Parametric Triangulation in Forensic Linguistics (on the Example of the Speech Act of Threatening)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the issues of normalization of methodological tools for forensic linguistic examination of the text. The significance of the study is due to the current state of affairs in the industry, where, despite the successful use of variable procedures of linguistic and legal study of the text in procedural-investigative and judicial practices, there are contradictions in expert opinions, a lack of clarity in the presentation of conclusions. Currently, jurislinguistic theory is objectively unable to offer a single methodological standard of work due to the potential variability of conflict communicative situations, a large number of extralinguistic factors that affect speech interaction. As a solution to this problem, it is proposed to introduce the principles of methodological triangulation into the scientific field of linguistic expertology - the use of several research procedures to solve one problem. The purpose of the scientific work is to substantiate and present a model of the corresponding parametric-triangulation algorithm for forensic linguistic examination of the text on the material of such a type of offense as a threat. The article analyzes the characteristics of the threat presented in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Belarus. The conducted research shows that triangulation can be successfully extrapolated into the methodology of legal language parametrization. This allows 1) to establish the parameters that identify the offense, 2) to determine the methodological procedures for studying them, and 3) to evaluate the obtained research results. A description of the algorithmic methodological model of a forensic linguistic study of a text for the presence of signs of a verbal threat in its content is given. As a result of scientific research, a system of expert procedures is presented, including a number of methods verified in the practice of special linguistic and legal research (automatic interpretation, lexicocentric, gener, logical semantics analysis, etc.). The described methods of expert work make it possible to study three mandatory (subject composition and subject affiliation of an action, addressing and temporal marking) and one optional (action type) parameters of a threat committed verbally.