Forensic Stylometry
Definition
The statistical analysis of textual features : function-word frequencies, sentence length distributions, punctuation patterns : to identify or compare authors. Reliable on texts of several hundred words; degrades sharply on very short samples.
Related terms
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Code-Switching
- Shifting between different registers or even different languages within an interaction, often as a signal of role or authority. An interviewer who...
- Digital Written Language
- Text produced in digital communication contexts : SMS, instant messaging, social media posts, email : distinguished from formal writing by its brevity,...
- Idiolect
- The language variety specific to an individual, comprising their characteristic vocabulary, syntactic preferences, spelling habits, punctuation patterns, and discourse-level style. Authorship attribution...
- Metadata
- Data about data. In document forensics, metadata includes file-creation timestamps, last-modified dates, author fields, revision history, and embedded GPS coordinates in images....
Explained in
- Text Messaging and Digital Language as EvidenceThe statistical analysis of textual features : function-word frequencies, sentence length distributions, punctuation patterns : to identify or compare authors....