ABSTRACT
In every human utterance lies the sum total of that person’s linguistic past.
INTRODUCTION
The discussion in this chapter begins with a general overview of the notion of distinctively individual use of language (one’s idiolect), first in the spoken channel, and then in the written. It then moves on to consider real speakers and fictional speakers,1 and concludes with a second case-study investigating how and why some speakers’ idiolects seem to be more amenable to transcription for a written record than others.
