Crime Investigation in the Novel “And Then Were None” By Agatha Christie (Forensic Linguistic Studies)

Abstract

The murder case in the novel "And Then Were None" left language evidence, such as an invitation letter for the victim and a confession letter. The Research aimed to discover the ways and the form of crime through a forensic linguistic approach. The type of this Research is qualitative–descriptive. The primary data source used the novel "And Then Were None" by Agatha Christie, while the secondary data sources used articles on forensic linguistics that have been published. Data collection techniques in this Research used reading techniques and note-taking techniques. The different lingual equivalent method was used to analyze the data. Analyzing data on invitation letters shows that utterances contain two perlocutionary speech acts, one illocutionary speech act, and one locutionary speech act. Meanwhile, Research on acknowledgment letters produced five utterances containing assertive speech acts in the "declaring" category and one directive speech act in the "ordering" category. Based on analyzing data, the way of the crime of murder is by inviting the victim to come to an island, while the form of the crime of murder is premeditated murder.