Analysis of Language Crime of ‘Perjury/Lie’ from Forensic Linguistics’ View Points (A Case Study in Tehran’s Judicial System)

Document Type : Research

Author

Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Forensic linguistics is a discipline coordinated with legal goals in the judicial system, focusing on all branches of linguistics including phonetics, semantics, discourse and etc. this science is not well known in Iran; whereas, it can have applications in the judicial system. The author aims to show how linguistic analysis can help to identify language crime especially when there are no clear available proofs or documents. Language crime refers to some special speech acts which are typically illegal; in other words, language crime is accompanied with speech acts like lying, threatening bribery… Having observed numerous cases in courts and police stations (Bureau of Police Investigation), the author chose data which included “lies” and analyzed it. This complete data is analyzed in two ways. First, “defendants’ statements” and second “power relation” are analyzed. The author draws this conclusion that linguistics strategies like semantic tools (schema, frame, verb meaning), syntactic tools (mood of verb), discoursal tools (power relation) … can be effective to identify and analyze language crimes. Perjury/lie is considered as a crime in both courts and Bureau of Police Investigation. Analyzing all language crimes in one article is not possible; therefore, the author analyzes just one which is perjury/lie.

Keywords

ZABANPAZHUHI (Journal of Language Research)
Volume 4, Issue 7
October 2012
Pages 239-265

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