Forensic Linguistics Assignment Essay -- Forensic Science

Speech analysis has a type called the voice stress analysis that detects stress in the form of micro tremors in the speech of a person. It is important to note that the voice stress analysis is equivalent to polygraph. Both polygraph and stress have a common problem of not being able to point out deception. This notwithstanding, the speech analysis is apparently being used by both the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. The fact that each and every person possesses a unique voiceprint makes the identification of a speaker to be theoretically possible. This can be achieved through acoustic analysis of the intonation counters, pitch and vowel length. When the pairs of the spectrographs that show the suspect speaker and the known speaker uttering similar words are matched, the speaker can be easily identified (Olsson 2004, p. 71). The fact that voice stress analysis relies on eye comparison is a big problem. Another problem involves the variation that occurs in the same speaker. It is reported that the uttering of the same sentence a hundred times in quick succession does not produce any two identical uttering. Some countries like the United Kingdom, however, prefer auditory analysis as opposed to the acoustic method. In auditory analysis, the speech samples are phonetically transcribed. This analysis is important as it allows the analysts to identify such features that are idiosyncratic like the speech impediments and the unusual realization of phonemes. Besides, the analysts might find the need to profile the social and regional identity of the speaker. Speech analysis nowadays accepts the mixed method as the most accurate and reliable. It can found its application in situat... ... and textual analysis (Gibbons 2003, p. 26). Works Cited Coulthard, M, & Johnson, A 2007, an introduction to forensic linguistics: language in evidence, Routledge, New York. Gibbons, J 2003, Forensic linguistics: an introduction to language in the justice system, Blackwell Pub, Malden. Gibbons, J, & Turell, TM 2008, Dimensions of forensic linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam. Jordan, SN 2002, Forensic linguistics: the linguistic analyst and expert witness of language evidence in criminal trials, Biola University, La Mirada. McMenamin, GR, & Choi, D 2002 Forensic linguistics: advances in forensic stylistics, Crc Press, Boca Raton. Olsson, J 2008, Forensic linguistics, Continuum, London. Olsson, J 2004, Forensic linguistics: an introduction to language, crime, and the law, Continuum International Publishing Group, London .