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What is Linguistic Evidence?

A text with some value in legal proceedings comes in many different forms to police officers,
detectives, private investigators, security specialists, intelligence analysts, attorneys, and
private individuals. Some civil disputes are obviously associated with certain types of
linguistic evidence, such as trademarks, service marks, and patent applications. In certain
criminal scenarios, some forms of linguistic evidence are likewise obvious: a bank robbery
note, a threat letter, a suicide note, a ransom note.

SOMETIMES THE LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE IN A CASE IS OBVIOUS, SOMETIMES

INVESTIGATORS MUST SEARCH FOR IT

It is clear, from these kinds of documents, that linguistic evidence can play a crucial role in
investigating a crime, and the crime with which such a document is associated is also
obvious, (although sometimes this kind of document is a red herring to cover up a different
kind of crime). For instance, in actual cases, a suicide note has been written to disturb or
cover up a murder; a threat letter has been sent in order to mislead investigators away from
conspirators. Whether in civil or criminal scenarios, the words themselves are critical pieces
of evidence in proving some aspect of the crime or civil trespass.

Other kinds of linguistic evidence are not so well-known, and the crimes or civil actions to
which they attach are likewise not so obvious. Blog posts, dating website profiles,
handwritten codicils and wills, business emails and memoranda, personal emails within a
family or corporation, graffiti sprayed on a shop’s wall — these kinds of linguistic evidence
can occur in many different crimes or civil and security investigations.

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS ASKED ABOUT LANGUAGE-BASED EVIDENCE

At ILE our research agenda is set for the “four corners of forensic linguistics,” (Chaski 2013),
to reflect the fundamental questions we have been repeatedly asked about documents
relevant to a case. Often the crucial investigative issues are:

1. Author/Speaker Identification: Who authored this document? Who spoke this voicemail
message?

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2. Text Similarity: Are these texts or screen names related to each other? Are these
trademarks too similar? Are these manuals too close for comfort?
3. Text Typing: Is this document really what it purports to be — is it a real suicide note, a
real threat letter, a real confession, a real predatory chat, etc?
4. Linguistic Profiling: What can be determined about the author’s background from this
text?

STAKEHOLDERS FOR LINGUISTIC EVIDENCE

The stakeholders for linguistic evidence are

Law enforcement
Private and civil investigators
The national, business and executive security communities
The academic and research community
The legal community
Any citizen whose life, liberty and finances are being affected by the proper or improper
use of linguistic evidence in criminal or civil litigation

Since its inception, ILE has recognized our stakeholders’ need for reliable methods of
answering these fundamental questions. ILE has a history of testing methods to find out
how well they work and will continue to ensure reliable methodology within forensic
applications.
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