A recent BBC report tells us a surprising, and distinctly odd, piece of news
An investigation has begun after it was alleged an officer inserted song titles into his evidence at the inquest of a lawyer whom police shot dead.
Yes, really!
AZ8 [the office’s code name] used the phrases “point of no return”, a song by Duran Duran, and “line of fire”, a song recorded by rock band Journey. He also used the phrase “first time”, the title of a 1988 number one by Robin Beck, “enough is enough”, the subtitle of hit single No More Tears by Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer, and “you have got to have faith”, a line from the chorus of Faith, a George Michael hit from 1987... The matter was referred to the [Independent Police Complaints Commission] on 29 October, a month after the officer gave evidence under oath.
But Geoff Pullum on the Language Log has taken the trouble to look into this matter seriously and has found that song titles have a habit of getting everywhere. His conclusion?
It seems almost certain that the newspapers have been excessively credulous. There is but a snowflake’s chance in hell of establishing that the presence of the allegedly song-derived phrases could not be due to chance. Unless the officer known as AZ8 boasted in front of more than one witness that he had mocked the inquest process by sticking song titles into his testimony, they cannot possibly substantiate the charge against him. If Language Log writers (or for that matter linguistically interested diligent economists) are called as expert witnesses, they are going to have to testify for the case of the defense.
What Geoff Pullum said.
I imagine this particular gem of an idea originated with the family of the deceased lawyer. Any discipline enquiry will end with a lot of time and money wasted and a lot of people looking very stupid. I imagine that if every statement given to every Court in the country were to be subject to such half-witted scrutiny ( the Daily Mail seems to be making a start ), the result would reveal that everybody has been doing it for years - from defendants and witnesses all the way up to the judges - the lot. While we're at it, why not have a run through Hansard and the London Gazette as well? Dear God, I despair! ( That's probably a song as well ).
Posted by: Alan Booth | 08/11/2010 at 21:50