue lights on and I decided I had to get rid of the car. I turned right off Highway I62 onto Scott White Road. As I made the first left turn on Scott White Road, I got 9 mm casings out of my right front pocket and threw them out of the window (the passenger window) of the car. I was looking for a place to ditch the car and I turned down a little road to the left. I drove the car in behind a tar paper shack. I grabbed Joseph’s coat and the gun and I got out and started running towards the woods. I left the keys in the car. There were 2 to 4 guys standing about 25 yards away. One of them yelled, ‘Hey, you want to buy anything?’ (meaning by drugs) and I just answered ‘No’ as I ran into the woods. I ran through the woods toward Highway I62, then I followed I62 back toward Charleston. I stayed in the woods where I could see the road and vehicles, but hopefully far enough away so that nobody could see me. Before I crossed Highway I62, I threw the gun away in the woods. I didn’t hide it, I just threw it behind me. I then ran out to the roadway and saw a tree stump. On the other side of the road was a driveway with large white rocks, and nearby was a dark wooden fence. A little further down was a white wooden fence. I hitched a ride back to the Circle K on Highway 17 near the Mazda dealership. I got my bag and my coat from behind the Circle K. I hitched another ride to the Montague Exit off I-26. I walked across to the on-ramp and another ride with someone in a short van and he took me 5 miles down the interstate to another exit, which had a Taco Bell, a Home Depot, and a K-Mart. Then I got another ride up I-26 for about 20 or 30 miles at least. I ended up at a BP Mart and went to the on-ramp and stayed in woods overnight. Then on Thursday morning at about 8:30 AM I got arrested by a Dorchester County Sheriff’s Deputy. I cooperated and I offered no resistance.

The statement describes how Mr Reed left the federal penitentiary at Manchester, Kentucky in April 1994, how he arrived at Greenville, purchased a weapon and some ammunition and how he then travelled to Charleston, South Carolina, arriving on 17 May, the day before the shooting at Adams Run. It then refers to Mr Reed’s phone call to Mrs Lafayette on the evening of 17th, of how he passed the night, and of how he went to the Lafayette house on the 18th, met with the Lafayettes and shot them, then departed the scene in their car and drove to Scott White Road where, according to the statement, he ditched their vehicle and got rid of the gun and casings. The statement concludes with Mr Reed’s arrest the following morning.

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Detective Hale’s report covers the night of 18 May 1994 following the shooting of the Lafayettes at Adams Run, Charleston, when Detective Hale was requested to attend the local hospital. They also cover the events of the following day when the defendant, James Earl Reed, was interviewed by Detectives Hale and Coaxum.

Excerpt 10.6 Detective D. R. Hale’s Investigative Report 5–18–94 1910

Beeped by Headquarters advised to respond to Medical University Hospital in reference to double shooting in Adams Run.

1943

Arrive at Medical U. Hosp. – B, M subject is dead

1945

Speak to Sgt. Tague via telephone – advised that B M subject was dead Wounds to victim – through and through to head – apparently entered the B side; 2 or 3 chest wounds – both on right and left side of chest – through & through to chest (?); apparent gunshot wound to lower abdomen. Appears to have been shot at least 4 or 5 times.

1954

leave Medical University Hosp. – proceed to Adams Run.

2028

Arrive on Laurie Road Report to Sgt. tague – advised to canvass crowd for witnesses Interview people in crowd of random – apparently all witnesses have already been interviewed. Assisted by Det. Fields

2200

Leave Laurie Road with Sgt. Tague – proceed to Plymouth Avenue Boat Landing to investigate suicide (94–040427 B)

(5–19) 0010

Arrive back at Laurie Road with Sgt. Tague Assist with processing scene – hold yardstick, tape measure, etc, for Deputy Presnell

0145

(Approximately) – locate 9m brass case (Winchester brand) in bathroom, next to sink counter under a piece of newspaper.

0217

- leave scene – proceed home.

0925

Arrive at Headquarters

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Interview suspect – Verbally mirandize – have suspect (James Reed) sign written Miranda waiver. Det. S. Coaxum is present. I/O left room and allowed Det. Coaxum to speak to suspect

1100

Det. Coaxum advises I/O that suspect had admitted to shooting the two victims and would show deputies where the gun had been thrown into the woods

1130

Leave headquarters with suspect

1200

Arrive on Hwy. I62 near Towles Road – search in woods for gun. Landmarks – white fence, dark fence, white rocks near drive, stump across highway – on I62 east of Towles Road.

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Assisting in search – Det. Fields, Tittle, Lt.Smoak, Dep McMicking, Deputy Presnell, Det. Coaxum Failed to locate gun in the woods Proceed to Scott White Road – to location where suspect ditched vehicle dirt lane off Scott White Road that connects with Towles Road Proceed to Scott White Road at sharp curve – gravel piles – Reed stated that he threw casings out the window at the curve, Did not locate casings. 1443

Leave Scott White Road – proceed back to headquareters. Stop and purchase lunch at KFC for suspect

1630–1950

Obtain written statement from suspect

2000

Leave for Jail with Reed

2030

Incarcerate Reed in Main Jail

2040

10–42

According to Detective Hale’s notes he and Detective Coaxum began interviewing Mr Reed at 9.50 on the morning of 19 May, when the suspect was verbally mirandized (cautioned). Detective Hale left the interview room at some point and we are told that at 11.00 a.m. Detective Coaxum informs the I/O (Investigating Officer, that is, Detective Hale) that the suspect had admitted to shooting the victims and would show the officers where the weapon had been discarded. The statement time record gives a slightly different chronology from the detective’s report. It states that the morning interview session began at 9.50

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and ended at 10.30, while the report states that Detective Hale was not informed of Mr Reed’s admission until 11.00 a.m. Since the reason the session was ended is given as the need to search for the weapon, then it is an important question as to when the interview actually ended. We note from Detective Hale’s investigative report that the statement itself was not actually obtained until the evening. Detective Hale’s report states how the detectives left the office at 11.30 to search for the weapon which they claim Mr Reed offered to assist them to do. According to the statement Mr Reed left the Lafayette residence in their car, drove to Highway 162, and then turned off that road onto Scott White Road in order to dispose of the car. He then runs into the woods, discards the weapon and emerges back onto Highway 162, apparently sees a stump and a dark and a white fence, and then goes back to Highway 17, to the Circle K.

When was the investigative report completed? We cannot be certain when the investigative report written by Detective Hale was completed. It may have been completed several days after the events of 19th May. In any event, the language used in the report appears to indicate that the report is not contemporaneous because it starts out using the past tense and immediately switches to the historical present, occasionally reverting to the past tense. Thus it shows some of the features of a kind of summary narrative. The report is not stamped as having been received by the department until 15 June 1994.

Who wrote the investigative report? Although the report is nominally in the name of the detective completing it, Detective D. R. Hale, it seems that he may have consulted Detective Coaxum when completing it, or even that he used Detective Coaxum’s notes. In the opening paragraph of page 2, under the heading ‘0950’, the report states ‘I/O [Detective Hale] left room and allowed Detective Coaxum to speak to suspect’. At 11.00 the report states that ‘Detective Coaxum advises I/O [Detective Hale] that suspect had admitted to shooting the two victims’. From this it seems reasonable to ask why Detective Hale refers to himself in the third person in his own report, that is, as the ‘I/O’. I suggest that this phrase may have come from another written source, and that that source may be Detective Coaxum’s notes, for example, ‘I/O left room’, ‘I advised I/O that . . .’. If this is true, then it is even possible that Detective Coaxum’s notes are not contemporaneous if he wrote ‘I/O left room’ in them, since if he had written them contemporaneously he would more likely have written

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‘(Time): I/O leaving room’ or ‘(Time): I/O leaves room’. It is singular that there is no record of the actual time that Detective Hale left the room nor of the time he returned to it: indeed, one is forced to wonder whether he left the room at all. If he did do so, then we can perhaps assume that he returned at 11 a.m. because that is when Detective Coaxum informs him of Mr Reed’s alleged admission. Since this is important news he is not likely to have waited to tell Detective Hale, and Detective Hale is not likely to have been in the room when Mr Reed made this admission, since there would not have been any need to tell Detective Hale of the admission had he been present.

Exerci se 10.2 Note any similarities between the statement and the report and comment on them. Is the language of the Reed statement likely to have been spoken by an ordinary speaker?

In police statements it is sometimes found that police officers will report the language of a suspect in what is known as ‘police speak’ or police register, that is to say language which is institutional or official in character, as opposed to the normal everyday language we would associate with most speakers. Because this often leads to the content of statements being disputed, many police departments throughout the United States now either tape record suspect interviews or ask suspects and witnesses to complete statements in their own handwriting. Because of the nature of police work, it is noticeable that police register has a number of characteristics which set it apart from ordinary everyday language. The main requirement of police language is that it needs to be efficient and compact. This leads to set phrases, dense wording in an impersonal, official style with precise renditions of time, place and sequence and precise descriptions of objects. In the statement we have a number of examples of such phenomena.

Exerci se 10.3 List examples of language which appears in an impersonal, official style in the Reed statement with your own reasons and commentary for your selection.

Does Mr Reed’s own use of language correspond to the language of the statement?

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Reed’s own written language indicates a low level of language ability. He does not always appear to know the difference between how to use an adjective and a noun, and other categories of speech; many of his sentences run into each other and there is almost no punctuation. An example is given below:

Excerpt 10.7 An example of James Earl Reed’s language

T

HE TRUTH A INNOCENCE MAN A INNOCENCE LADY TELL THEIR POLICE DETECTIVE INVESTIGATOR THE TRUTH THAT THEY ARE INNOCENCE YET THAT INNOCENCE MAN THAT INNOCENCE LADY NOW GO TO JAIL WERE THEY AWAIT A PUBLIC DEFENDER WHO FROM THE VARIOUS STEREOTYPES PUT UPON VARIOUS CRIMES MEET YOU THINKING YOU ARE GUILTY YET I HAVE TO LISTEN WERE THE INNOCENCE MAN OR LADY DONT KNOW ANY BETTER THEY TRUST THE PUBLIC DEFENDER WHILE AWAITING TRIAL THAN COME TRIAL THE PUBLIC DEFENDER PUT ON A SHOW IN COURT DOING HIS OR HER JOB WERE THE INNOCENCE MAN OR LADY DONT KNOW ANYTHING ESLE YET THEIR LAWYER MAKE THEM LOOK AND SOUND GUILTY THAN THAT INNOCENCE MAN OR LADY NOW GO TO PRISON NOW GO TO DEATH ROW WAKE UP

From the above excerpt we see that Mr Reed’s written language is very striking. The function of ‘listen’, line 6, is uncertain. Does he mean ‘you have to listen’, or does he mean ‘I have to state (so that you listen)’? The meaning of ‘were’ is uncertain. Is it a misspelling for ‘where’, for example? Note also the usage of ‘innocence’ as an adjective. In a number of cases, we cannot be sure where one sentence ends and another begins, for example: ‘Yet I have to listen were the innocence man or lady dont know any better they trust the public defender while awaiting trial’. Only five clausal conjunctions are used (‘yet’ × 3; ‘than’ [sic] × 2)  further adding to the difficulty of interpretation. The style of the language is extremely repetitive, with ‘innocence’ used no less than eight times in the short excerpt shown here. Measurement of many texts over the years indicates that a word used more than three times in the space of 100 words would be perceived by most readers as repetitive.

Concluding remarks on Reed’s use of language Reed’s use of language is both obsessive and repetitive. It is also ambiguous. Grammatically, it lacks even the basics of successful communication and

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leaves a heavy burden of interpretation on the reader. Reed cannot be described as an articulate user of the language. In contrast to Reed’s known written language, the language of the statement reflects an articulate user of the language, someone who is able to express himself more than adequately by, for example, presenting a coherent narrative of some complexity and length.

How long did the statement take to write down? According to Detective Hale the statement commenced to be taken at 16.30 and was completed at 19.50. Thus, a 1,500 word statement takes some 200 minutes to write out, which is an average of 7 words per minute. Most people experienced at taking down defendant and witness statements average approximately 25 words per minute. I suggest the reportedly slow pace of the statement in this case adds weight to the idea that the language of the statement must have originated as a question and answer section. Mindful of the identical reverse sequence of a section of the investigative report and the part of the statement that deals with the drive from the Lafayette’s house to the point where the weapon was allegedly discarded, it seems plausible that the two documents are dependent on each other for their production.

Exercise commentaries Exercise commentary 1 Turning to G’s statement, it seems curious that he has described the same physical features of the alleged assailant, in terms very similar to the terms in which his sister describes them. He describes seven features, while his sister describes six (Table  10.9). Of the seven features he describes, six happen to be the same features his sister describes. This level of detail is unlikely to have been arrived at by the two witnesses independently of each other. Note that, additionally, F describes the assailant as ‘clean shaven’. This is, essentially, a negative – that is, he did not have a beard or moustache. Why would a witness mention a negative? Below are further notes on the above statements and other data in the case. You are not expected to have noted all of this in your answer to this exercise, but you might find the information helpful. The term ‘police register’ is used to describe the kind of language police officers use in the course of their duties. It is an official, institutional language which has been documented by a number of linguists, including Coulthard (1994). See also Fox (1993). One indication of police register in

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Table 10.9  Descriptions of the alleged assailant G

F

I would describe him as about 18 yrs old.

I would describe him as being about 18 years old

He was wearing a black shiny jacket.

. . . he had a black jacket

He had nice, dark trousers on.

He was wearing dark trousers

He was about 5’8” tall.

about 5’8”

He had dark hair and dark leather shoes.

Short black hair . . . black shoes

the statements is the use of ‘person’: walked back over to the person, hit the person, poked the person, saw a person, the person was calling out. This is very unusual in natural speech. Another feature of police register is the use of then. In his analysis of the Derek Bentley statement, Coulthard notes that postposed then is a particular feature of police register. Postposed then is the phenomenon that occurs when the word then is positioned after the subject, for example, ‘He then came into the room’, as opposed to the more usual form where then occurs before the subject, for example, ‘Then he came into the room’. Svartvik (1968) had commented on the high number of postposed then instances in his analysis of the statements of Timothy John Evans, hanged for the murder of his wife at 10 Rillington Place, but afterwards granted a posthumous pardon when it emerged that John Christie had murdered seven women at that address where he also concealed their bodies. Here are some of the examples from Evans’s statement that capture the author’s use of ‘then’.

Excerpt 10.8 Example: postpositioning of ‘then’

I

then found she was in debt with the rent. She then hit me back with her hand. I then took her into the bedroom and laid her on the bed with the rope still tied round her neck. I then came back upstairs. I then made my baby some food and fed it I then went back to the kitchen and smoked a cigarette. I then went downstairs when I knew everything was quiet I then tied it up with a piece of cord from out of my kitchen cupboard. I then slipped downstairs and opened the back door

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Analysing the Bentley statement, Coulthard observed that there are 10 occurrences of then in the space of 582 words. This is a much higher frequency than normal, as Coulthard noted. For example, the Cobuild Corpus of English at the University of Birmingham gives an average frequency of then as once every 500 words. Even more striking is the frequency of postposed then in the Bentley statement. In a corpus of spoken language (the BCET corpus) consulted by Coulthard, postposed then occurs approximately 10 times less frequently than ordinarily positioned then. This shows both corpora, Cobuild and BCET, to exhibit – independently of each other  – a very similar frequency of then and it shows the rarity of postposed then. From this Coulthard concluded that postposed then, especially the phrase ‘I then’ appeared to be a feature of police register (Coulthard 1994: 32–3). Although Svartvik  – who has been described as the ‘father of forensic linguistics’  – did not use the term ‘postposed then’, he did observe the same phenomenon, and came to nearly the same conclusion that Coulthard did, namely that postposed then was not a usual feature of spoken language. Turning to the statements of G and F, we find many instances of postposed then, in the excerpts in Table 10.10.

Table 10.10  Use of postposed ‘then’ G

F

I then noticed that it was a man holding the wood

I then went back upstairs to the front bedroom

The man then said ‘shut up, you fucking bitch’

He then walked away about three or four steps

I then went into the hall and I saw my dad

The male then walked back over to the person

and I then went into my brother F’s room

He then poked the person with the piece of wood

He then stopped and said ‘Are you satisfied now, you bitch?’

He then walked out of our driveway

He then walked out the driveway

He then stopped and came back and picked the piece of wood up

G then opened the door

I then came back down to the hall and I opened the door

I then stayed with her until the Guards and Ambulance arrived

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In case it should be thought that postposed then is only a feature of UK police register, it is, in fact, found across English-language speaking police forces worldwide. Instances of it have been found in US and Australian police statements, in addition to UK police statements. In the present case, we are dealing with statements from the Republic of Ireland, and we see that postposed then also occurs in written statements from the Republic. In G’s statement all instances of then are postposed. The 236 word statement contains no less than 8 instances of postposed then. In F’s statement, consisting of 466 words there are 7 instances of then, all of them postposed. Thus, in these two statements the density of postposed then is even higher than Coulthard found in the Bentley statement, one approximately every 47 words. The three officers most concerned with AB’s arrest also use postposed then: Garda A I then cautioned the youth that he was not obliged to say anything Garda B He was then placed in the patrol car and conveyed to XYZ Garda Station Garda C I then drove around onto the X Av and of the laneway to meet them I then proceeded to drive to Y Garda Station Garda A then cautioned B that he was not obliged to say anything

Exercise commentary 2 You probably observed that the landmarks given in the statement and those given in the detective’s report are in the exact reverse order (Table 10.11). How can we account for these similarities? First, it is possible that Reed told the detectives of the landmarks before they left the police station. These may have been noted down by one of the detectives. In that case, we may ask why they are given in the officer’s report in reverse order? Is it possible that the detective was working backwards from the last given landmark? This seems unlikely since the statement implies that Reed was able to see most of the landmarks from one position. We may also ask if it is feasible that Reed would have remembered all of the landmarks, and the precise order in which he had seen them. This seems unlikely, unless he had made a special note of them at the time. However, considering that he apparently wanted to leave the

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Table 10.11  Landmarks 1 white fence

7 . . . first left turn on Scott White Road . . . threw [casings] out of the window

2 dark fence

6 . . . looking for a place to ditch the car

3 White gravel rocks near drive 4 stump across highway ...

... 5 . . . threw the gun away in the woods 4 . . . ran out to the roadway and saw a tree stump

5 Failed to locate gun in the woods

3 On the other side of the road was a driveway with large white rocks

6 Proceed to Scott White Road – to location where suspect ditched vehicle . . .

2 . . . nearby was a dark wooden fence. 1 A little further down was a white wooden fence.

7 Proceed to Scott White Road at sharp curve – gravel piles – Reed stated that he threw casings out the window at the curve . . .

scene quickly, this seems doubtful. In any case the landmarks themselves are rather nondescript. Moreover, the landmarks are recorded only at the end of the statement, and according to the detective’s report the statement was completed in the evening, between 4.30 p.m. and 7.50 p.m. It does not seem likely, therefore, that Reed mentioned the landmarks before the police officers took him out to locate the weapon. It is suggested that the level of cross-matching between the statement and Detective Hale’s investigative report forces us to doubt either the report or the statement or both. The fact that the order of events and landmarks is reversed, gives a strong indication that Detective Hale was attempting to disguise the fact that he was copying from one document to produce the other. It is the kind of technique often used by students when plagiarizing from the internet or other sources in order to mask the fact that they are copying. It would be for a court to determine these facts, and to ascertain what it was that motivated Detective Hale to carry out such an extraordinary procedure when compiling the case documents. An Esda examination of the original documents may assist the process and can be carried out by any well-equipped forensic laboratory. Such an examination should include any other notes held by Detective Hale and all of the notes held by Detective Coaxum, as well as any custody record

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at the police headquarters kept by other staff. In the absence of actual contemporaneous notes of the detectives’ visit to the investigation site we are unlikely to know exactly how the reverse match, described earlier, came about. It may simply be the case that the detective listed the landmarks in his notebook at the time and then put them in the statement in reverse order in order to disguise the fact that the statement had the same landmarks. Unfortunately, courts rarely have time to examine police evidence in this amount of detail. Moreover, it is a regrettable fact that few are motivated to do so, or are simply somewhat gullible when it comes to accepting police evidence. Unless the defence barrister or attorney is unusually astute and determined, such inconsistencies are seldom exposed. The observations made here as to these inconsistencies are not a commentary on whether Reed was innocent or not. We simply do not know. This is unacceptable. When a person is charged with an offence which could result in the death penalty then it behoves a court to ensure that there is proper process and procedure. In the United States this is a constitutional guarantee. We will be looking at the language of the constitution elsewhere in this book. James Earl Reed was executed by the state of South Carolina in 2008.

Exercise commentary 3 Table 10.12  Table of examples of anomalous language from the statement Example

Comment

a silvery-colored, somewhat rusty 9 mm semi-automatic pistol

A long nominal phrase including a compound adjective (silvery-colored), a qualifier (‘somewhat’), a qualitative assessment adjective (‘rusty’), a technical description of bore (‘9 mm’), a further compound adjective (‘semi-automatic’), a noun (‘pistol’). Unlikely to be used by most ordinary speakers in this way. Probably several phrases in the original. It is also likely to be a technical description by someone professionally familiar with firearms, that is, a police officer. Note especially ‘9 mm’ and ‘pistol’.

I ended up in Charleston at about 6.30 PM on May 17th, 1994

Speaker is more likely to have said ‘the day before yesterday in the evening’ or something similar. Note that a little later in the statement, Reed states that he did not know the time because he did not have a watch.

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Example

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Comment

I called Barbara from the Circle K store at Highway 17 across from the Mazda dealer. Also a BP Gas Mart is next door.

An ordinary speaker is unlikely to have given such a detailed geographical description in one phrase.

I left my nylon carry bag

The phrase is unlikely to have been spoken like this, especially the word ‘nylon’.

personal items

Sounds like official language, used by police departments, hospitals, etc.

Barbara and Joseph pulled up in their small two-door red car.

Precise nominal phrase containing a series of adjectives and adjectival phrases. Sounds like an official description. Given the circumstances would the suspect, or any ordinary speaker, have remembered that the car had two doors? The word order (position of ‘red’) is also unusual, making the whole phrase somewhat awkward.

the slide on the gun was locked back

Sounds like someone who knows about firearms

I picked the shell casings up off the floor . . . I put the cases in my right front pants pocket.

Description is too precise and detailed for a single phrase.

I drove past four black males

Sounds very precise as to number. Also ‘males’ sounds like a police description. Why would Mr Reed, an African American state that these people were ‘black’?

I got the 9 mm casings out of my right front pocket

We already know they are ‘9 mm’. It is unnecessary information at this point. It seems like an effort to tie the suspect to the casings. Also, ‘right front pocket’ is unnecessary for the same reason. In this context ‘pocket’ would have been sufficient.

I then ran out to the roadway and saw a tree stump. On the other side of the road was a driveway with large white rocks, and nearby was a dark wooden fence. A little further down was a white wooden fence.

A very detailed description of a scene and one unlikely to have been remembered in this amount of detail by an ordinary speaker. Note also the position of then.

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Summary of language examples given in Table 10.12 The statement gives an apparently coherent narrative of the alleged events surrounding the shooting of Mr and Mrs Lafayette. However, the language of the statement indicates that at least some of its content is unlikely to have originated with an ordinary speaker, but in a number of instances the language has a strong resemblance to police register. It is disturbing that there are so many examples of attempts at technical, factual or linguistic precision.

Exerci se 10.4

B

elow are two statements, one of which has been altered. Transcribe the sections where there are differences and discuss those differences. This is both a transcription exercise, an exercise in authorship and a study in discourse.

Excerpt 10.9 Statement A

I

am a Police Constable in the South Yorkshire Police, presently stationed at Rotherham. At 0900 hours, on Saturday, 15 April 1989, I was on weekly leave duty but due to the football match duties with the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest semi-final game at Hillsborough, I attended at Main St Police Station. On arrival at Main St, I, along with several other Officers, was conveyed by coach to the Hillsborough football ground, arriving there for a briefing in the Hillsborough football ground for around 1000 hours. The briefing took place and I was directly under the command of Inspector Ellis on Sector 14. I was on serial 37 under the serial Sergeant, Sergeant Kennedy from C2. The duties for that day were to attend at the Wadsley railway station and to await the arrival of the train that was carrying the Liverpool supporters. My duties, along with other officers, was to search the supporters at random as they left the railway station, prior to them being escorted to the ground by Sgt France and his officers, who were also present with us and whose duties were to escort the supporters to the Hillsborough ground. Police Sgt France was officer in charge of serial 36. On arrival of the train, which consisted only of the one train and which I understood was to have on board 550 supporters, came as a surprise as only one train arrived and in total I would estimate about two hundred supporters in all were on board.

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These supporters appeared to be in good humour and very friendly, none appeared to have been drinking and they consisted of ‘family’ type supporters. Prior to the arrival of the train several hundreds of supporters, all of whom I believe to be Liverpool supporters, were making their way along Halifax Road, past the railway station and down toward the football ground. Many of these supporters were seen to be carrying not only six-packs of beer and lager, but 12 packs EACH. They were also seen drinking beer/lager from a large two litre plastic bottles and they appeared to be in a jovial, happy mood, some being rather boisterous. My attention was drawn to a group of six to eight male supporters across the opposite side from the Wadsley Railway Station. One of these youths aged about sixteen to seventeen, was totally drunk and I, in company with Police Constable 1429 Bashforth, cross the road and spoke to the unknown youth. He was a very unsteady and worse the wear the drink. He was sitting on a small wall and appeared unable to stand unaided. The Police Constable Bashforth spoke to the older member of the group and told him that the younger man would not be let in the ground in that state. The older man was reasonable and understanding and said he would arrange someone to stay with the younger man. They then continued on their way, assisting the young man along. He was not arrested, firstly because his friends were helping him along and secondly, due to the amount of passing supporters in comparison to Police presence, to do so may have resulted in Police injuries. The day itself was very hot and I was approached many times whilst in the location of the Wadsley railway bridge/station, asking which Public Houses were open. Although Public Houses were in that immediate area, many had their doors and windows boarded up. I was unable to assist in these enquiries, firstly because I do not know the area, and secondly, it appeared that they had drunk enough alcohol without going in search of any more. I would estimate that we had been at the railway Station for three hours when the train arrived. As previously stated, the supporters were good natured and well-behaved and made their way Under Police escort to the ground. The serial I formed part of also escorted the supporters from the train down to the football grounds, arriving on the front of Leppings Ln. I would estimate that the time was just gone 1400 hours, that day and Leppings Ln was very busy with supporters on foot. I was under the impression that very few supporters made any positive attempt to enter the ground and several unknown (to me) senior Officers (ie Inspector level) came to me and other Officers shouting for us to get the supporters into the ground.

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In our small group of Officers it was almost impossible to get the crowd to move to the turnstiles. The crowd would not form any orderly queues and pushed constantly against each other. Several supporters went up onto the grass banking owned by the tyre fitting company directly opposite to the Leppings Ln entrance. Officers were unable to get these supporters back onto the roadway. This group of probably 40 to 50 supporters were drinking heavily, supping from large plastic two litre cannisters and tin cans of beer and lager, etc. I, along with what appeared only a few Police Officers, made hopeless attempts to get the supporters into the ground. It was, as I at the time described, ‘LIKE STIRRING PORRIDGE’. Everyone went wherever they pleased. Many supporters would approach and ask me how to get into a certain area within the ground but unfortunately, I know nowhere either inside or outside the ground. The coloured tickets did not help as I was unable to see the colour coded boards on the turnstile entranceways. I feel that they should have been situated well above head height, so that supporters to the rear of the crowds could have seen the correct queue that they were required to get into. What was in fact happening, was that supporters were choosing what they thought was a queue. At around 1445 hours, the crowding became intense and shoulder to shoulder pushing and heaving was taking place. Still, no one appeared to know where they were heading for. I saw at this stage supporters with young children aged approximately ten years old, now walking away from the crowds and one man commented to me that it was ‘BLOODY DISGUSTING’ and he said that the organisation was pathetic. The crowding was very tight and it was becoming difficult to raise my arms from my side. To be closely compact was becoming clostrophobic and because we were so close, the smell of stale ‘ale’ on the breath of the supporters was strong. I had with me my personal radio but it was difficult to hear transmissions. At around 1450 hours, I heard a voice almost pleading with the Control to have ‘the gate’ opened. By now supporters were climbing over the entrance wall and I saw an Officer trying to prevent this happening. The Mounted Officers at this location were so tightly packed that they were virtually useless, not being able to move. (Inspector ELLIS on car spoke to crowd on tannoy). A short while later I heard a call over the radio for all available Officers to enter the ground. I assumed that a pitch invasion had occurred and I, with other Officers from Serials 36 and 37, attempted to enter the ground by the left entrance concertina gates. I was the last Police Officer to enter the ground in company with Police Constable 1266 ADSHEAD. I began to follow the other Officers when I heard a call from behind me. It was the gateman at the location and he was unable to close the gate after us due to the crowd pushing the gates open. I returned with

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Police Constable ADSHEAD and forcibly pushed outside the ground the invading supporters and by brute strength, pulled the concertina gate together. In fact, the gateman was unable to efficiently carry out his duties and did not appear to be physically strong enough, without regard to mentally strong enough, to say ‘NO’ to the supporters who were trying to enter by force. I, with Police Constable ADSHEAD, then made an attempt to catch up with Serial 36/37 but due to the crowd inside the ground, got only as far as the rear of the side terraces/seating area (left side). One man with his young boy shouted to us to get in the ground and help out. He was very annoyed as well as emotional, but I did not reply. We did not get any further into the ground and eventually Police Constable Adshead and myself returned outside the ground to the front, right side of Leppings Lane. (Our backs were near to the bridge and river). I was still not aware of what had actually taken place and many people emerging from the ground, being male and female alike. They were crying and annoyed as well as bitter towards the Police. Frustration was shown by the supporters and a bitterness towards Police. Several of these supporters were coughing and choking and very upset. Some came out without shoes on their feet and some no shirts on. I heard a radio request for several ambulances to attend at the Leppings Ln end of the ground and for the attendant of the Fire Service with cutting equipment. My impression when the fire service were called upon was that due to the compactness of the crowd, people had started to dehydrate, although I was unable to understand as to why cutting equipment was required. Many supporters got out of the ground said it was terrifying inside and several had been injured. The fleet of ambulances arrived at the same time as did the fire tenders. A senior fire Officer approached me to establish what was happening and where did the Police require them to attend. I was unable to assist and directed him to an Inspector standing nearby. This confusion went on for some time until I made my way down the right side of the ground were taken from. I was then shocked to see and count ten bodies lying on the ground, some tendered to By Police Offices and others overseen by St John’s first aiders. No screens were at this time around the bodies, and it was obvious that they were in fact dead. I recall speaking to Police Constable LIPSKI and saying that I had counted ten dead at the top side and he said that it was rumoured that about 60 were feared dead at this time. I stayed near to the ten dead bodies, forming a human chain to protect the bodies from the supporters leaving the ground. Several male supporters were distraught and began visibly fighting with their friends on seeing the bodies and

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they totally lost control of themselves. Their colleagues held onto them and in fact received punches and kicks from their mates. I heard the comment from one man who said to me, ‘YOU GOT IT WRONG THIS TINE DIDN’T YOU MATE?’ Other comments were, ‘YOU’VE KILLED ‘EM YOU BASTARDS.’ I was kicked on the right knee with one youth who was fighting a man and another spat at me on the side of the head. Even at this time I was unclear as to what had occurred or gone wrong. In an attempt to clear the pushing crowds who insisted in leaving by the only gate available for use by the emergency services, I, with another group of Officers, none from my serial, went just inside the outer gate led by another middle aged Sergeant, whom I do not know. We tried to form a line to get the crowd to clear the area to leave room for the emergency services, but we were met by abuse and offers of violence whenever we tried to move them on. We tried to be diplomatic and caring when moving the crowd on but they had become hostile towards us. However, TWO supporters were excellent, one was aged about 55 years and he appealed to the crowd to leave quickly to allow the emergency services access. Another young man aged about 25 years, was also excellent and appealed to the crowd in a similar manner. This young man was attacked by another man and I intervened to stop the attacker. In fact, the crowd were now taking more notice of the two supporters than the Police and as such, we left it to them to appeal to the crowd. I later spoke to the younger man and thanked him for his assistance although he had received abuse and violence towards him. I did not obtain his personal details but believe he assisted well in moving on the crowd. It was in fact on speaking to this young man, that I was for the first time made aware of what had gone wrong. (He had been in the ground and had managed to escape). As the crowd dispersed more thinly we returned outside the gate used by the emergency services and I saw Police Transit vans being used to convey the dead bodies from outside the ground. Whilst at this location, after some unknown amount of time had passed, Police Sergeant KENNEDY came to me and I, with other Officers, made my way to the Wadsley Railway Station on foot (as per plan). The moving of traffic on Halifax Rd had almost come to a standstill and supporters on foot made their way up the road away from the ground. Many of the supporters were dishevelled and clearly shaken, as were many Police Officers. Several supporters asked where the nearest telephones were and due to not being local, I was unable to assist. I feel that a stunned silence had come over the majority of the supporters who made their way home. I, with my serial, later returned to Claywheels Ln prior to returning to ‘C1’ by coach and going off duty.

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Excerpt 10.10 Statement B

I

am a Police Constable in the South Yorkshire Police, presently stationed at Rotherham. At 0900 hours, on Saturday, 15 April 1989, I was on weekly leave duty but due to the football match duties with the Liverpool v Nottingham Forest semi-final game at Hillsborough, I attended at Main St Police Station. On arrival at Main St, I, along with several other Officers, was conveyed by coach to the Hillsborough football ground, arriving there for a briefing in the Hillsborough football ground for around 1000 hours. The briefing took place and I was directly under the command of Inspector Ellis on Sector 14. I was on serial 37 under the serial Sergeant, Sergeant Kennedy from C2. The duties for that day were to attend at the Wadsley railway station and to await the arrival of the train that was carrying the Liverpool supporters. My duties, along with other officers, was to search the supporters at random as they left the railway station, prior to them being escorted to the ground by Sgt France and his officers, who were also present with us and whose duties were to escort the supporters to the Hillsborough ground. Police Sgt France was officer in charge of serial 36. On arrival of the train, which consisted only of the one train and which I understood was to have on board 550 supporters, came as a surprise as only one train arrived and in total I would estimate about two hundred supporters in all were on board. These supporters appeared to be in good humour and very friendly, none appeared to have been drinking and they consisted of ‘family’ type supporters. Prior to the arrival of the train several hundreds of supporters, all of whom I believe to be Liverpool supporters, were making their way along Halifax Road, past the railway station and down toward the football ground. Many of these supporters were seen to be carrying not only six-packs of beer and lager, but 12 packs EACH. They were also seen drinking beer/lager from a large two litre plastic bottles and they appeared to be in a jovial, happy mood, some being rather boisterous. My attention was drawn to a group of six to eight male supporters across the opposite side from the Wadsley Railway Station. One of these youths aged about sixteen to seventeen, was totally drunk and I, in company with Police Constable 1429 Bashforth, cross the road and spoke to the unknown youth. He was a very unsteady and worse the wear the drink. He was sitting on a small wall and appeared unable to stand unaided. The Police Constable Bashforth spoke to the older member of the group and told him that the younger man would not be let in the ground in that state. The older man was reasonable and understanding and said he would arrange someone to stay with the younger man. They then continued on their way,

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assisting the young man along. He was not arrested, firstly because his friends were helping him along and secondly, due to the amount of passing supporters in comparison to Police presence, to do so may have resulted in Police injuries. The day itself was very hot and I was approached many times whilst in the location of the Wadsley railway bridge/station, asking which Public Houses were open. Although Public Houses were in that immediate area, many had their doors and windows boarded up. I was unable to assist in these enquiries, firstly because I do not know the area, and secondly, it appeared that they had drunk enough alcohol without going in search of any more. I would estimate that we had been at the railway Station for three hours when the train arrived. As previously stated, the supporters were good natured and well-behaved and made their way Under Police escort to the ground. The serial I formed part of also escorted the supporters from the train down to the football grounds, arriving on the front of Leppings Ln. I would estimate that the time was just gone 1400 hours, that day and Leppings Ln was very busy with supporters on foot. I was under the impression that very few supporters made any positive attempt to enter the ground and several unknown (to me) senior Officers (ie Inspector level) came to me and other Officers shouting for us to get the supporters into the ground. In our small group of Officers it was almost impossible to get the crowd to move to the turnstiles. The crowd would not form any orderly queues and pushed constantly against each other. Several supporters went up onto the grass banking owned by the tyre fitting company directly opposite to the Leppings Ln entrance. Officers were unable to get these supporters back onto the roadway. This group of probably 40 to 50 supporters were drinking heavily, supping from large plastic two litre cannisters and tin cans of beer and lager, etc. I, along with what appeared only a few Police Officers, made hopeless attempts to get the supporters into the ground. It was, as I at the time described, ‘LIKE STIRRING PORRIDGE’. Everyone went wherever they pleased. Many supporters would approach and ask me how to get into a certain area within the ground but unfortunately, I know nowhere either inside or outside the ground. The coloured tickets did not help as I was unable to see the colour coded boards on the turnstile entranceways. I feel that they should have been situated well above head height, so that supporters to the rear of the crowds could have seen the correct queue that they were required to get into. What was in fact happening, was that supporters were choosing what they thought was a queue. At around 1445 hours, the crowding became intense and shoulder to shoulder pushing and heaving was taking place. Still, no one appeared

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to know where they were heading for and little, if any, instructions were coming from senior officers. I saw at this stage supporters with young children aged approximately ten years old, now walking away from the crowds and one man commented to me that it was ‘BLOODY DISGUSTING’ and he said that the organisation was pathetic. The crowding was very tight and it was becoming difficult to raise my arms from my side. To be closely compact was becoming clostrophobic and because we were so close, the smell of stale ‘ale’ on the breath of the supporters was strong. I had with me my personal radio but very little instructions were coming from senior officers. At around 1450 hours, I heard a voice almost pleading with the Control to have ‘the gate’ opened. By now supporters were climbing over the entrance wall and I saw an Officer trying to prevent this happening. The Mounted Officers at this location were so tightly packed that they were virtually useless, not being able to move. (Inspector ELLIS on car spoke to crowd on tannoy). A short while later I heard a call over the radio for all available Officers to enter the ground. I assumed that a pitch invasion had occurred and I, with other Officers from Serials 36 and 37, attempted to enter the ground by the left entrance concertina gates. I was the last Police Officer to enter the ground in company with Police Constable 1266 ADSHEAD. I began to follow the other Officers when I heard a call from behind me. It was the gateman at the location and he was unable to close the gate after us due to the crowd pushing the gates open. I returned with Police Constable ADSHEAD and forcibly pushed outside the ground the invading supporters and by brute strength, pulled the concertina gate together. In fact, the gateman was unable to efficiently carry out his duties and did not appear to be physically strong enough, without regard to mentally strong enough, to say ‘NO’ to the supporters who were trying to enter by force. I, with Police Constable ADSHEAD, then made an attempt to catch up with Serial 36/37 but due to the crowd inside the ground, got only as far as the rear of the side terraces/seating area (left side). One man with his young boy shouted to us to get in the ground and help out. He was very annoyed as well as emotional, but I did not reply. We did not get any further into the ground and eventually Police Constable Adshead and myself returned outside the ground to the front, right side of Leppings Lane. (Our backs were near to the bridge and river). I was still not aware of what had actually taken place and many people emerging from the ground, being male and female alike. They were crying and annoyed as well as bitter towards the Police. Frustration was shown by the supporters and a bitterness towards Police. Several of these supporters were coughing and choking and very upset. Some came out without shoes on their feet and some no shirts on.

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I heard a radio request for several ambulances to attend at the Leppings Ln end of the ground and for the attendant of the Fire Service with cutting equipment. My impression when the fire service were called upon was that due to the compactness of the crowd, people had started to dehydrate, although I was unable to understand as to why cutting equipment was required. Many supporters got out of the ground said it was terrifying inside and several had been injured. The fleet of ambulances arrived at the same time as did the fire tenders. A senior fire Officer approached me to establish what was happening and where did the Police require them to attend. I was unable to assist and directed him to an Inspector standing nearby. This confusion went on for some time until I made my way down the right side of the ground were taken from. I was then shocked to see and count ten bodies lying on the ground, some tendered to By Police Offices and others overseen by St John’s first aiders. No screens were at this time around the bodies, and it was obvious that they were in fact dead. I recall speaking to Police Constable LIPSKI and saying that I had counted ten dead at the top side and he said that it was rumoured that about 60  were feared dead at this time. I stayed near to the ten dead bodies, forming a human chain to protect the bodies from the supporters leaving the ground. Several male supporters were distraught and began visibly fighting with their friends on seeing the bodies and they totally lost control of themselves. Their colleagues held onto them and in fact received punches and kicks from their mates. I heard the comment from one man who said to me, ‘YOU GOT IT WRONG THIS TINE DIDN’T YOU MATE?’ Other comments were, ‘YOU’VE KILLED ‘EM YOU BASTARDS.’ I was kicked on the right knee with one youth who was fighting a man and another spat at me on the side of the head. Even at this time I was unclear as to what had occurred or gone wrong. In an attempt to clear the pushing crowds who insisted in leaving by the only gate available for use by the emergency services, I, with another group of Officers, none from my serial, went just inside the outer gate led by another middle aged Sergeant, whom I do not know. We tried to form a line to get the crowd to clear the area to leave room for the emergency services, but we were met by abuse and offers of violence whenever we tried to move them on. We tried to be diplomatic and caring when moving the crowd on but they had become hostile towards us. However, TWO supporters were excellent, one was aged about 55 years and he appealed to the crowd to leave quickly to allow the emergency services access. Another young man aged about 25 years, was also excellent and appealed to the crowd in a similar manner. This young man was attacked by another man and I intervened to stop the attacker.

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In fact, the crowd were now taking more notice of the two supporters than the Police and as such, we left it to them to appeal to the crowd. I later spoke to the younger man and thanked him for his assistance although he had received abuse and violence towards him. I did not obtain his personal details but believe he assisted well in moving on the crowd. It was in fact on speaking to this young man, that I was for the first time made aware of what had gone wrong. (He had been in the ground and had managed to escape). As the crowd dispersed more thinly we returned outside the gate used by the emergency services and I saw Police Transit vans being used to convey the dead bodies from outside the ground. Whilst at this location, after some unknown amount of time had passed, Police Sergeant KENNEDY came to me and I, with other Officers, made my way to the Wadsley Railway Station on foot (as per plan). The moving of traffic on Halifax Rd had almost come to a standstill and supporters on foot made their way up the road away from the ground. Many of the supporters were dishevelled and clearly shaken, as were many Police Officers. Several supporters asked where the nearest telephones were and due to not being local, I was unable to assist. I feel that a stunned silence had come over the majority of the supporters who made their way home. I, with my serial, later returned to Claywheels Ln prior to returning to ‘C1’ by coach and going off duty.

Exercise commentary 4 You will have realized that the statement is from one of the police officers who attended at the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Information on that event is freely available on the internet. The following are the differences between the two statements: ll

ll

Still, no one appeared to know where they were heading for [and little, if any, instructions were coming from senior officers] (the removed section is in square brackets). I had with me my personal radio but [very little instructions were coming from senior officers] {it was difficult to hear transmissions} (here the removed section is in square brackets and the inserted section is in curly brackets).

On the surface these appear to be very minor changes. However, they are serious alterations because they hide the fact that senior officers were not providing proper instructions to the ordinary officers attempting to police

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the crowd. They make the failures in communication appear as difficulties, or as a result of crowd confusion, rather than as a matter of responsibility for those in charge. This pattern was repeated across more than one hundred Hillsborough police officers’ statements, unknown to the officers themselves.

Exerci se 10.5

O

n the website you will find other statements relating to the Hillsborough tragedy. Compare the statements of Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield and Superintendent Bernard Murray. Mr Duckenfield was the officer in charge of the football ground on the day of the disaster and Mr  Murray was his deputy. Comment on and critically assess the significance of any similarities you find across the two statements.

Exercise commentary 5 The Hillsborough events occurred on 15 April 1989. You will have observed that the statements were dated 2 May 1989 (Murray) and 5 May 1989 (Duckenfield), respectively. As a general observation you would note that Murray’s statement is more detailed than that of Duckenfield. For example, Murray gives a very specific account of the meeting of the 22nd March (although he states this meeting as having taken place ‘on or about 20th March’), whereas Duckenfield’s description is somewhat sketchy. In the 1980s, it was common practice for officers who worked together on an investigation to compare notes as to what may have happened at an incident. In practice, they would agree a version of events, later comparing their respective versions. While this might have been acceptable with regard to mundane details such as times and dates we notice that with Duckenfield and Murray there is identical wording on some non-essential incidents, as the following examples show. 1. SIMILAR WORDING FOR MEETINGS Duckenfield At 10am (1000) Wednesday 22 March 1989 (220389), I attended a planning meeting at Hammerton Road Police Station, chaired by Superintendent MOLE Murray At 10 AM on 22 March 1989 (220389) I attended a meeting at Hammerton Road Police Station, chaired by Chief Superintendent Mole

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What this may show: That Duckenfield may not have kept proper records of meetings, or that he needed Murray’s statement to confirm what particular meetings were about. 2. SIMILAR WORDING FOR CAMEO INCIDENTS Duckenfield I was not aware of any radio messages but then saw Superintendent Greenwood standing head and shoulders above the people at the back of the goal, presumably standing on an advertising hoarding and waving his arms Murray I could not hear any radio messages, but saw Supt Greenwood, standing head and shoulders above the people at the back of the goal, gesticulating by waving his arms What this may show: That Duckenfield wanted to show that no radio messages were received. By putting in the detail about Supt Greenwood waving his arms, it is perhaps intended to give the impression that he was observant and ‘on the ball’. 3. SIMILAR WORDING FOR CONTINGENCY ISSUES AND DISCUSSIONS Duckenfield This was about 2.30pm (1430) and he said that with half an hour to kick off we should get them all in on time. Murray . . . and remarked to Chief Superintendent Duckenfield that there was a good crowd outside, but we still had half an hour to kick off and we would get them in by three o’clock. What this may show: That Duckenfield wanted to show that they had thought about the issue of getting the supporters in on time. This would counter criticisms about lack of provision for eventualities, and planning more generally. 4. SIMILAR WORDING REGARDING ‘FACT CHECKING’ Duckenfield About this time I asked Superintendent MURRAY to clarify with me the circumstances under which we would consider delaying the kick off.

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We had previously agreed that if there was an identifiable problem, e.g. a serious, incident, accident on the motorway or fog on the Pennines which would prevent large numbers of fans arriving on time we should consider a delay Murray About this time, Chief Superintendent Duckenfield asked me to remind him of what we had decided about delaying the kick off. I informed him that we had agreed that if there was an identifiable problem, such as a serious accident on the motorway, or bad weather over the Pennines, which prevented people arriving on time, that we would delay What this may show: That Duckenfield wanted anybody who read the statement to believe that he had thought about delaying the kick off, but was justified in dismissing the idea. As the main operational person, it is astonishing that he had to ask Murray about this, and even more astonishing that he had to copy this from Murray. 5. SIMILAR WORDING FOR ‘DETAILED OBSERVATION’ Duckenfield They . . . appeared to stand aimlessly on the track without any direction. The policewoman standing at Gate 1, who was only a few yards away, was totally unaware of their presence. Murray They then appeared to stand rather aimlessly on the track and the police woman standing at gate 1, who was only a few yards away, was totally unaware of their presence. What this may show: That Duckenfield wanted to emphasize the difficulty of realizing that anything was wrong from where they were in the police control room – fans standing ‘aimlessly on the track’ would not constitute something to be concerned with. Point to consider: Could they really notice this level of detail from where they were?

Note 1 Statements included are reproduced without amendments or corrections. Please also note that transcriptions of such materials are never evidence, only the original statements to ensure that amendments are not made.

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Further reading Coulthard, M. (1994), On the use of corpora in the analysis of forensic texts. Forensic Linguistics, 1(1): 27–43. Fox, G. (1993), A comparison of ‘policespeak’ and ‘normal speak’: a preliminary study, in J. M. Sinclair, M. Hoey and G. Fox (eds), Techniques of description: spoken and written discourse, pp. 183–95. London: Routledge. Sahlstein, E. and Duck, S. (2001), Interpersonal relations, in W. P. Robinson and H. Giles (eds), The new handbook of language and social psychology, pp. 371–82. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Shepard, C. A., Giles, H. and Le Poire, B. A. (2001), Communication accommodation theory, in W. P. Robinson and H. Giles (eds), The new handbook of language and social psychology, pp. 33–56. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Svartvik, J. (1968), The Evans statements: a case for forensic linguistics. Göteborg: University of Göteborg.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Investigating author variation in naturalistic data

In Chapter 4, reference was made to a mobile phone text corpus. In this chapter, we will describe a study carried out using this corpus in order to test author consistency. Interest in this question arose directly from assumptions (reported above) by other forensic linguists that individual writers have an identifiable idiolect, or – which amounts to the same thing – that they have an identifiable style based on the selection of a few features. However, this assumption ignores the question of variation. Our claim is that in order to test the validity of style similarities it is first necessary to investigate degree of variation. In the previous chapter, examples were given of the kinds of variation found in the case reported there which had not been commented on by the prosecution linguist. One of the purposes in conducting this study was to determine whether claims about the idiolect were sustainable. It was suspected that they were not, for linguistic reasons – see references to Jakobson (1956), Labov (1972) and Chambers and Trudgill (1998: ‘The idiolect’). Although the test was carried out on mobile phone texts, it is felt that the results of degree of variation will generalize to other naturalistic text types, such as letters, emails and diaries.

The corpus A corpus of mobile phone texts was planned and built. The author obtained phone texts from 53 different volunteer authors (referred to here as ‘texters’), yielding a total of 950 texts in all. This is not a large corpus by the usual standards of corpus size, but is reasonable for this medium.

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The texts Texters varied greatly in the number of texts they donated, with several donating just one text while one texter donated 104 texts. The average number of texts donated was 17.92. In all, 950 texts were received. Once received, those texts which had not been anonymized were redacted to protect the identities and locations of the participants and their text interactants. All of the texts were written to texters’ family members, friends and colleagues. In general, the topics of the corpus seem to be of an everyday nature: they relate to meetings, times of homecoming, concerns about domestic issues, complaints about partners, jobs, children, cars, excuses for not doing something, demands for money or repayment of money, arguments or talk about arguments, and so on.

Variables There was a total of 295 variables in the 950 text corpus, producing 894 forms altogether. Some forms were very rare, others occurred many times. Some polymorphs occurred in only two forms, for example, ‘2’ and ‘to’ for the preposition ‘to’ or the infinitive particle. Although there are 295 variables, some texters consistently used only one form of a particular variable. However, these were in a minority. The object of the experiment was to test the degree to which texters exhibited variation, for example, if they used different forms of the ‘you’ and ‘to’ tokens.

The study Mobile phone texts were obtained over a period of two months, from 53 texters (as mentioned earlier), in the vicinity of the first author’s workplace and elsewhere. Participants were aware that a study of mobile phone texts was being undertaken for forensic purposes. A phone number was made available for people to forward their texts to, while some visited the author’s premises and allowed an upload of material onto the author’s computer, using various types of software. Several sets of texts were presented in hard copy format. Participants were requested to send or bring only texts which had been sent prior to the request for texts, and were requested to provide only those texts which were less than 12 months old.

INVESTIGATING AUTHOR VARIATION IN NATURALISTIC DATA

221

Variable usage The first point to establish was how many of the 53 texters used at least two forms of one variable in their texts. It will be appreciated that those with many texts will have had the opportunity to use more variables than those with fewer texts. Of the 53 participants only 19 did not text more than one form of a variable. In other words 64 per cent used more than one form of one word, with half of those producing between 10 and 50 per cent of all the possible variables (in their subcorpus) in multiple forms. To clarify this point: a texter can use a word which is found (in the corpus or elsewhere) in a variety of forms (e.g. ‘you’). Some texters use just one form (not necessarily the standard form) of a particular variable such as ‘you’, others use several different forms. What the experiment showed was that most texters use more than one form of at least one word, while a number use more than one form of a significant percentage of their possible variables. The youngest texter, who contributed 72 texts, displayed the highest variation: of 61 possible polymorphs occurring in her texts, 32 occurred in more than one form. This texter produced no less than five forms of ‘you’, four forms of ‘yes’, three forms of ‘tomorrow’ and a number of other words in multiple forms. A 16-year-old male participant, who contributed a much lower 21 texts had 87 possible polymorphs, of which 18 occurred in more than one form, including four forms of ‘chicken’ (in the phrase ‘chicken pox’). Nor was this degree of variation found exclusively in young texters. An older texter (F, 44)  produced three forms of ‘and’ and four forms of ‘have’. Some texters produced two forms of a polymorph in just one text, for example, one participant (F, 62) contributed just one text, which contains both ‘u’ and ‘you’, while another texter (F, 26)  also contributed just one text in which she produces not only two forms of ‘you’ in it (‘u’ and ‘ya’) but also two forms of ‘good’ (‘good’ and ‘gud’). The results are presented in numerical form in Table 11.1. The percentage of variation for each author is calculated as the number of variables used compared to the number of single form variables (as previously described).

Table 11.1  Showing the degree of variation found in group of 53 texters Author code

Age

Gender

Total Total Total 1 form Many One/ no. of no. of no. of poly­ form poly­ many texts tokens types morphs morphs

1

44

F

104

1905

627

134

44

0.33

2

70

F

2

47

43

17

0

0.00 (Continued)

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

222

Author code

Age

Gender

Total Total Total 1 form Many One/ no. of no. of no. of poly­ form poly­ many texts tokens types morphs morphs

3

32

F

11

83

63

33

0

0.00

4

45

F

4

35

28

15

0

0.00

5

50

F

5

53

34

12

2

0.17

7

17

M

30

259

177

73

11

0.15

8

45

M

93

1125

393

124

9

0.07

9

16

M

21

428

231

87

18

0.21

10

25

M

4

52

44

18

0

0.00

11

32

M

9

236

116

47

3

0.06

13

25

F

2

32

30

16

0

0.00

15

35

F

1

58

54

26

1

0.04

22

42

F

26

202

147

56

6

0.11

24

46

F

85

934

339

109

25

0.23

26

25

F

39

766

367

116

22

0.19

27

22

F

2

66

55

22

1

0.05

28

37

F

13

245

149

54

4

0.07

32

40

F

42

460

270

82

13

0.16

33

35

F

6

109

73

26

0

0.00

35

18

F

9

191

118

54

4

0.07

36

45

F

3

31

26

6

1

0.17

37

26

F

1

32

30

9

3

0.33

38

35

F

1

25

21

7

1

0.14

39

38

F

6

130

97

37

0

0.00

40

50

F

1

18

14

4

0

0.00

41

20

F

22

309

172

67

7

0.10

42

25

F

5

92

65

25

2

0.08 (Continued)

INVESTIGATING AUTHOR VARIATION IN NATURALISTIC DATA

223

Author code

Age

Gender

Total Total Total 1 form Many One/ no. of no. of no. of poly­ form poly­ many texts tokens types morphs morphs

44

23

M

7

78

64

35

4

0.11

45

32

M

6

99

69

37

1

0.03

46

32

F

41

905

330

134

3

0.02

48

45

M

1

24

23

10

0

0.00

49

56

M

27

230

133

42

4

0.10

50

11

F

72

627

285

61

32

0.52

51

15

F

3

35

30

15

2

0.13

52

26

F

8

119

72

32

4

0.13

60

17

M

1

34

30

17

0

0.00

61

40

M

32

249

152

58

2

0.03

63

39

M

2

15

10

5

0

0.00

65

36

M

3

38

32

14

0

0.00

66

58

F

1

43

38

25

0

0.00

67

25

M

48

749

307

105

11

0.10

69

70

M

2

17

16

6

0

0.00

70

45

M

2

51

42

21

0

0.00

71

16

F

94

2323

508

144

42

0.29

73

45

F

1

1

1

1

0

0.00

74

56

M

6

104

72

34

0

0.00

75

70

F

3

15

13

4

0

0.00

77

45

F

4

95

71

21

1

0.05

78

55

M

11

254

146

44

1

0.02

79

26

M

19

276

125

59

4

0.07

80

24

M

1

6

6

2

0

0.00

81

62

F

1

15

15

7

1

0.14

82

38

F

7

168

124

50

1

0.02

224

FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: THIRD EDITION

Results The average percentage of multiple form polymorphs was 0.09 (9%). However, there was extensive variation (0–52%). Males appear to exhibit significantly less variation than females (5% compared to 11%). Variation appears to decrease with age: texters aged 18 or less exhibit 20 per cent variation on average, those between 18 and 30 display 13 per cent, between 30 and 40 years of age a mere 4 per cent, while those aged 40–50 exhibit 9  per cent, the figure declining to 7 per cent for those between 50 and 70 years of age. Hence, young females show the highest variation in their texts of all the subgroups. There is almost no correlation between age of texter and average length of text: in fact the correlation is slightly negative (–0.08). Similarly, there is little or no connection between the texter’s gender and average length of text. Of the 53 participants, 26 exhibit 5 per cent or greater variation. Even those who contributed 10 or fewer texts exhibit, by this calculation, an average of 5 per cent variation. It was also found that, as expected, variation tends to increase with the number of texts in the author’s subcorpus. There was thus a high correlation (p