Presentation

This project aims to study the speakers’ idiolectal style in its application to forensic linguistics. This project will explore and develop the possibility of measuring the linguistic differences existing between idiolects and each individual’s idiolectal distance, so that an Index of Idiolectal Similitude (IIS), which will compare several linguistic samples and calculate the linguistic distance between them, can be obtained. The application of the study of idiolectal style to forensic linguistics is fundamental since this application will allow linguists acting as expert witnesses in court to identify speakers or writers more reliably by comparing a disputed recording or written text and a set of non-disputed spoken or written texts from the set of options chosen by each individual speaker or writer. A protocol will de devised in order to set up the aforementioned IIS  from which, once different linguistic parameters (phonological, morphosyntactic and discourse-pragmatic) are analysed, it will be possible to decide whether or not two recordings or two written texts have been produced by the same person.

Figure 1. Formalization of the IIS

Financing

The research presented here is conducted through three projects:

• “Idiolectometry applied to forensic linguistics” (EXPLORA-INGENIO HUM2007-29140-E), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Culture (2007-2008),
• “Forensic idiolectometry and index of idiolectal similitude” (FII2008-03583/FILO), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2008-2012),
• “Hacia la consolidación de un Índice de Similitud/Distancia Idiolectal (IS/DI) en Idiolectometría Forense” (FFI2012-34601), funded by the Spanish Minsitry of Economy and Competitiveness (2013-2015).