LINGUIST List 15.2839

Mon Oct 11 2004

Disc: New: Re: Linguist 15.2774, Review: Forensic Ling

Editor for this issue: Naomi Fox <foxlinguistlist.org>

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1. John Olsson, Re: Linguist 15.2774, Review: Forensic Linguistics

Message 1: Re: Linguist 15.2774, Review: Forensic Linguistics

Date: 10-Oct-2004
From: John Olsson <john

art71.com>
Subject: Re: Linguist 15.2774, Review: Forensic Linguistics

Re: Linguist 15.2774, Review: Forensic Linguistics, Olsson

As the author of 'Forensic Linguistics: An introduction to language, crime and
the law' let me say that I am grateful for Stephen Black's review. He highlights
both what I see as strengths and weaknesses. I agree a greater concentration on
theory would be most helpful in a second edition, and I perhaps fell into the
trap of making certain assumptions regarding what readers might know and what
they might want to know. For example, I use Grice's maxims a lot in my every day
work, but it would have been good to have gone into more depth on this.
Additionally, I am sure Stephen is right in saying that a separate chapter on
statistics would probably have been helpful. The only problem I have with that
is that when you do a separate chapter, and you call it 'Statistics' a lot of
people will just go onto the next chapter! So, that's a difficult one, but I
will give it serious thought for the second edition. I am in discussion with my
publishers, Continuum, at the moment, and I anticipate a second edition within
18 months to 2 years from now.

So, in conclusion, a positive, constructive review, which I have found very helpful.

All the best,

John Olsson
Linguistic Field(s): Forensic Linguistics
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