Rob Leonard - The Groundbreaking Science of Forensic Linguistics

Forensic linguists solve murders, identify kidnappers, and fight to free the innocent from death row. They also provide expertise in a variety of civil cases, such as Apple’s fight against Amazon and Microsoft to protect its trademarks. Dr. Rob Leonard of Hofstra, described by The New Yorker as "a Sam Spade of semantics…one of the foremost language detectives in the country," has consulted to the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit, Apple, and the Prime Minister of Canada. He also teaches Swahili — he was a Fulbright to Kenya — and opened for Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock with his college band Sha Na Na.

The Language Event

[katiezee]

I love this guy-- I learned of his linguist expertise from a Forensic Files episode (where they mentioned the trivia of his Sha-Na-Na history).. but with this I've learned of his love of language, studying various foreign languages just from the love of it... a fascinating mind !

[sofeapostgrad]

I wanna cry because I really wanna know what the audience are saying!

[cavern]

In statement Analysis we always flag anything that is repeated as sensitive. In the, Hummert "serial killer" transcript, "husband" is mentioned 4 times. Now, why would it be sensitive to the author, because he (husband) wrote it.

[monalisa]

i wish he would have repeated what the audience member's said.

[tedtalksrock]

7:50 to skip to what forensic linguistics is. (Where he should have started the speech.)

[initialcreation]

*taps microphone* teen angel, can you hear me?

[MattColler]

Linguistic correction: Catalans do not lisp their soft C's, so Barcelona should be pronounced with an S sound.

[julieprior]

Frustrating+++! What I could follow was extremely interesting BUT firstly the subtitles went racing ahead of the actual speech and remained intermittently out of synch. Second, as others have said, the delegates cannot be heard clearly (and at times not at all). Because of these two factors I have had to abandon it after 30 minutes. Such a shame.

[jessiejames]

Why does he remind me of Nathan Lane! Such intetesting talented person.

[thewonderfulworldofderek]

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