Postgraduate Programme in Forensic Linguistics (Forensic Linguistic Technical Studies)

Postgraduate Programme in Forensic Linguistics (Expert Linguistic Analysis) DLIFP comprises the following courses, for which students must register separately.

POSTGRADUATE COURSE IN FORENSIC PHONETICS

The theoretical credits of this course are based upon:

A. Identifying speakers using the following methods:

1. Determining the boundaries between speakers in order to prepare arguments to establish whether or not a specific voice sample belongs to a subject.
2. Determining a subject's most idiosyncratic voice parameters.
3. Determining each speaker's specific dialectal and sociolectal characteristics that favour a positive or negative identification.
4. Acoustically comparing the characteristics of different sounds that appear in disputed and non-disputed voice samples and a general reference corpus.
5. Carrying out multi-dimensional voice analysis to determine if two voices coincide in all the variables analysed.
6. Carrying out statistical tests to detect significant differences between the values of parameters analysed from different speakers.

B. Linguistic profiling using the following methods:

1. Studying the phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of a recording in order to compare them with typical dialectical characteristics.
2. Studying the phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic characteristics of a recording in order to compare them with typical sociolectal characteristics.
3. Carrying out analysis of vocal formants and basic frequencies in order to infer height and weight.
4. Identifying linguistic interference from languages other than the language of the recording.

The methodological credits are based upon:

C. Multidimensional analysis techniques using Computer Speech Lab from Kay Elemetrics.

POSTGRADUATE COURSE IN PLAGIARISM DETECTION

The theoretical credits of this course are based upon plagiarism detection in general and plagiarism in translation, using the following methods:

1. Establishing linguistics "marks" and criteria that can be used as determinants in cases of plagiarism.
2. Establishing the degree of similarity that must exist between two or more texts before deciding whether or not one or more texts are plagiarisms of another.
3. Determining accepted levels of similarity and the exact point in which this level becomes suspicious.
4. Indicating the rarity or expectation of the choice made by authors of texts and translations, in order to establish the idiosyncrasy or coincidence of the texts produced by using reference corpora and data bases.
5. Responding to the fundamental question of whether or not the resulting evidence can help to establish a case of prima facie, i.e. a case in the context of which the evidence is sufficient for the judge or tribunal to pass sentence.

The methodological credits are based upon:

Applying plagiarism detection techniques by use of the CopyCatch program from CFL Software Development and the multivariate statistical analysis programmes VARBRUL and GOLDVARB 2001.

POSTGRADUATE COURSE IN AUTHORSHIP DETERMINATION

The theoretical credits of this course are based upon:

A. Forensic comparison of written texts, leading to more reliable and conclusive authorship determination and attribution, by means of the following methods:

1. Establishing linguistic "marks" and criteria that may be relevant in cases of authorship determination.
2. Indicating the rarity or expectation of the choice made by authors of texts and translations, in order to establish the idiosyncrasy or coincidence of the texts produced by using reference corpora and data bases.

B. The application of techniques for automatically detecting authorship marks by way of different programmes used in forensic stylometry and idiolectometry.

The methodological credits are based upon:

C. Techniques for the automatic detection of authorship marks by means of different programmes used in forensic stylometry and idiolectometry.

Postgraduate Programme in Forensic Linguistics (Forensic Linguistic Technical Studies) awarded by Pompeu Fabra University. Students who hold a university degree may gain the diploma by passing the three postgraduate courses.

Passing each of the three postgraduate courses enables students to gain the corresponding postgraduate certificate awarded by Pompeu Fabra University.

ACADEMIC CREDITS

30 ECTS*

*European Credit Transfer System. 1 ECTS credit equals a total approximate dedication of 25 hours by the participant, including teaching hours and independent work.