Content area
Full Text
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)
In many respects, this book is an important addition to a growing number of books and articles on language used in law (e.g., Pavlenko, 2008; Shuy, 1998). Coulthard, a discourse analyst, and Johnson, a former police officer now a lecturer in English, sketch a comprehensive picture of the many intersections language makes with what they term institutions such as law enforcement and the legislative branches of governments. Thus, the reader is exposed to transcripts that stand as official recountings of police interrogations, courtroom cross-examinations, and emergency police calls as well as to examples of legislation (written laws).
The wealth of examples of language in use, along with the breadth of topics discussed, are the strengths of this book. In 10 chapters, the authors touch on forensic phonetics, idiolects (as related to understanding who has written or produced a particular text), legal genres, and the role of linguists as expert witnesses, among other things. Whereas their main analytical focus of legal texts is through discourse analysis, Coulthard and Johnson also use lexical, pragmatic, and narrative analysis to point out specific features of texts. Their focus is the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.