Forensic Linguistics: Fields and Approaches

Abstract

The present study intends to make an overview of the subject matter, fields and major approaches of forensic linguistics, a relatively new discipline introduced in the linguistics circle of Kerala. It evaluates the history and development of Forensic Linguistics, citing the milestones in the use of linguistic evidence in legal proceedings. The study introduces the major fields of forensic linguistic enquiry including author identification, forensic stylistics, discourse analysis, and forensic phonetics. Referring to the major legal cases across the globe, the study identifies some theoretical and methodological issues in using linguistics evidence in legal domains. Legal complications born out of the issue of morphological meaning, phonemic similarity, syntactic complexities, grammatical and lexical ambiguity, pragmatic meaning, and idiolect are discussed in detail citing the relevant cases in this field, and using the living examples in the context of Malayalam language. As an emerging discipline the academic and professional scope of forensic linguistics in Kerala is also discussed in this study.