The Language of Perjury Cases

The Language of Perjury Casesoutlines the contributions that linguistics can make to both the gathering of evidence and the way that evidence is analyzed in perjury cases. Roger W. Shuy describes eleven representative lawsuits--involving bankruptcy, unions, hunting licenses, doctors, priests, and Senators--for which he served as a consultant. Shuy's linguistic analysis illustrates how grammatical referencing, speech acts, discourse structure, framing, conveyed meaning, intentionality, and malicious language affected the outcome of these cases.

Roger W. Shuy is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University.

Introduction
Secion I: Perjury and Linguistics
1. Perjury and Proof of Perjury
2. How Linguists View the Language of Perjury
Section II: Perjury Charges with Inadequate Intelligence Analysis
3. False Statements in a Bankruptcy Case
4. False Statements in a Political Contribution Conduit Scheme
5. Perjury and Fraud in a Bank Loan
6. False Statements on a Hunting License Application
Section III: Perjury and an Ill-Fated Shipping Vessel, The Khain Sea
7. Perjury Charges for a Shipping Company Executive
8. Perjury Charges for Another Shipping Company Executive
Section IV: Perjury Charges Across Languages and Cultures
9. A Doctor Charged with Perjury
10. A Union Representative Charged with Perjury
Section V: Perjury Charges with Adequate Intelligence Analysis
11. An Attorney's Aborted Charge of Suborning Perjury
12. A United States Senator's Aborted Perjury Charge
13. A Priest's Aborted Perjury Charge
14. Advantages and Dangers of Intelligence Analysis in Perjury Cases
15. Recommendations for Analyzing Perjury Cases
References
Cases Cited