The use of forensic linguistics in the French legal context is rare, and it is also controversial, on the rare occasions when it is employed. Although work in legal linguistics has been developed, particularly in the wake of Dominique Lagorgette's research, the use of forensic linguistics has met with reluctance (Renaut et al. 2017) and even oppositions. We will take as a starting point for this paper the case of the Petit Grégory affair, and its recent twists and turns following the introduction of stylometric expertise. This will allow us to detail precisely the use of a tool-based approach in the framework of linguistics applied to legal cases (stylometry, textometry, corpus linguistics). We will thus detail the criteria of validity of the results within the framework of a scientific discipline, and within the framework of a trial, in order to highlight the inadequacies, and the way forward, for forensic linguistics to be really able to provide an effective expertise in the French legal context.
From the corpus of newspaper articles, comments and reactions to this case, we will then analyse how forensic linguistics is mediated and discussed by lawyers and experts. Taking into account the arguments and objections will reveal what appears, in the field of application of linguistics, to be relevant, and scientific, to a non-specialist audience.
The presentation of the scientific stakes of forensic linguistics, in particular stylometry, and the perspective of the challenges and debates around its applications in the case of Petit Grégory, will allow us to synthesise the requirements and precautions to be taken in order to envisage a real relevant and efficient use. In addition to the scientific and legal dimensions, the institutional issues will also be highlighted, so that transparency and understanding of the results are made possible.
References
Coulthard, M., & Johnson, A. (Eds.). (2010). The Routledge handbook of forensic linguistics (pp. 473-486). London: Routledge.
Lagorgette, D. (2011). Pragmatics in the courtroom: Violent speech acts, law, and the linguist in France. Pragmatics & Society, 2(2).
Lagorgette, D. (2012). Insulte, injure et diffamation: de la linguistique au code pénal?. Argumentation et analyse du discours, (8).
Longhi, J. (2021). Using digital humanities and linguistics to help with terrorism investigations. Forensic science international, 318, 110564.
Longhi, J. (2022). Linguistic Approaches to the Analysis of Online Terrorist Threats. In Language as Evidence (pp. 439-459). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Renaut, L., Ascone, L., & Longhi, J. (2017). De la trace langagière à l'indice linguistique: enjeux et précautions d'une linguistique forensique. Ela. Etudes de linguistique appliquee, (4), 423-442.
