ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some kinds of data that a forensic linguist may work with to illustrate how linguistic evidence is analysed and presented in legal contexts. Despite people's often very careful efforts at linguistic disguise, habits of language use can still expose someone's individual and social identity. Specific features of a speaker's idiolect, or distinctive pattern of language use, can provide a lead. The word authorship suggests written documents. Spoken texts as well as written texts may become data for authorship analysis. Authorship analysis is complicated by the fact that authorship is not a clear-cut, single concept, even setting aside collaborative writing. Courtrooms, which are designed primarily for adults, may baffle a child participant. M. Brennan studied questions put to children in sexual abuse cases in an effort to understand children's comprehension of lawyers' questions.
