The Morbid Linguist

Finally, I have finished my thesis. The drafting and editing is done. It's been approved and is now on its way to the Hofstra library archive. It may be a while, but once it is online, I will share a link to access it. In the meantime, I am incredibly happy and relieved to be finished. To publish my thesis in journals, I believe I have to break it up into smaller articles first. Those will resemble the segments I publish on this blog. There is still work to be done. But now, there is nothing between my degree and a career as a forensic linguist. If I sound dramatic, it's because I have spent over two years working on this research and just about fifteen months writing it. Of course, I'm not done learning, studying, or writing. I will do those until I die.

In my thesis, I hypothesize that forensic linguistic techniques of linguistic demographic profiling can be honed into a method of native language analysis that is supported by quantified language transference data. My previous post explains how I set out to develop Native Language Analysis (NLA) as just such a method, and I strongly suggest you read it first. To summarize, I am essentially expanding on the established techniques of author profiling by incorporating quantified language data to connect interlanguage transference features to the native languages that likely inspired them. As promised, this post is based on the sections of my thesis where I test my hypothetical method by using it to analyze the language evidence from real forensic linguistic cases. One of the languages I catalogued data for was Arabic. The evidence I analyzed comes from the case of Daniel Pearl's abduction. Text of Email 1 Daniel Pearl was a journalist for The Wall Street Journal on assignment...

As I've mentioned before , I am writing my master's thesis on a method of linguistic demographic profiling through analysis of native language transference... a specific method that I am in the process of inventing. Not from whole cloth, of course. The potential method I have developed is an amalgamation of established forensic linguistic techniques and contemporary research in machine-based language processing and computational linguistic analysis. I am calling this method "Native Language Analysis," as my advisor suggested. (I wanted to call it native language  deduction  for the Holmesian connotations, but she said no.) I am designing this proposed method of linguistic demographic profiling specifically for native language diagnosis and supporting it with quantified statistical data. Without getting too deep into sociolinguistic philosophy, the concept central to my research is that - like spoken accents - native speakers of a particular language frequently produ...

Cross-linguistic transfer, native language interference, and interlanguage errors are some of the terms for referring to the concept that users of particular languages have characteristic production patterns when using a second language. Cross-linguistic Influence (CLI) refers to the concept that language learners will rely on experience from their L1 to compensate for weaknesses in their target language. All native language analyses rely on the theories central to CLI: That a person’s L1 is their strongest and so they will rely on that language’s structure to compensate for weaknesses in their L2. When the L1 and L2 have different language structures, the resulting language may contain cross-linguistic transfers. To use a metaphor: Those cross-linguistic transfers are as if a target language’s skin is stretched over the native language’s skeleton. The message may still be understood, but the delivery is unnaturally forced; the degree of unnatural depending on the differences of skin...

I wrote and published a post on Linkedin that is almost identical to this one. As a recent graduate, I am looking for work. Currently, the most appropriate market for my skills is in legal work. Unfortunately, not a lot of recruiters or even lawyers are aware of forensic linguistics or what it can achieve in civil legal work. So, in this post, I explain one way in which forensic linguists can be an advantageous addition to a law firm: legal writing. Forensic linguistics is the scientific study of language wherever it intersects with the law. The term "forensic" may inspire the assumption that the field is strictly about criminal justice or investigation; however, the term "forensic" simply means "of the forum," such as the forum of a courtroom. While it is true that forensic linguists are trained in analyzing language evidence using techniques such as authorship analysis, demographic profiling, appraisal analysis, corpus analysis, and more, the investiga...

Yesterday, I put on some funny robes and participated in a mysterious ceremony signifying that I've finished my forensic linguistics studies at Hofstra University. I am a storm of emotions now. Of course I'm supremely happy to have achieved my dream of earning a master's degree in forensic linguistics, but I'm also sad that it's over. I also have a little panic and fear about my immediate future. I'm not done with my formal education just yet, and there's a lot I need to do to get myself in the position to continue. To qualify for my dream career as a professional forensic linguistic analyst, I need to earn a PhD. Most importantly, I intend to relocate to Chicago to be closer to my family. I've made some promises to some important, tiny people, and the relocation is quite non-negotiable at this point. Unfortunately for me, the US is lacking in forensic linguistics degree programs. Until earlier this year when the California University of Pennsylvan...

I am so happy to announce that I have finally gotten approval from HarperCollins to publish my paper on the idiolect of Gollum and Sméagol. I'm told that I don't even need a copyright agreement because it is light on actual quotation. Now I am in the process of editing my paper and finding a suitable journal to submit it to. The paper was originally an assignment from a corpus linguistics class I took last year. The assignment was to perform a corpus analysis, and I chose to analyze the language patterns of Gollum and Sméagol from J.R.R. Tolkien's books. Some of my results were fascinating! I have held off on sharing details of my results or copies of my paper because I've never published before, and I'm a little paranoid of my work being stolen. I am very proud of this paper, and I can't wait to share it. As soon as I have a link to a PDF or website, I will share it on this blog and all over the rest of my social media. Check back soon!