What plagiarism is – and is not

 

Stopping plagiarism is as hard as defining it. As long as certain ideas, themes, personages, etc., remain in the public domain, there will be accusations – but not necessarily dishonesty. Biden’s lifelong plagiarism (including another man’s autobiography) is at a whole different level.

 

I confidently predict that sometime in the next year, a public figure (or even someone you know) will be accused of plagiarism.  When that happens, read this first:

What plagiarism is — and is not

A brief definition: plagiarism is knowingly appropriating another’s original words and/or ideas and presenting them as one’s own.

What plagiarism is – and is not full post

(1890 words, 1 image, estimated 7:34 mins reading time)

Push-words, Part II: The power of Push

Part II — The Power of Push

From long years of observation, I’ve concluded that most people are not aware of the persuasive power of push-words – or of how blithely and frequently we call upon them. Most people believe that that their (portrayals of the) facts are THE facts.

But serious observers of the language know that when it comes to the matchup of words with reality, there’s very little in the external world, other than the totally mundane, that we can agree on. And many people experience a subjective reality – e.g., religion — that is completely inaccessible to others.

Push-words, Part II: The power of Push full post

(571 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

The most persuasive words in the language

How much would you pay for the most persuasive words in the language? And what do you think they would be? Are there really words that can get people to do anything you want?

Reality check: there are no magic words, and we cannot always get people to do what we want with words alone (though some persuaders are much more successful than others). But there are words that make it more likely.

At an early age, we are taught social forms – please, thank you – that lubricate the mechanisms of getting things done. But the persuasive words I’m about to show you go way beyond politeness. They subtly influence the way the audience sees reality.

The most persuasive words in the language full post

(674 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)

Alan Perlman reviews Tom Wolfe’s “The Kingdom of Speech”

I just finished “The Kingdom of Speech,” by Tom Wolfe (2016, Little, Brown), author of “The Right Stuff” (about the first astronauts), “Bonfire of the Vanities” (a shot at NY’s elites), “A Man in Full,” (about the vulgar wealth of the New South), and many others I enjoyed immensely.  Apart from his stylistic peculiarities, Wolfe brings the informed layman’s perspective, which he fills in with rich detail and tells you things you weren’t aware you didn’t know, e.g., in “Right Stuff,” that ”burned beyond recognition” is often a sanitized way of saying “barbecued into a human turkey,” which Wolfe describes in detail.

Alan Perlman reviews Tom Wolfe’s “The Kingdom of Speech” full post

(1085 words, estimated 4:20 mins reading time)

Turnitin.com: Mindless Machine Requires Human Brain

 

Turnitin.com: Mindless Machine Requires Human Brain

“We cannot get grace from gadgets.”
J.B. Priestly

The website of turnitin.com cheerily proclaims that “Turnitin helps educators evaluate student work and provide great feedback to improve student learning. The cloud-based service is available at an annual subscription for schools, colleges, and universities.”

Like all tools, this one can be turned to malevolent use. I am a practitioner of forensic linguistics (www.language-expert.net ) and every year I get more plagiarism cases. The accused include high school and college students and even law professors, and more often than not, turnitin is the weapon of choice.

Turnitin.com: Mindless Machine Requires Human Brain full post

(431 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

On the Quasi-plagiarism of Rand Paul

All of a sudden, Plagiarism Rand Paul gets over 40 MILLION Google hits. But the charge is somewhat bogus.

Plagiarism, in my experience, is one of those charges that is meant to question someone’s basic integrity. Whether true or not (and it’s hard to decide; see below), the mere accusation brings stigma. I have more than once been consulted about a plagiarism charge, groundless upon investigation but meant to be part of a general moral attack. Let’s throw everything against the wall and see what sticks.

On the Quasi-plagiarism of Rand Paul full post

(611 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Memo to National Pork Board Lawyers

By Alan M. Perlman.

A geek site, as an April Fools prank, launches a new product — unicorn meat – which it calls “the new white meat,” and lawyers for the National Pork Board issue a cease-and-desist order, because they’ve gone to great lengths to copyright “the other white meat” as a synonym for “pork,” and the new product might cause consumer confusion (or “trademark dilution,” as they sometimes call it).

Memo to National Pork Board Lawyers full post

(627 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

When a Lawyer Needs a Linguist…

Linguists and lawyers

When does a lawyer need a linguist?

Roger Shuy, one of the most preeminent forensic linguists, notes that the interpretation and application of the law are overwhelmingly about language. Thus, there are many situations in which the expertise of a linguist – someone trained in the precise description and analysis of language (but not necessarily a person who knows many languages) – can make substantial contributions to a case. The linguist can provide evidence one way or the other. Or he/she can clarify the linguistic principles, problems, and processes that the case involves.

(1) Patent/copyright law.

When a Lawyer Needs a Linguist… full post

(949 words, 1 image, estimated 3:48 mins reading time)

Alan is quoted in the Washington Post.

June 13, 2004, Sunday

WASHINGTON POST

A LINGUAL PARADIGM SHIFT

By Amy Joyce

Susannah Rast got a letter from her employer at the beginning of the year that said the company was “implementing a reduction in force to your position.”Not only did her boss not say she was being let go, but it was additionally laughable because this “reduction in force” was in an office of just 12 people. And she was the only one let go.

Alan is quoted in the Washington Post. full post

(968 words, estimated 3:52 mins reading time)

The Language of “The Passion”

If we can set aside, just for a moment, our passions about “The Passion,” we can view it as a movie with some really good linguistic special effects.

Below is the full text version of an article entitled “The Jesuit scholar who translated ‘The Passion'” (by Nathan Bierma, Special to the Tribune. Chicago Tribune, Mar 4, 2004). The footnote numbers refer to my comments at the end.

Obscured by the furor surrounding Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is one relatively mundane bit of trivia: Last week’s debut marked the widest release ever of a subtitled film in North America.

The Language of “The Passion” full post

(1091 words, estimated 4:22 mins reading time)

Do men and women write differently? Read “Sexed Texts” — and Alan’s comments.

MAGAZINE DESK

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 8-10-03; Sexed Texts

By Charles McGrath (NYT) 1113 words

Men — as we know now, thanks to investigators like Dr. John Gray — are from Mars, women from Venus. On our respective planets we, or our ancestors, learned to do certain things differently: shop, argue, deploy the TV clicker. To this ever-expanding list we must now add writing. Not writing in the literal sense of making marks on a page — though clearly there are vast differences there as well (legibility must be more prized on Venus) — but writing as linguistic expression. This is slightly different from conversation, in which, as Deborah Tannen, another of the scholars in the Venus-Mars debate, has taught us, the differences between men and women are so vast as to be almost unbridgeable without years of therapy.

Do men and women write differently? Read “Sexed Texts” — and Alan’s comments. full post

(1517 words, estimated 6:04 mins reading time)

FAQ’s about forensic linguistics

(from Forensic Linguistics: Advances in Forensic Stylistics, by Gerald R. McMenamin, CRC Press, 2002).

Q: What is the role of the analyst’s intuition?

A: Intuition is the analyst’s use of his or her own judgment to discover linguistic variation and suggest initial hypotheses to investigate. As a speaker or writer of the language and as a linguist, the analyst uses introspection to start the process of analysis. Lakoff comments, on the use of introspection and informal observation that, “… any procedure is at some point introspective…” (Lakoff, 19705:5). A good discussion of the methodological role of intuition in linguistic research can be found in B. Johnstone, Qualitative Methods in Sociolinguistics, Oxford University Press, New York, 2000.

FAQ’s about forensic linguistics full post

(405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

A Note on the Origins of Forensic Linguistics

Although it employs the methods and concepts of modern linguistics (and sometimes makes use of statistical analysis and computer databases), forensic linguistics is at least 200 years old.

According to Gerald R. McMenamin (Forensic Linguistics: Advances in Forensic Stylistics), “hundreds of studies — in the form of journal articles and books — have been done on style, stylistics, and questioned authorship. German studies of Old Testament authorship date back at least to the middle of the 19th century. In addition, evidence has been presented in multiple court cases, and numerous judicial opinions have been documented based on evidence of forensic stylistics.

A Note on the Origins of Forensic Linguistics full post

(149 words, estimated 36 secs reading time)

Basic Forensic Linguistic Skills: How Text Sensitive Are You?

A forensic linguist must be exquisitely sensitive to nuances of text.  Where a synonym exists, the very choice of each word represents a decision on the part of the author.  Superimposed upon that is the way the word is spelled, abbreviated or capitalized. Truly, a text is a tangle of choices.

The following are intended to test your potential as a forensic linguist. There are two exercises from Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language, Crime and the Law, by John Olsson (New York: Continuum, 2004).

(1) From page 193:

Note ALL peculiarities in the following text.

Basic Forensic Linguistic Skills: How Text Sensitive Are You? full post

(407 words, estimated 1:38 mins reading time)

Beyond “Fun” linguistics: The Deconstruction of BS and the Search for Truth

I suppose I should not be shocked by the trivialization, in the popular view, of the discipline to which I devoted so many years of my life and still consider myself a practitioner: linguistics — the objective, scientific study of language. I’m not surprised because many sciences get trivialized. The ongoing search for knowledge of nutrition spawns health fads and new diets galore. The data of biology and astrophysics are twisted to support crackpot theories of creationism. The bewilderingly complex study of climate change is as polluted by politics and emotion as the environment is itself polluted with human, toxic waste.

Beyond “Fun” linguistics: The Deconstruction of BS and the Search for Truth full post

(1178 words, estimated 4:43 mins reading time)

Heard the latest about forensic linguistics?

It’s not often that forensic linguistics makes the news. It’s not nearly as sexy or yucky as the forensics that originates in the pathologist’s lab or at the murder site. There’s actually a scientific book, called Men, Murder, and Maggots, that tells you how to determine when someone was killed, on the basis of the type of parasites that are now feasting on the corpse.

 

Heard the latest about forensic linguistics? full post

(861 words, estimated 3:27 mins reading time)