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Overview
Forensic Linguistics is an introduction to the fascinating interface between language and the law.
- Provides an integrated and fully theorized understanding of language and law issues.
- Contains many helpful examples from genuine legal contexts and texts.
- Discusses linguistic sources of disadvantage before the law, particularly for ethnic minorities, children and abused women.
Synopsis
Suitable for both undergraduate and graduate level courses, Gibbons' (English , Hong Kong Baptist U.) text addresses the relationship between language and the law, and reasons for that relationship. Descriptive chapters explore spoken and written language and the law, legislation and legal documents, legal interaction, the manifestation of power in the language of the law, and the linguistic reconstruction of events in legal contexts. The concepts are socially applied in chapters on the difficulty of understanding legal language, linguistic sources of disadvantage before the law and ways to handle these, legislation on language, and linguistic evidence. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Forensic Linguistics fills a major gap and will be invaluable to those who teach courses on language and the law at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. It is wide ranging and accessible, with a large references section – ideal as an introduction to the subject. I will certainly use it with my own students." Malcolm Coulthard, University of Birmingham
"This book brings a wealth of knowledge to the study of language and law. It should be of interest to a wide audience, including sociologists and anthropologists interested in studying such things as power relationships among participants in the legal system through close examination of linguistic behavior. The book more than meets its stated goal, “to open a door on the fascinating and important relationship between language and the law in its many aspects." Lawrence M. Solan, Brooklyn Law School
"John Gibbons' book Forensic Linguistics provides a lucid overview of the general concepts and issues relating to linguistic communication in the justice system." New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics
"This is part of Blackwell's excellent Language in Society series, and Gibbon's well-written and broadly engaging textbook continues that tradition... it is already receiving praise from students, students who judge books not only on scholarly content but accessibility... Forensic Linguistics will become the primary text in the growing interdisciplinary field of legal language and discourse." Discourse and Society