How to use corpus linguistics in forensic linguistics

The chapter explores in the ways in which corpus linguistics has been, and can be, applied to forensic linguistics. Drawing upon examples from both real-life casework and academic research, this chapter illustrates how the range of corpus-based methods (frequency information, concordances, collocation and keyword analysis) can each be employed for forensic purposes. In particular, it focuses on how specialised corpora are used within authorship attribution cases and how reference corpora are used to determine the meaning of a word that may be unclear or contested. It also explores how corpus-based methods have been used to study traditional topics such as courtroom discourse and deception detection but also emerging areas such as disinformation. It concludes by offering some thoughts about the future of the field.