Separation of Spontaneous and Non-Spontaneous Speech in Forensic Examination: Information Content of Features and Evidential Significance

The article discusses the problems associated with the establishment of such characteristics of speech as spontaneity – non-spontaneity and preparedness – unpreparedness. Attention is drawn to the elaboration of the problem in the academic domains of linguistics and psychology and very low extent of development in the domain of forensic examination. While characteristics of spontaneity and preparedness of speech are well-described, there is no scientifically based data on their informativeness and diagnostic significance. Moreover, there are no criteria for establishing the degree of preparedness of speech and rules for making an expert decision. This leads to inconsistency of conclusions. In addition, forensic research of oral and written speech in relation to its preparedness is associated with the requirement to ensure the comparability of the object and the comparative sample in order to obtain reliable knowledge about the author of the text (utterance) and the suitability of objects and samples for identification and diagnosis. The problem of speech preparedness also includes doubts about the forensic and legal significance of establishing such characteristics of speech as spontaneity and preparedness when conducting a forensic linguistic or psychological-linguistic examination, since the preparedness of speech is irrelevant to the unreliability of the information reported and, on the contrary, spontaneous speech does not indicate the independence and reliability of testimony.