Fighting over Words

Civil law cases offer many examples of language being at the center of human conflict. Contract disputes, truth in advertising, product warning labels, plagiarism, etc. often boil down to a matter of language - its meaning and usage. This book analyzes 18 civil cases in which language framed the battleground. Shuy, a well-known forensic linguist and consultant, shows how the skills of linguistic analysis can help resolve disputed meanings, while also showing how civil cases can prove to be fertile ground for linguistic scholarship.