Language evidence in distinguishing pilot error from product liability

The substance of a linguist's expert testimony on the language behavior of a pilot killed in a crash is presented with analytical commentary. The testimony, instrumental in the jury's rejection of the plaintiff's claim that the pilot had been affected by a slow leak of toxic gas, focu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of the sociology of language 1993, Vol.100-101 (1), p.101-114
Main Author: Shuy, Roger W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Air transport
Behavior
Expert Witnesses
Language Usage
Liability
Testimony
Verbal Accounts
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Summary:The substance of a linguist's expert testimony on the language behavior of a pilot killed in a crash is presented with analytical commentary. The testimony, instrumental in the jury's rejection of the plaintiff's claim that the pilot had been affected by a slow leak of toxic gas, focused on the question of whether the pilot's recorded speech showed an increasing level of impairment during the course of the flight. Measures were obtained in five areas: (1) syntax, including sentence structure, sentence complexity, & word frequency; (2) ratio & appropriateness of fact-reporting speech acts in comparison with other speech act types; (3) the frequency of attention-getting & uncertainty pause fillers; (4) ability to pronounce fricatives distinctly; & (5) conformity with conversational maxims in exchanges with airport control towers. No significant in-flight changes were found in any of these areas. 3 Tables, 1 Appendix, 5 References. J. Hitchcock
ISSN:0165-2516
1613-3668
DOI:10.1515/ijsl.1993.100-101.101