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MetroLex II, Part 1: Robert A. Leonard (April 11, 2016)
Robert A. Leonard is an American linguist. He is best known for his work in forensic linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the analysis of language evidence. Prior to his academic career, Leonard was a member of the rock band Sha Na Na and performed at Woodstock.
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Biography
While working on his undergraduate degree at Columbia University, Leonard and his brother George turned the school’s a cappella group into the doo-wop band Sha Na Na. Leonard sang lead on “Teen Angel” when the band opened for their friend Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. Leonard was rated by TIME magazine as the second smartest rock star in history: "[He] opened for Jimi Hendrix [at Woodstock]…but music stardom held little appeal for Leonard, who traded limousines and gold-lamé suits to pursue studies in linguistics. As The New York Times wrote, “At age 21, Mr. Leonard walked away from rock fame to pursue his real love: linguistics. Turns out to have been an inspired choice.”
Leonard received his PhD in linguistics in 1982 from Columbia University where he was trained by William Diver, founder of Columbia School linguistic theory, and William Labov, founder of variationist sociolinguistics. He was a Fulbright fellow during his Ph.D. study.
Leonard founded and directs the graduate program in "Linguistics: Forensic Linguistics" at Hofstra University, where he is Professor of Linguistics. He previously taught at Columbia. The New Yorker wrote that Leonard “has emerged as one of the foremost language detectives in the country”, and jocularly termed him “a Sam Spade of semantics.” Newsday characterized him as “Professor Henry Higgins meets Sherlock Holmes.” Leonard’s forensic linguistic consulting clients have included the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, the FBI, Federal Public Defenders offices, and the Prime Minister of Canada.
Leonard was recruited by the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI to train its agents in forensic linguistic analysis at Quantico, and he has trained British law enforcement units in London. He was Apple's linguist in its civil trademark cases against both Microsoft and Amazon. Salon pointed out that Leonard came from quite a different former career path: “’I like to say I’m one of the very few people in the world who have worked with the FBI and the Grateful Dead,’ quips Leonard, who has trained FBI agents in how to analyze language for clues in solving crimes.”
Leonard serves as a member of the editorial board of the Oxford University Press series Language and the Law.