Bare bones language
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Where I’ve Been and What This Means for You
Dec 28th
The last four months or so have left my world in upheval, because we were working towards moving house. We finally found out on the 17th of December that we got the house, and our move date….of the 18th December!
So that’s why I’ve been a bit quiet these last three weeks – moving house and unpacking at the other end has not only taken it out of me, but has meant that I’ve had no time to write anything.
So what this means for you
Because I’ve been missing in action this month, I’ve chosen to take part in Ezine-Article’s 100 articles in 100 days challenge, and will be writing content for this site. Which means you, as an interested reader, will be getting at least 100 days of content plus all the articles that don’t make the cut onsite, or I just want to share here 
.
I hope you’ve all had a fabulous couple of weeks and are looking forward to the New Year!
Niche Language – Introduction
Dec 15th
Niche language is one of those things that can encompass just about every area of written and verbal communication, so I thought I’d choose a key set of areas to look and run with them. Our key areas here are ‘niche language’, ‘unique language and tags’, and ‘sociolinguistics’.
Sociolinguistics is the hardest of the three to explain, so it’s getting a separate post, later, but basically, its the language of specific groups and discusses the influence of a set of people on language within that group. Niche language is everything around that – wherever a change in language has sprung up, no matter what the reason. Unique language falls in between both – sociolinguistics would explain the why, niche would explain the who, and the application – the unique language and tags themselves would just be a dissection of both.
Later in the week I’m going to post on our first niche language – the language of gratitude – so, I’m curious, what are you thankful for? How do you express it, and how do those words make you feel?
What Is a Corpus and Why Should I Care?
Dec 7th
Key to Forensic Linguistics is the idea that there’s an identifiable set of words in everyone’s language – and those identifiable features are basically unique to ourselves.
An example is that I spell certain words wrong, and reverse several letters – My i’s and my e’s are always the wrong way round, so I have to spell check before posting. But, if you see information that I’ve posted ‘on the fly’, you may find that I’ve spelled because ‘becuase’ or their ‘thier’ among other things.
You might say that it’s simply a spelling mistake, and a very common one at that, but if you identify that as an element of someone’s written style, and they choose not to correct via spell-checking, you can sometimes identify people by simply that.
Other ways include using substituted words – mixed up words with similar definitions, or just completely the opposite words. That’s a basic idea anyway
Corpus = the internal dictionary we all use?
In some ways, you could consider the corpus as your internal dictionary. Each of us should have a unique one, or at least identifiably unique features in our corpus.
A more accepted definition of corpus is one of a wider context – a body of texts that make up a sample of the language that it’s supposed to represent, or similar. But I believe each writer has their own body of work, and therefore, their own comparable ‘corpus’ in some ways.
My first paper on the concept is coming soon, but hopefully this basic definition will help
Launch Competition!
Dec 7th
I thought we’d honor the launch of our site with a competition!
We’re going to provide two $20 vouchers (or equivalent at Amazon) for two readers as a runner up prize, and a consultation as a grand prize. We’re also offering five honorary prizes, again at random, for one article write and one article rewrite over a month. These articles can be ghostwritten, or a guest post, but YOU get to choose the subject.
A consultation?
One of the key tennants of Forensic linguistics is that each of us has a unique set of words we use – called a corpus. These corpus’ are what makes us, and are a key part of our image. If your language use isn’t matching up with exactly what you want to project, if your image and your language is somehow, out of sync, you can use our suggestions to fix it. So we’re offering ‘corpus makeovers’.
How to enter
It’s simple – just comment and say that you’re entering – with a question about something you’d like to understand or find out about. Get an extra entry with a retweet of this post (please use @ciscopywriter to count your tweet). Get a free mini crit if you post this competition to your blog, (copy the post vertabim and link back, or do your own write up) plus get an extra three entries – so you can get a total of five entries by spreading the word.
(EDIT 1:)
DOH! Forgot to add. Competition opens from the 7th to the 31st of December – with a ‘surprise’ drawing on a different post between the 20th and 24th. The draw will be on the 4th of January. Spread the word (please?)
WOOOOHOOO! We Launched!
Dec 7th
Well, here it is. I can’t believe we’ve launched, finally.
In the next few days I’ll explain why this is so important to me – why it’s sparked my passion, and what I’m thinking about doing with the site – plus information about the books I’m planning and more. Basically though, I’m here to ‘serve’ as your forensic linguist.
What is forensic linguistics anyway?
Forensic linguistics is, at (one of ) it’s most basic forms, the criminological study of language. It’s the way the police and those in legal institutions use language, and how linguists can help them. (though, to be fair, it’s all broad strokes, and isn’t really as pithy as I’d like )
My interest in it is specifically in tracking the unique areas of language that each of us have, and supporting the tracking and prosecutions of specific types of crime, alongside the more ‘mundane’ art of using elements of forensic linguistics and it’s understanding in our writing, every day, and in every document and item we create.
What you’ll find on the blog
Discussion about writing, discussion about copywriting, information on forensic linguistics, book reviews and white papers from the field, and writing and information about how I get into the career specifically. Hopefully you’ll also find conversation and information that you need to support your writing. I look forward to chatting with you about it.