Forensic Linguistics Language Analysis Forgery Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.1093

Illinois

Forensic Linguistics: The application of the principles and methods of linguistics to the language of legal proceedings and documents.

Areas of Expertise:

Forensic Semantics: Analysis of and expert opinion on the meaning of words, phrases, clauses, paragraphs, etc., in legal, personal, and commercial communication (e.g., contracts, wills, cases of copyright infringement or plagiarism).

Forensic Stylistics: Analysis of the syntax, style, word choice, spelling, punctuation, rhetorical strategies, and other features of anonymous, disputed, or forged documents (including e-mails); expert opinion on authorship and/or characteristics of author.

We all leave linguistic fingerprints on everything we write.  If they are there, I will find them.

Overview – Qualifications

A professional lifetime devoted to the analysis of language and the understanding of stylistic nuance:

Doctoral dissertation (University of Chicago, 1973): an analysis of code-switching (i.e., variation in the speaking style of an individual).

Undergraduate and graduate studies of English syntax: with an in-depth understanding of language structure, I can (1) identify the vocabulary and grammatical choices that characterize an individual writer’s style and (2) recognize errors that no native speaker would make and thus determine whether a document has been written by a speaker of a foreign language.

Twelve years of teaching English linguistics and composition (including graduate seminars in stylistics and in the structure and process of written language) have sensitized me to (1) the correlation between a writer’s level of education and his/her deviations from Standard English and (2) the particular locutions favored by individual writers.

Twenty years as a corporate speechwriter/ghostwriter have provided an even deeper understanding of the nature and variation of individual style, as I analyzed and replicated the natural speech of many different speakers – a challenging task, because most of them came from the same general background, and the differentiating elements were often few and subtle.

Also wrote for executives who had distinct and idiosyncratic speaking styles, e.g., Burroughs CEO (an economics PhD, former Treasury Secretary and German immigrant); Philip Morris CEO (an Australian); Kraft Senior VP of R&D (an Englishman).

Examination of thousands of student papers, corporate publications, and countless other written
documents has enabled me offer expert opinion on plagiarism and anonymous or disputed
authorship by judging whether particular words, phrases, or other linguistic elements could occur by
chance in two separate documents – or whether the documents are the product of the same hand.

Developed an original, multi-dimensional approach to stylistic analysis that goes beyond language
elements to include rhetorical strategies and intellectual breadth/depth, thus enabling me to identify
stylistic similarities (the “writer’s fingerprints”) at deeper and more subtle levels.

Professional Experience:

Legal Consulting

1979- present Closing arguments for trial lawyers;
Expert opinion on status of compound words (trademark infringement litigation);
Expert opinion on plagiarism of song lyrics (copyright litigation involving musical group The Who);
Authorship analysis of e-mails in Florida union dispute;
Expert opinion on plagiarism of home-study course;
Preliminary analysis of authorship issues in a legal case.

Education

B.A. (1964), Brown University, Providence RI, 1964; linguistics (summa cum laude, high honors, Phi Beta Kappa).

M.A. (1967), Ph.D. (1973), University of Chicago, Chicago IL; Linguistics.

Research Assistantships (computer applications to language analysis), University of Chicago, summers, 1966-68.

Russian language (Harvard University; University of Michigan), summers 1962, 1963.

PRSA/NYU seminars: "The Speech as an Effective PR/PA Tool" (1981); "PR/PA Writing Workshop" (1982).

Seminars/Workshops/Presentations

Conducted 35 workshops, courses, seminars, and presentations on speech writing, stylistic analysis, semantics, rhetoric, word usage, and related subjects.

Articles

Numerous publications on language, speechwriting, and related topics.  Available upon request.

Books

Available upon request.