第 44 至 47 題為題組
The term “forensic linguistics,” in its broadest sense, covers all areas of study where language and law
intersect. A famous example of its application is the case of Chris Coleman, who was suspected of killing
his family in 2009. Robert Leonard, the head of the forensic linguistics program at Hofstra University,
presented some important linguistic evidence in the trial against Coleman. Relying heavily on word choice
and spelling, Leonard suggested that the same person had written the threatening e-mails and sprayed the
graffiti, and that those samples bore similarities to Coleman’s writing style. Coleman was later found guilty
of the murder.
Robert Leonard was not the first one who resorted to linguistic evidence in criminal investigation. The
field of forensic linguistics was brought to prominence by his colleague James Fitzgerald in 1996 with his
work in the case of the Unabomber, who had sent a series of letter bombs to college professors over several
years, causing serious casualties. Working for the FBI, Fitzgerald urged the publication of the Unabomber’s
letter—a lengthy declaration of the criminal’s philosophyAfter the letter was published, many people called the FBI to say they recognized the writing style.
By analyzing sentence structure, word choice, and other linguistic patterns, Fitzgerald narrowed down the
range of possible authors and finally linked the letter to the writings of Ted Kaczynski, a solitary former
mathematician. For instance, Kaczynski tended to use extensive parallel phrases, which were frequently
found in the bomber’s letter. Both Kaczynski and the bomber also showed a preference for dozens of
unusual words, such as “chimerical” and “anomic.” The bomber’s use of the terms “broad” for women and
“negro” for African Americans also enabled Fitzgerald to roughly calculate the suspect’s age. The linguistic
evidence was strong enough for the judge to search Kaczynski’s isolated cabin in Montana; what was found
there put him in prison for life.
On some level, finding hidden meanings from linguistic evidence is what we all do intuitively in our
daily language interaction. This is exactly the same work forensic professionals do. As one forensiclinguistics
firm, Testipro, puts it in its online promotional ad, the field can be regarded as “the basis of the
entire legal system.”
【題組】46. What type of language feature is NOT mentioned in the passage?
(A) Sound pattern. (B) Spelling of words.
(C) Selection of words. (D) Grammatical pattern.
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