Inlay

Professor in Linguistics & English Language, Lancaster University; ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science. Metaphor, narrative | corpora | cancer, pain, Covid, vaccines https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/linguistics/about/people/elena-semino

Such a privilege every year to contribute to our Lancaster Summer Schools in Corpus Linguistics!

If you missed the latest webinar 'From Simulation to Clinic: Building Communication Competence Among Health Science Students' by Jennifer Watermeyer, Megan Scott, Nancy Barber and Rhona Nattrass, fear not! You can watch the recording of the webinar on YouTube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF2z...

We’re very proud to have 11 subjects in the global top 100 of the new QS World University by Subject Rankings, with Linguistics ranked 2nd in the world! Find out more about our #QSWUR results at www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/lancast...

Day 4 #LancsSS26 Here is another ongoing session this morning with @drclaireh.bsky.social Forensic Linguistics I🤔✨ #LancsSS26 #forensiclinguistics

Such a great feeling as always to welcome participants to the Lancaster Summer Schools in Corpus Linguistics. It’s going to be a fantastic week!

Just submitted to Routledge: 'Vaccines and their Metaphors: From Memories to Monsters in the Age of Misinformation'. I've enjoyed trying to write for anyone who may be interested in communication about vaccines. I hope I've managed. Here's one of my favourite examples: www.nfid.org/resource/wil...

New paper with @alicedeignan.bsky.social & @duygucandarli.bsky.social: 'Children’s ability to interpret metaphorical polysemy in educational materials'. We show the difficulties that 10-12yo children can have with unfamiliar metaphorical uses of words in school. www.jbe-platform.com/content/jour...

New paper just out in Communication & Medicine: 'Metaphors and identities in online descriptions of the experience of pain', with @kikiliu.bsky.social and Jane Demmen. It was a long time in the making for various reasons so we're particularly pleased to see it out! utppublishing.com/doi/10.3138/...

A major national ranking is out today, and we continue to feature in the top 10 UK universities! Find out more about the Complete University Guide 2027 👇 www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/complet... #CUG2027

YouTube video by Health Communication Research Unit

Shareable graphics to raise awareness about the importance of getting an annual flu vaccine to help protect against serious flu-related illness

Abstract Metaphor is used as a tool for communicating specialist knowledge to non-specialists in popular discourse and in educational contexts. Research has explored its use in higher education, but l...

www.jbe-platform.com

Abstract Becoming seriously and/or chronically ill can challenge and disrupt our sense of who we are in terms of our bodies, minds, and social roles. Although a substantial literature exists on metaphor and illness, the use of metaphor to represent identities has received little attention. This article focuses on similes as a particularly relevant manifestation of metaphoricity in language. An 8-million–word corpus of contributions to the Pain Concern online forum is investigated via a combination of corpus linguistic methods and in-depth qualitative analysis. We explore how contributors to the forum use similes to describe their own (changing) self-perceptions due to living with pain and its consequences. To this end, we introduce and demonstrate a multicomponent analytical framework, which, as we show, is equally applicable to the analysis of metaphorical expressions. The framework includes a consideration of source concept, type of identity, and viewpoint. With regard to our data, we show how similes are used to convey mostly unwelcome changes in the person's perception of themselves in physical, psychological, and/or social terms, potentially resulting in estrangement, low self-esteem, isolation, and disempowerment. More broadly, we suggest that our framework is applicable to the study of metaphorical representations of identities in the context of illness generally.

International Consortium for Communication in Health Care

Lancaster University

Corpus linguistics at Lancaster - Long tradition and Innovation & Applications introduced by @danagablas.bsky.social #SS26

Another excellent session with @elenasemino.bsky.social on corpus approaches to health communication, with a focus on vaccine hesitancy. Highly recommended for researchers and students interested in health communication discourse.✨ #LancsSS26

📢JOB ALERT 📢 We are looking to appoint a F/T open-ended Lecturer in Late Medieval / Early Modern History (1400-1700) @lancasteruni.bsky.social. This is an amazing opportunity that we are very proud to announce, so please spread the word far and wide! www.hr-jobs.lancs.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

The School of Global Affairs at Lancaster University is seeking to appoint a Lecturer in Late Medieval / Early Modern History (1400-1700). This is a 1.0 FTE indefinite appointment to start on 1 August...