Elena Semino

A guide to corpus-based approaches to health communication

Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare by @elenasemino.bsky.social @paulari.bsky.social @lukeccollins.bsky.social & @tonymcenery.bsky.social, Out Now & #OpenAccess

#Linguistics #LangSky 🐦🐦

https://cup.org/4nXkIiq

New article by @lukeccollins.bsky.social & @elenasemino.bsky.social exploring patterns
in reports of disability experience jcads.cardiffuniversitypress.org/articles/10....

Our book 'Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare' is out open access! We wrote it to share what we learnt in many years of research in @corpussocialsci.bsky.social, on topics such as communication about anxiety, dementia, cancer, obesity and vaccines. cambridgeblog.org/2025/08/appl...

Congratulations to my colleagues @elenasemino.bsky.social @chrishartlinguist.bsky.social @vaclavbrezina.bsky.social @juditkormos.bsky.social
@jculpeper.bsky.social @paulari.bsky.social Alison Mackey & Jason Rothman for being in the Stanford/Elsevier top 2% of scientists list. I’m in good company!

In conversation with @elenasemino.bsky.social on #CorpusMOOC

#healthcare #corpuslinguistics #communication

👉Find out more: edx.org/learn/social...

@corpussocialsci.bsky.social

We have lots of great Linguistics-related activities for our @lancslinguistics.bsky.social Open Day visitors today.

Thank you to all contributors to this @corpussocialsci.bsky.social event: two days of thought-provoking presentations on different issues in health communication, using different methodologies and with data from Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. See you all at the next @ic4ch.bsky.social event!

🎙️ Elena Semino, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University joins host Dr. Joe Bianco to discuss the subtle and surprising ways that language 🗣️ and humor 😂 shape health experiences 💙.

Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare Cambridge Core - Medicine: General Interest - Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare

Just received the final proofs of this book, based on @corpussocialsci.bsky.social research on health communication. It will be out *open access* later this year. @paulari.bsky.social @gavinbrookes.bsky.social @lukeccollins.bsky.social @tonymcenery.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...

📢 Free Webinar Corpus Linguistics: Skills for the Future

Join @elenasemino.bsky.social & @danagablas.bsky.social as they explore how corpus methods shape healthcare communication & GenAI in language learning.

📆 22 July 2025 | 2–3pm UK time

🔗 Register free: forms.office.com/e/uppRBrE5AF

International Pragmatics Conference just kicking off at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Always a great opportunity to pick up conversations with so many friends and colleagues as if no time had passed since we last met.

One of my favourite events of the year. Our corpus summer schools participants are the best audience one can ever hope for #LancsSS25

✅Registration has opened for #LancsSS25! Tag us in your pictures of the week ahead!

A jab is not a vaccine; it's a ‘shot’ Previous work identified a new type of vaccine scepticism on social media centred around questioning the status of the COVID-19 vaccine as a vaccine, …

New short paper out in Public Health: 'A jab is not a vaccine; it's a 'shot'
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Looking forward to speaking on metaphors and vaccines (online) twice in the next 2 days:
- International Conference of the Faculty of Linguistics and Ukrainian Association of Cognitive Linguistics and Poetics uaclipconf.com.ua
- Semmelweis Medical Linguistics Conference semmelweis.hu/szaknyelv/en...

Better communication about vaccines could tackle scepticism Vanderslott discusses several shortcomings of covid-19 vaccination that need to be tackled in preparation for future pandemics.1 My colleagues and I have identified an additional area of concern.2 We ...

Just out in the BMJ: www.bmj.com/content/389/... - a (supportive) response to Samantha Vanderslott's piece 'Confronting the shortcomings of covid-19 vaccination will help us in future pandemics', based on our earlier paper on a new form of vaccine scepticism: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Image shows day 1 of the programme, which can be read as a PDF at https://ic4ch.wordpress.com/activities/ Symposium Programme Day 1: Thursday 11th of September 2025 09.30 - 10.15 Registration 10.15 - 10.30 Symposium Opening Address 10.30 - 12.00 Panel 1: Chronic and long-term health Sex differences on a forum about anxiety Paul Baker (Lancaster University, UK) Shared decision making, health literacy and management of heart failure: an analysis of patients’ interactions through their hospital journey. Susy Macqueen, Diana Slade and Suzanne Raine (Australian National University) Communicating dementia: Comparing AI-generated stereotypes to experience-led discussions Emma Putland and Gavin Brookes (Lancaster University, UK) 12.00 - 13.00 Lunch 13.00 - 14.30 Panel 2: Infectious diseases and pandemics How will we work together? Communication and Caring in the Time of Pandemics Elizabeth A. Rider (Harvard Medical School, Boston Children’s Hospital, USA) The mental health of university graduates in a post-COVID world: A mixed-methods sociolinguistic approach Olga Zayts-Spence, Paul W.C. Wong, David Matthew Edmonds (University of Hong Kong) Challenges and Opportunities in Participatory Surveillance for Dengue Prevention: A Sri Lankan Case Study Prasad Wimalaratne (University of Colombo, Sri Lanka) and May O. Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 14.30 - 15.00 Break 15.00 – 16.30 Panel 3: Vaccinations Post-pandemic challenges in communication about vaccines Elena Semino (Lancaster University, UK) Enhancing the value and wider benefit of research into Coronavirus Discourses: A Pan-London Immunisation Campaign Svenja Adolphs, Emma McClaughlin and Sara Vilar-Lluch (University of Nottingham and Cardiff University, UK) The problem with ‘side effects’ Zsófia Demjén (University College London, UK) 16.30 – 17.00 Roundtable discussion

Image shows day 2 of the programme, which can be read as a PDF at https://ic4ch.wordpress.com/activities/ Day 2: Friday 12th of September 2025 09.30 – 11.00 Panel 4: Interactions in healthcare settings Intercultural moments in emergency calls: Issues of access, accommodation, and attitude Jennifer Watermeyer and Rhona Nattrass (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa) (In)equality, (in)visibilised diversity and exclusion: the ideological framing of language in NHS interpreting and translation guidelines. Emma Brooks (University College London, UK) Medical consultations with older adult patients in a multicultural setting: Dynamics of doctor-patient communication and the impact of companions May O. Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) 11.00 – 11.30 Break 11.30 – 12.30 Panel 4 (Continued): Interactions in healthcare settings Enhancing Patient Engagement in Oncology-Specific Genetic Counselling: A Conversation Analytic Approach K.K. Luke (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) How REACHE equips asylum seeker and refugee doctors for safe and effective practice in the NHS Hayley Poulson (Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals Education (REACHE Northwest), Salford Royal Hospital, UK) 12.30 – 13.30 Lunch 13.30 – 15.00 Panel 5: Interactions in healthcare settings and end of life The EMPATHY Protocol: Modern Support in Challenging Moments of Patient Care Aldona Katarzyna Jankowska (Nicolaus Copernicus University Torun, Poland) The taboo of communication about assisted dying Nancy Preston (Lancaster University, UK) How to Talk about Dying? Lessons Learned from a Swiss Framework for Teaching Compassionate Communication about the End of Life Sibylle Felber (University Hospital Bern and University of Bern, Switzerland) 15.30 – 16.00 Roundtable discussion 16.00 – 16.20 Event Close

📬Registration is now open for the 5th Symposium of the International Consortium for Communication in Health Care (IC4CH)!

📆When: 11-12 September 2025
📍At: Lancaster University, UK

For more event information (registration, programme, speakers, abstracts, etc.) see ic4ch.wordpress.com/activities/

Grateful to Linguistics at Georgetown for inviting me to give a talk but it looks like they arranged for Lancaster weather for my visit

We are excited to be at Campus in the City this week!

❗️Come and see a wide range of activities, from a language escape game to ultrasound imaging of the tongue during beatboxing!

➡️ Fri 11 April at More Music in Morecambe

#sparkyourcuriosity #CITC2025

Happy 5th-anniversary #ReframeCovid initiative! People collaboratively compiled non-belic metaphors to frame the pandemic. But how do they *really* impact our decision-making? @iraideia.bsky.social & I have just published a study on this - here's a thread with the results if you only have 5 mins:

Four honorary doctors and the Rektor on stage at Aalborg University

I am deeply grateful to Aalborg University for a doctorate honoris causa and wonderful hospitality this week. Looking forward to collaborations with the Communication, Language and Discourse Research Group.

‘It’s not a vaccine, it’s a shot’: uncovering a new trend in vaccine scepticism The COVID pandemic triggered a new kind of vaccine scepticism shared by people who normally take up vaccines – here’s why that’s a problem.

I have written a piece for @theconversationuk.bsky.social about our study on a new form of vaccine scepticism: people questioning the status of some vaccines as vaccines, starting during the pandemic
theconversation.com/its-not-a-va... @lancslinguistics.bsky.social @corpussocialsci.bsky.social

2025 Workshop series: Inequalities, inclusion and innovation This year’s workshop series has a particular interest in discussing concerns around social justice, health inequalities, language diversity and inclusion. The event will span two days (schedu…

Super-excited for our upcoming workshops: in person this Friday 21/3 @lancslinguistics.bsky.social and online on Tuesday 25/3. Plenaries by @elenasemino.bsky.social & @fmfederici.bsky.social + wonderful presentations! Please join us baalhealthsci.wordpress.com/2025/02/04/2...

An image displaying the ranking of Lancaster's Linguistics department as 3rd in the world by the QS World Subject Rankings 2025.

We are delighted to have been ranked 3rd in the world for Linguistics by the QS World Subject Rankings 2025!

🔗 www.topuniversities.com/university-s...

🔗 www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/lancast...

REF2029: concerns about the implications of decoupling | The English Association We support the teaching, learning, and enjoyment of English at all levels of education, from early years to further and higher education and beyond.

REF2029: concerns about the implications of decoupling | The English Association : Please read this important joint letter we have written (on behalf of us, our chair @jennyrichards.bsky.social ) along with @ies-sas.bsky.social & @univeng.bsky.social
englishassociation.ac.uk/ref2029-conc...

We show how experiences with #COVID-19 #vaccines have resulted in questions and concerns about what a vaccine actually is. This is a new form of vaccine skepticism that will need to be addressed.

‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic While it is well-known that vaccine hesitancy can be vaccine-specific, little is known about how people spontaneously evaluate different vaccines in c…

New paper from Questioning Vaccination Discourse project (Quo VaDis www.lancaster.ac.uk/vaccination-... ) in Vaccine X:

"It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR": A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

YouTube video by Science Animated Is 'natural immunity' better than vaccine immunity? A fire drill metaphor

And finally, a fire drill metaphor for why vaccine-induced immunity is safer than immunity through infection.
youtu.be/fWBatEctOvw?...

YouTube video by Science Animated Why get a vaccine if it isn’t 100% effective? A raincoat metaphor

A raincoat metaphor for why to take a vaccine even if it doesn't always prevent infection.
youtu.be/3FR4CjCPu3s?...

YouTube video by Science Animated Why take a vaccine if I'm at low risk from the illness? A speed limit metaphor

A speed limit metaphor for why we should get vaccinated even if at low risk from the illness.
youtu.be/kavNh-3jgCQ?...