Practicing Linguistics Without a License

1 Introduction

Since the groundbreaking works of Atkinson and Drew (1979) and O’Barr (1981) the field of language and law or forensic linguistics has developed at a brisk and productive pace to become a dynamic fixture on the sociolinguistic landscape. From trials to jury deliberations, from credit card disclosures to law school socialization, from police interviews to citizen’s emergency calls, verbal and written forms of language represent the central vehicle through which the business of law is transacted (Hobbs 2008). Rather than being the passive or neutral instrument for the imposition of legal variables, verbal and written modalities constitute the interactional vehicle through which evidence, statutes, and identity are forged into ...