Language as Forensic Evidence in Selected Examples of Crime Fiction: Novels by Agatha Christie

Abstract

This study examines the role of language as a tool for uncovering crime in selected examples of Agatha Christie's novels. It falls within the framework of forensic linguistics as a new field that has not received sufficient attention in Arabic literature, particularly studies that take the novel as a model for analyzing language and revealing its role in identifying perpetrators, which contributes to solving many communication and legal problems in courts and police stations. The analysis adopted the intentional approach, which depends on the author's intention to interpret literary texts and understand the symbols and stylistic and pragmatic characteristics of language. To be specific, it attempts to understand the stylistic characteristics of grammar, semantics, morphology, and sound, in which the second links the literary text to social context that contributes to understanding the connotations of the language employed, whether written or spoken, and explains the psychological state of both the speakers and addressees.

To achieve the objective of the study, the researcher adapted an introductory approach by providing an introduction to forensic literature, a theoretical foundation that examined the concept and fields of forensic linguistics. The study also defined analytical methodological tools and the applied practices that included dialogue analysis, written messages, recordings, and audio calls as a comprehensive framework for spoken and written language axes.

This interdisciplinary study combines both linguistics and legal science in its various manifestations: investigation, adjudication, and ruling, in addition to the significant role that language shares in understanding crime and the psychology of defendants, and what witness statements indicate based on the theory of speech acts. However, the results of the study showed that the possibility of investing in crime literature in the field of forensic linguistics, as an application of linguistic visions derived from legal science.