Dr Reshmi Dutta-Flanders, Assistant Lecturer in the Department of English Language and Linguistics, is to present a conference paper at the Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics‘ fourth annual roundtable in forensic linguistics and phonetics.
The GSFL is an international organisation made up of social scientists, practitioners, and students who are devoted to promoting cooperative work within the field of forensic linguistics (FL) and forensic phonetics (FP) to the betterment of the society. The GSFL holds an annual roundtable where FL/FP researchers, educators and practitioners can present and discuss their work within an interdisciplinary, supportive and scholarly environment.
Reshmi’s paper on ‘The Modus Operandi of Analysing Criminal Narrative’ will demonstrate how a plot is structured based on the ‘principle of relevance’, that is, how an audience interprets any situation for meaning based upon expectations. Using Ford Madox Ford’s novel The Good Soldier (1915), she uses a ‘discourse-based’ frame analysis that is looking for reoccurring themes and how they are placed across the plot form of a story. The consecution of these themes as scenarios contextualise the motives of participants in a story, and can enable a better understanding of an offender’s narrative and further aspects of criminality.
The GSFL Roundtable takes place in Mainz, Germany from the 26-28 August 2016. Further information about the event is available at: www.gsfl.info/roundtable–16.html