Hannes Kniffka: Working in Language and Law: A German Perspective.

Abstract

This volume brings together the life’s work of Hannes Kniffka with two principal objectives: first, to provide a coherent collection of this important body of work; and second, to provide this collection in English. Kniffka’s work to date has mainly appeared in German. One implication, although not explicitly stated in the book, is that the English-speaking work on forensic linguistics has not always been cognisant of work published in German, and in fact the author claims that the work in Germany was already well advanced when it was only beginning in English-speaking contexts. The book reminds us yet again of the importance of those who work in linguistics to also practice linguistics in the sense of knowing and using different languages and being able to access sources in a variety of languages. As Roger Shuy states in the preface, the book ‘opens an important door to those unfamiliar with the German language and context, and it helps them compare and learn from the theory and practice of the earlier and more recent work by Kniffka, who founded and has practiced forensic linguistics in Germany since the 1970s’ (p. xii).