I honestly don't mean to get on anyone's back, but I we were talking crime, not linguistics. Could we please get back on subject?
Also, Tadpole: there has already been a linguistic analysis of the ransom letter. And the result was not a foreigner. (The result was that Alex Hunter undercut one of his OWN WITNESSES because he didn't like the result!)
Hi SD.
I dunno .... the article re infliction is of interest to me as the note has none (cept for attache), or no sense of the cultural variation that exists within the french language.
No, through my limited skills of analysis, the note is not written by a 'foreigner', but an anglo. English speaker.
I can't help myself, the note screams out to me:
Sacreblue! ..... this note was written in English and modified to have French overtones. Ah ..... the art of translation.
I can see it the through the disjunctions between phrases and the odd wording..... and I have made some observations of the process. Translation is a process .... and I can see it evidenced within the note.
Process: write the body of the note in English, and then using (incorrect) synonyms, modify the 'sense' of the note. As I've noted earlier, most of the 'frenchifications' are on the first page of the three page note, the introduction and character development, like a narrative within the first paragraph.
Maybe you have to be bilingual or a french person to see it,
but it's like A B C.
Maybe my input on linguistics has become tedious?
but I do believe it's valid.
and I have seen nothing similar while reading online.