12 March 2024
Bilbao Campus
The University of Deusto will be holding a Language Forum from 12 to 14 March, a meeting point for students and professional linguists from a variety of fields. The Forum aims to share knowledge and learning about the world of languages, and also to show the relevance and role that languages play in many areas of our daily lives.
As professor Irene Barbería pointed out in her welcoming remarks at this forum, "people choose to study languages not only to communicate better, but also as a way to better understand our cultures and ourselves, connecting with people, broadening our outlook and fostering mutual understanding". This is why, in today's societies, language studies (bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees) offer a wide range of professional opportunities and specialisations in various areas, some of which will be addressed during the three days of the forum.
This is the case of forensic linguistics, which works to decipher crimes and misdemeanours through words. This branch emerged in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and its first laboratories arrived in Spain in the 1980s. Dr. Sheila Queralt, Director of the SQ Laboratory of Forensic Linguists and mentor for the National Cyberleague, run by the Guardia Civil, gave the keynote speech at the Forum.
According to this judicial expert, linguists analyse and investigate the different components of discourse in order to clarify the veracity of information and, if necessary, to prove the guilt of the persons under suspicion. "The way we speak and write varies greatly according to gender, culture, level of education or geographical area, and there are even certain traits associated with personality, such as diction and certain uses of words. That is why syntax can prove someone's innocence or guilt," she said, citing as an example cases where the victim had been impersonated in his/her messages by his/her attacker.
She also stressed that "language is mutable", so a single individual is capable of adapting it according to the situation in which he or she finds him or herself: "When someone is trying to hide the truth, or is being coerced, they use certain types of specific markers, so it is vital to study the different linguistic corpora and analyse the discourse in detail.
Therefore, whether in the case of an incomprehensible letter from the administration, a false news item, an anonymous letter or a plagiarism case, or in the case of complaints, identity theft, kidnapping or legal proceedings, their work and professional opinion is relevant to uncovering the truth and enforcing justice. "Linguists do science, and what's more, it's useful," she said.
Over the next few days, the University of Deusto's Language Forum will also host a variety of student experiences and presentations on topics such as marketing through languages, language acquisition by children and the neurolinguistic perspective on learning a second language, among others.
