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Oct 31, 2024
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LING 239 - Language and the Law: Language as Evidence
Semester Hours: 3
Fall
A linguistic casebook approach to examining cases – criminal and civil – in which language itself was crucial evidence. This course has an interdisciplinary focus on 1) linguistic analysis based on the theory of meaning in human language, pragmatic inference and context, schemata, the cooperative principle, speech events, conversational strategies, topic management and support, narrative construction, and speech acts; and 2) its intersection with the realities of court procedures, police work, intelligence analysis, applicable statutes, case law, the Constitution, and considerations through which judges weigh the admissibility of expertise and testimony through Daubert and Frye. Cases can involve the language of death threats and suicide letters, interrogations, undercover operations, valid and false confessions, authorship investigations, language crimes (e.g., bribery, extortion, perjury, solicitation to murder), interpretation of contracts, and trademark disputes.
Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
Warning: Some case studies contain very strong language, themes, and distressing, violent, and often gruesome details of crimes and motivations. May not be taken on a Pass/Fail basis. (Formerly Language and the Law: Linguistic Casebook.)
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