Language of the Law
Judicial Process
Complexity
Language as Evidence
Disputed Meaning
Trademark Disputes
Authorship Analysis
Stylometric
Lexical measures
Complexity
Cognitive
Syntax
Punctuation
Stylistic
Deviations from
standard
Choice
Holistic • Modern linguistic theory • Coherence of description
Inherently sociolinguistic • Based on notion of choice
Cognitively realistic • Work of Lamb and Fawcett • Correlation with findings in social psychology
Why Systemic Functional Linguistics?
Context
Semantics
Lexicogrammar
Expression
Contextual Variation
Semantic Variation
Lexicogrammatical Variation
-
-
Semantic constant
Lexicogrammatical Variation
Expression Variation
Contextual Constant
Semantic Variation
Lexicogrammatical Variation
-
Dialectal Variation Codal Variation Registerial Variation
Personalised Meaning Potential
November 1952
Derek Bentley (19) Chris Craig (16) Sentenced to death Life imprisonment
My Mother told me that they had called and I then ran out after them. I walked up the road with them to the paper shop where I saw Craig standing. We all talked together and then Norman Parsley and Frank Fazey left. Chris Craig and I then caught a bus to Croydon. We got off at West Croydon and then walked down the road where the toilets are - I think it is Tamworth Road. 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. I did not know he was going to use the gun
11 occurrences in 558 words
Bentley’s statement
Ordinary witness statements
Police officer statements
1 occurrence in 930 words
29 occurrences in 2270 words
Bank of English: 1 every 500
words
7
Subject^(Verb)^then
I then: 1 every 165000
words
0
26
Police Register
I then…
Lay people
Then I…
Police officers
Clausal Theme = Textual Semantics
Contextual Constant [Statement]
Semantic Variation [Textual Meaning]
Lexicogrammatical Variation [Position of
then]
-
Social Positioning
Ideology (way of understanding
the context)
Females use more pronouns, males use more prepositions [essays and books] (Newman et al. 2008)
Older age correlates with more future tenses [writing samples and interviews] (Pennebaker & Stone 2003)
Neuroticism correlates with higher usage rate of self-references [stream of consciousness essays] (Argamon et al. 2009)
Schizoprenic subjects present a particular pattern of cohesion in speech (Rochester & Martin 1979)
To what extent can we push codal variation?
• gender • age • education level • social class • ethnicity
• 300 words • Introduction only
Analysis 506
Variables
Biber’s Multidimensional Analysis
-15 -10
-5 0 5
10 15 20 25
Dimension1
Dimension2
Dimension3
Dimension4
Dimension5
Dimension6
Academic prose Author1 Author2 Author3
Field
Ideational
Transitivity…
Tenor
Interpersonal
Mood…
Mode
Textual
Theme…
Threatening letter Diary entry
Context-Metafunction Hook-up Hypothesis!
Conclusions
Codal variation can be useful for forensic purposes
The method would be improved using Biber’s methodology Context-Metafunction Hook-up Hypothesis debate