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8 - Conclusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2026

John A. Hawkins
Affiliation:
University of California, Davis and University of Cambridge
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Summary

The concluding Chapter 8 gives a summary of the language disputes covered in the previous seven chapters. It then tries to answer the general question about why these disputes have arisen in American courts among people who do not normally miscommunicate and disagree like this. Four reasons are given. First, in cases of ambiguity and multiple interpretations one side in the dispute paid insufficient attention to, or chose to ignore, the disambiguating role of context. Second, at the heart of the dispute there was often a subtle and complex aspect of linguistic meaning and comprehension that the theories and empirical methods of the language sciences are designed to explain. Their findings can provide relevant linguistic information to the triers of fact for legal decision-making, and these subtleties and complexities would often not have been appreciated without linguistic expertise. Third, there were regularly legal and financial advantages and benefits that were motivating each of the parties in the dispute. And fourth, some of the opinions delivered by language consultants were unhelpful because these “experts” had little expertise in relevant areas of the language sciences.

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  • Conclusions
  • John A. Hawkins, University of California, Davis and University of Cambridge
  • Book: The English Language on Trial
  • Online publication: 13 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009682794.009
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  • Conclusions
  • John A. Hawkins, University of California, Davis and University of Cambridge
  • Book: The English Language on Trial
  • Online publication: 13 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009682794.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusions
  • John A. Hawkins, University of California, Davis and University of Cambridge
  • Book: The English Language on Trial
  • Online publication: 13 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009682794.009
Available formats
×