Our words betray us: five cases of forensic linguistics

We don’t even realize, but we leave our mark on everything we say and write. From our accent when we speak with the spaces that we interspersed in between words by typing a ‘WhatsApp’, there are countless variables that betray our link with those messages. Forensic linguists become the CSI of words that crumble texts and recordings to find evidence for an investigation or judgment. «We cannot avoid that footprint. Although one tries to imitate another person or hide their identity, you always leave a trail, both in writing and orally. When we talk, there are parameters that impossible to imitate: for example, how often the vocal strings vibrate. When we write, we can adjust some things, but we will always give away (Perhaps because they are not consistent with spelling crimes) and we will give instructions, ”says Sheila Queralt, director of the SQ Laboratory and one of the most prestigious professionals in this area.

Queralt will publish ‘The Book Prapped by the Language’ (Larousse) this Thursday, in which It exposes fifty cases in which language analysis has played a decisive role, In addition to explaining the most important keys to a discipline that is still little known … even for criminals. «Now the anonymous are written for a computer, thinking about the perite calligraphy, but the format does not matter because we are not looking at it. Less than a year ago I analyzed a text of a case of gender violence in which the person who made the threats wrote: ‘I have already been careful, you do not report because nobody will believe you. I have taken all the precautions’. He never thought we would catch him exactly for everything he was writing.

“Now the anonymous to the computer is written, thinking about the perite calligraphy, but the size does not matter because we are not looking at it”

Forensic linguists must study from contracts to terrorist communication, from intimidation to so -called plagued documents. They can conclude If the hate messages of different ‘haters’ have the same author behind him, or if the statements of a minor are dictated by an adult, or if a pedophile is hidden after a participant in an online forum. The characteristics in which they have been established are very varied: for example, the speech speed, but also the breaks full (that is, those crutches with which we cover the holes in the discourse), the way to a few letters, the tildes, the unique combinations of words or,, Yes, even the emojis. «They give us a lot of information: Not only which we use, but with what sentence ». Here are five of the cases that Sheila Queralt has collected in his book.

Forensic linguists provide many more things, but what is usually spoken about the effect of profiles: they are looking for Details in oral or written texts that allow conclusions about the author to identify and stop them. The reference case is that of Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, the American terrorist who sent sixteen bombs between the late 70s and half -70s, killed three people and twenty three injured. Kaczynski was an enlightened hermit who wrote a manifesto entitled ‘Industrial Society and its Future’, a typed reflection of 35,000 words that offered very valuable material to the FBI language analysts. Their way of expression enabled them to conclude that Unabomber had higher studies (He was a doctoral in mathematics, specialized in complex analysis) and even limits at what time he had gone the university. Moreover, prose of the terrorist It showed certain peculiarities (through the use of capital letters to mistakes in the use of a sentence) that the Kaczynski family members brought on warning. The subsequent comparison of the manifesto with his family correspondence confirmed those suspicions: it was the first time that linguistic evidence was used to reach a registration warrant in the United States.

In February 2017, Madrid’s Red Cross received a phone call that claimed urgent medical help for a house in Santander. There was the body of Ángel Prieto, an 81 -year -old man who was fascinated, squeezed and suffocated. The forensic acoustic unit of the National Police focused on analyzing the recording of the call, because the author had to be associated with crime in one way or another. They were nothing more than a few sentences, but they allowed us to conclude that It was a man of a certain age (for example, he used “the signs” instead of “the direction”), with an average or low and low social -cultural level of North Spain (he said “in the morning” instead of “in the morning” and pronounced “there” such as “AI”, next to other regional characteristics). «There was also how he communicated with the girl who attended the call: The language hierarchy was one of the variables that could determine their age. He said ‘points’, ‘takes the ball’ … », Qualt explains. When a suspect was identified, a 66 -year -old biscay, the recording could be compared with his way of speaking, whereby technical variables are kept, such as vibrations of the vocal cords per second, the voltage when pronouncing the te’s or the duration of one’s. The case is in anticipation of judgment.

The police suspected that different scams have committed themselves for a period of almost twenty years, from 1996, the same criminal, the ‘Donjuán de Las websites’, those, those, those, those, those, those He had used at least 35 different identities and had collected more than 72 victims who were distributed everywhere in Spain. Exactly, it was the affected that launched a private investigation in which the Laboratory of Sheila Queralt participated. From the emails and chat records of Eight Alleged Alleged Identities of the Scammer, Forensic Linguists Concluded that there was a high probability that everyone corresponds to the same person: a man who was between 20 and 35 years betsen 2004 and 2007 (There, There,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, there Idiomas such as ‘Rolls’, ‘moved’ or ‘molar’ acquired unexpected relevance, but also the use of emoticons, That was allowed to find it with more precision), with a fundamental cultural level (for example, the adverb ‘more’) and then accentuated I probably came from Galicia (I used ‘I’ called you ‘instead of’ I called you ‘, he said’ go in bed ‘…) But he had lived in the center of Spain. The prisoner, Rodrigo Nogueira, was 28 years old in 2004, did not spend the school, was born in the city of Ponteveda de Marín and lived a lot of time in Madrid. “Moreover,” says the specialist, “we analyzed other cases and we could get a pattern of how they use the language that these scammers use to seduce and squeeze.”

In recent years, an important function of forensic linguistics has been to determine whether a victim of kidnapping or murder has really written the messages from their accounts. One of the pioneering shops about this aspect was that of Danielle Jones, a 15 -year -old British teenager who disappeared in 2001, when he was on his way to the institute. The most important suspect was his uncle, Stuart Campbell, who showed the researchers Two mobile messages that supposedly sent his niece Hours after getting away: in them he explained that he had many problems at home and hinted that he would escape. Linguist Malcolm Coulhard studied the texts and of course concluded that of course Danielle had not written them because properties such as the use of abbreviations and capital letters do not coincide. The uncle was convicted, but did not reveal the residence of the body.

In the case of óscar Sánchez, one of the best known in our country, forensic linguistics served to correct a flagrant injustice that had neither feet nor head. Oscar, a modest lavacoch from Montgat (Barcelona), accused the Italian justice of an international drug trafficking in collaboration with the Mafia. The real medicine had used a telephone in the name of Oscar and an “alleged expert”, as Sheila Queralt says, had confirmed that the voice of Catalan coincided with that of an intercepted call to the criminal. The poor Oscar, who had never left Italy, was extradited and sentenced to fourteen years in prison and six expert evidence (one of them, from the Qualt Laboratory) was needed to prove his innocence. The language differences between óscar Sánchez and the human dealer were overwhelming because the first Spoke Spanish Peninsula and the second, a Uruguayan variant, with Voseo, Seseo, words like ‘guacho’ or ‘Rebueno’ And certain peculiarities in the error and the des. Óscar spent 626 days in an Italian prison.

“Now we all leave public tracks on Twitter and Facebook”

Internet, social networks and ‘smartphones’ have had a clear influence in cases that reach the Laboratory of Sheila Queralt: “Before we had more speech analysis and now the highest percentage was written. Moreover, it was much more difficult for us to deal with the authorities, what we asked if it is much more the linguist.

“I love violations,” Ironiza in the book. Certainly, spelling errors are one of the most striking functions in the ‘footprint’ left behind by a person when writing: “Often serve as a starting point. Not so much for us and for those who send us the committee, who realizes that the person who supposedly wrote the text, would not be missing the most of the profile.