In this talk I explore the application of corpus linguistics methods in the field of health communication - a subfield of applied linguistics concerned with the power of text and talk to constitute our practices, knowledge, and indeed experiences, relating to health and illness. I will discuss existing applications of corpus linguistics methods to study health communication taking place within and beyond the clinic, including in sites such as focus groups, online support fora and the media. I will then present ongoing research which utilises corpus techniques to examine the language that patients use to disclose their experiences of healthcare services in the UK. Through this case study, I will explore both the affordances and challenges of using corpus linguistics methods to address real world health challenges, and reflect on how the field might progress in the future.

Gavin Brookes is Senior Research Associate in the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science at Lancaster University. His research interests include corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, multimodality and health communication. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics and Co-Editor of the Corpus and Discourse book series, published by Bloomsbury.

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