One of the highlights of the forthcoming emagazine conference is the appearance of Tim Grant, Director of the Centre for Forensic Linguistics at Aston University. Forensic linguistics is a rapidly growing area of language study in which the tools of textual analysis are applied to solving crimes.
In this clip from the BBC Crimewatch website you can see Tim explaining more about what forensic linguistics is, how it's used and some of the cases his centre has been involved in solving.Tim is also featured in this longer interview on You Tube, which is well worth a watch. Tim's Forensic Linguistics blog is a good read and full of links to recent cases where linguistic evidence has played a part, including the accusations of racial abuse against footballer, Luis Suarez and whether you can disguise your language style to avoid detection. You can find it here.
Inspired by forensic linguistics, this blog will also be running a Crimebusters competition in the build-up to the March conference. Each week we will present you with a new language clue and ask you to piece together the evidence as it emerges to work out which of the suspects has been up to no good. The first Crimebusters post will appear in two weeks and we're even offering prizes to the first teams of linguistic sleuths who can crack the crime.
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