Abstract

The article “Stylistic Analysis in Forensic Linguisticsµ focuses on the application, in forensic situations, of linguistic stylistics, understood as a methodology designed to identify certain observable markers of style whose specific use may be individual or shared by a group of speakers. The author moves from the assumption that stylistic analysis, which investigates style in written language, is based on the idea that neither two authors can write in the same way nor does one author maintain the same type of writing in all his writings. By using language, therefore, the individual speaker will make individual choices, which will induce unconscious, automatic and therefore unique language habits. In written productions, then, style will result from recurrent choices such that they reflect certain unconscious habits of the writer. The author investigates the role that stylistic analysis can play in the legal debate aimed at determining who is really responsible for a piece of writing.