Shuy continues his contribution to the application of linguistics to issues of language in legal contexts with his latest book, The language of defamation cases. For those unfamiliar with Shuy's work, he is a major contributor to the field of language and the law and the field of forensic linguistics. The language of defamation cases is divided into two major sections. The first section, Part 1, focuses on how linguistics can aid in the determination of defamation cases and the second, Parts 2–4, presents defamation case examples in media, medicine, and business.
Ch. 1 presents the reader with a brief overview and some rather insightful possibilities into the antecedents and development of defamation law. Ch. 2 discusses the role of linguistics in defamation cases, including a list of topics that interested students might translate into elective class possibilities. These include grammatical referencing (syntax), speech acts (pragmatics), conveyed meaning (semantics), and discourse structure and framing (discourse analysis).
Parts 2 through 4 present a series of defamation case studies. Presented are four cases involving the media (Chs. 3–7), two cases in the medical field (Chs. 8–9), and four cases in business (Chs. 10–13). As Shuy points out, most of these cases were settled out of court. This makes assessing the effect of linguistics on the outcome of these cases difficult. However, Shuy's presentation of the linguistic data and his analysis results demonstrates the potential of linguistic contributions to issues of defamation. All of these cases include data excerpts, comments on discourse framing, and example analysis of key words, including discussions on ambiguity and conveyed meaning. This information is provided for students and teachers to work with, expound upon, and to debate.
Of particular interest are Chs. 7 and 14. Ch. 7 presents a case where attorneys for the plaintiff and defendant both employ experts. Subsequently, much of this case focuses on the differences between the reports of the two opposing linguists. This chapter addresses some of what we might expect as expert is pitted against expert in an effort to build or defend a defamation case. Shuy uses this situation to convey some potential pitfalls in presenting testimony and interpreting data. Ch. 14 presents not only a summary of the development of defamation as a modern duel, but encourages linguists to consider their obligation to contribute to other fields, including law; and to consider that such contributions may provide additional career opportunities for linguists.
