Everyday I pass a house that fronts the service road of the highway I drive on. The construction is out of the 1970s, and it's in need of a lot of repair. Behind the house is the rest of the property, what looks like about 10 acres covered with a forest. The forest is thick and appears overgrown with low-lying shrubbery, making it look shabby, uneven, unkempt.
That's about all a person can see from the highway. But, if one is on the service road, or if one has to drive slowly on the highway, then (s)he can see beyond the house sitting in front of the forest. Slightly above the tree line, the tops of some very nice houses, the million dollar variety, can be seen. Turrets appear on these houses, double chimneys, peaked roofs covering two stories, and gables. A whole housing addition full of brand new million dollar houses lies hidden behind the shabby, overgrown forest enticing people to come and see more.
Forensic sciences in general, and forensic linguistics in particular, act in much the same way. Speech at regular speed doesn't allow a view of what's behind it, what it might be hiding. Many times speech is verbose, repetitive, containing fillers, and passive constructions to hide meaning - what one might call overgrown. It contains informalities, expletives, and idiomatic expressions that appear inexact; they're decoys But, if a person looks beyond the words, a truer image of the meaning of the words appears - elaborate constructions to dress up the truth, to hide accuracy, to report what didn't happen.
Facades of beauty house rotten things so much of the time. Forensics bring out what is hidden. It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.
No comments:
Post a Comment