THE ANALYSIS OF THE PRECEDENT EXPRESSION WITHIN FORENSIC LINGUISTIC EXPERTISE: RUSSIAN AND INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The discussion on the relevancy of linguistic expertise of precedent expressions looms large in contemporary scholarly discourse. On the one hand, precedent and metaphorical expressions are often cases at legal proceedings. On the other hand, linguistic phenomena of this kind often cause difficulties in for linguistic expertise, because it is more difficult to formalize the lexico-semantic level of the language than the phonetic, morphological or syntactic levels.

Both Russian and foreign linguists have experience in performing expertise of such expressions. The article discusses two examples of the analysis of statements containing vocabulary with a figurative meaning, one of which demonstrates the peculiarities of linguistic expertise of precedent expressions in British judicial practice, and the second one reflects the experience of considering similar phrases in Russian linguistic expertise. The peculiarities of linguistic expertise in both countries are caused by differences in the expertise procedure and the tasks that the court sets for the expert.

In Britain, the question of whether a metaphorical precedent expression is defamatory or not is determined through a two-step process. At the first stage, the judge decides whether the expression in question may potentially contain libel. The decision is made on the basis of the so-called “ordinary reader test”. At the second stage, the claimant gives his arguments, and then the burden of refutation of the arguments of the claimant passes to the respondent, who must convince the judge and / or jury that the phrase in question contains truthful data. The linguist’s help is involved only at the first stage of the legal process. In Russian practice, however, a linguist must consider a form of expressing negative information and answer the question whether a precedent expression can be part of a factual statement.