Forensics: Linguistics

Forensic linguistics is used to identify the author of a text or the person behind a voice. Author identification (also called stylometry) is based on the analysis of certain patterns of language use: vocabulary, collocations, spelling, grammar, etc. Voice identification is based on speech sounds (phonetics) and the acoustic qualities of the voice.

Author identification can be used, for example, to determine:

Voice identification can be used, for example, to determine:

On the topic of author identification, see Counteracting Forensic Linguistics[1] and Who wrote that?.

Used in tactics: Incrimination

Mitigations

NameDescription
Biometric concealment

You can conceal your voice by hiding its acoustic properties.

Masking your writing style

You can counter author identification by masking your writing style.

Used in repressive operations

NameDescription
Scripta Manent

Texts published by some of the accused comrades were compared with claims of responsibility by the Informal Anarchist Federation, with the aim of proving that the comrades had written these claims[2].