Jan Lars Svartvik (18 August 1931 – 18 June 2024) was a Swedish linguist and professor in English.
[2] In 1968 Svartvik analysed the statements by Timothy John Evans given to police at Notting Hill police station, England, in the case of an alleged murder by Evans in 1949, who was found guilty and executed but later was found innocent.
In "The Evans Statements: A Case for Forensic Linguistics" where Svartvik concluded Evans did not actually give the statements to the police officers as had been stated at the trial, the term forensic linguistics appeared for the first time.
The first edition of Engelsk Universitetsgrammatik (University Grammar of English) by Svartvik and Olof Sager was published in 1972.
This work remained the standard for Swedish students of English in higher education for years.