Points of Intersection between Linguistics and Law Enforcement
Points of Intersection between Linguistics and Law Enforcement

Summary/Abstract: The Language of Law by David Mellinkoff (1963) begins with the following sentence: “The law is a profession of words. Yet in the vast legal literature the portion devoted to the language of the law is a single grain of sand at the bottom of a great sea”. On the same issue Peter Tiersma concludes “Yet, there has been remarkably little interaction between language experts and lawyers; neither discipline seems to know very much about the work of the other” (1999). Among the early concerns was the way in which the law is framed: its language was often seen as complex, impersonal, vague or ambiguous. The language of the law is often archaic, and moreover lawyers in an effort to protect their clients frequently use expressions with meanings which are not always transparent. Another assumption is that lawyers and non - lawyers have different ways of using language. Word meaning is another area of potential conflict. Namely, directions given by judges to juries are characterized as full of legal terminology, some of which may be present in the language as ordinary words used in daily communication. The question arises around whether a word used will be regarded as a technical term or as an ordinary word. An additional issue is the extent to which they understand the legal terminology and share the same understanding of a particular word. Language in legal settings is characterized by highly technical vocabulary, lengthy phrases, and complex grammatical structures. Therefore, recent developments suggest reforms in the legal language towards a form accessible to lay people, including the use of paraphrase, examples, and brief narratives to clarify difficult legal concepts. In addition, language is variable and factors such as: age, gender, regional dialect, social status and educational background need to be considered, since they have a significant impact on the language usage. The application of linguistic methods to legal questions and the analysis of the language samples in an inquiry can be realized through various linguistic theories. A forensic linguist may refer to observations from research findings in language studies, in fields ranging from Cognitive Linguistics, Conversation Analysis, Speech Act Theory, Discourse Analysis, Psycholinguistics, Language Acquisition, Theory of Grammar, etc.

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