Multilingual challenges in forensic linguistics

Аннотация

In an increasingly globalized world, digital communication transcends linguistic boundaries, creating new challenges for forensic linguistics. Forensic linguistics, the study of language applied to legal and criminal contexts, plays a vital role in authorship attribution, deception detection, and threat analysis. However, the rise of multilingual communication poses unique obstacles in accurately identifying authorship and detecting deception. This research explores how multilingualism affects forensic linguistic methods, focusing on authorship attribution and deception detection in digital communication. Keywords: Multilingualism, translanguaging, grammar interference, borrowed words, cross-linguistic analysis, multilingual corpora, code-switching. unjust decisions. [Canagarajah, 2011; 401-417] Hence, Introduction: Forensic linguistics emerged as a Pavlenko’s research on multilingual speakers highlights discipline in the late 20th century, primarily used in cognitive and linguistic variations that impact forensic authorship disputes, threat analysis, and legal analysis, focusing on how language diversity affects testimony evaluation. Early studies emphasized stylistic legal settings. She examines how multilingual markers, vocabulary choices, and syntactic patterns to individuals may experience linguistic bias during identify authors. However, most foundational research interrogations, trials, and asylum hearings. A key issue focused on monolingual texts, often overlooking the in forensic linguistics is whether a suspect or witness complexities of multilingual communication. fully understands legal proceedings in a non-native Multilingualism in forensic linguistics refers to the use language, as misinterpretations can lead to wrongful of linguistic analysis in legal contexts involving multiple convictions or unjust decisions. Pavlenko’s work languages. A forensic linguist must examine language highlights the need for forensic linguists to analyze across different linguistic systems to gather evidence in language proficiency, code-switching, and translation cases where individuals speak diverse languages. This is accuracy to ensure fair legal outcomes. [García & Li, particularly important in multicultural societies where 2014; 46-62] legal proceedings may take place in more than one Therefore, multilingualism in authorship attribution language. In regions with significant linguistic diversity, and deception detection is also important to study, as accurately interpreting statements, confessions, or it often occurs in these sections of forensic linguistics. legal documents requires a deep understanding of Authorship attribution involves determining the author language nuances. Misinterpretations or of a disputed text by analyzing linguistic patterns. mistranslations can lead to serious legal consequences, Traditional methods rely on stylistic features such as making multilingual expertise essential in forensic word frequency, sentence length, and syntactic investigations. It is crucial to equip lawyers, linguists, structures. However, in multilingual settings, authors and language practitioners with the knowledge to may switch between languages, adopt borrowed recognize this important connection. This ensures that words, or demonstrate varying levels of fluency, legal cases are not influenced by cultural and linguistic complicating the analysis. Studies like Makarova's misunderstandings, such as instances where a specific (2023) highlight how bilingual authors exhibit distinct word in an African language has no direct equivalent in stylistic traits depending on the language they use. English, potentially leading to misinterpretation and [Makarova, 2023] American Journal Of Philological Sciences 47 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajps American Journal Of Philological Sciences (ISSN – 2771-2273) In the digital world, authorship attribution plays a a transition between languages but rather the crucial role in maintaining content integrity by construction and use of complex, interrelated preventing deceptive social media activities, identifying discursive practices. [Vrij, 2023] These practices, account breaches, and connecting user profiles across according to them, cannot be neatly classified under different social platforms. Furthermore, authorship traditional language definitions but instead form a attribution techniques are essential in tackling speaker’s complete linguistic repertoire. Unlike code- misinformation, safeguarding intellectual property switching, translanguaging challenges forensic analysis rights, and exposing fraudulent activities such as fake by defying traditional linguistic boundaries, requiring reviews. more nuanced and adaptable analytical techniques. Deception detection focuses on identifying false 3. Borrowed Words: Incorporating words from one statements based on linguistic cues. Research indicates language into another. that deceptive texts often contain fewer self- Borrowed wor