Discourse or Linguistic Analyses of Speech

Discourse or linguistic analysis of speech is the scientific analysis of a dialogue which, when presented by a forensic linguist such as Dr. Yonovitz, may be able to determine how and why one's statements do not convey the significance that someone else attaches to them.

Effective communication between two or more people requires spoken information exchange. Such exchange must be linguistically congruous, i.e., it must be logically ordered to give each conversant a meaningful chance to raise topics and respond accordingly. However, one does not always reveal the meaning of his/her speech through explicit words alone. Non-speech expressions -- equally important as the spoken words themselves – may complement the conversation, including intonation patterns, turn-taking, back-channeling, word choice, rhetorical style, interruptions, repetitions, and even politeness.

The above situation may be more confusing when a non-conversant (e.g., fact finder) inaccurately construes the intent of the conversants’ conversations. A non-conversant usually has a limited understanding of a taped conversation that is complex in nature. Words, phrases, intentions and motives can be construed in many different ways, but usually from the context of non-conversant’s experiences and perceptions at the time of the utterances. To fully understand the actual context of the conversation rather than construing the conversation from the non-conversant's perspective and experiences, Dr. Yonovitz researches the speakers, the speech content, the purposes of the conversation, the manner of the utterances, etc. By objectively explaining the structure of the conversation, discourse or linguistic analyses may provide a method for third parties to properly evaluate the recorded conversation.

Please note that discourse or linguistic analyses of speech may or may not apply to a particular recording, as it primarily depends on the length and type of conversation. When discourse or linguistic analyses does apply, it can only help one side.

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