An Empirical and Interdisciplinary Study of Linguistic Phenomena Observed in Criminal Investigation which Aims to Apply Linguistic Analyses to Legal Practice

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15H03209
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Linguistics
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: HOTTA SYUGO 明治大学, 法学部, 専任教授 (70330008)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 片岡 邦好 愛知大学, 文学部, 教授 (20319172) ; 若林 宏輔 立命館大学, 総合心理学部, 准教授 (40707783) ; 藤田 政博 関西大学, 社会学部, 教授 (60377140) ; 日置 孝一 神戸大学, 経営学研究科, 講師 (60509850) ; 指宿 信 成城大学, 法学部, 教授 (70211753) ; 首藤 佐智子 早稲田大学, 法学学術院, 教授 (90409574)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 法言語学 / 取調べ / 法と言語 / 語用論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We have achieved almost all the goals proposed at the beginning of this study. We were lucky enough to obtain documents of false accusation cases which were offered by the defense counsel. We first analyzed them linguistically, conducted psychological experiments concerning utterance patters observed in those cases, and then examined the result and a proposal from a legal viewpoint. There are a few expressions that DO appear in the criminal investigation process but disappear when recorded on the documents. We focused on speech acts and sentence-ending particles which would help us determine what the accused would have wanted to express and what they would have thought to examine whether they really were trying to confess. The results were reported in many domestic and international conferences.

Free Research Field

法言語学