Abstract
Using a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analytical approach, this paper examines the relation between doctor-centred and patient-centred elements in self-help books on cardiovascular diseases, represented by a 3.4-million-word corpus of self-help books. The analysis of two structures, viz. acronyms and imperatives realizing the speech act of advice, suggests that contrary to its own claims, self-help health promotion represents a doctor-centred approach rather than focusing on people’s lifeworlds.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
As acronyms are concerned with lexemes, it could be objected that they are a lexical rather than a grammatical category. The category of acronyms, however, refers to a specific, formally-definable way of creating lexemes rather than with concrete lexemes and this is why I subsume the said category under grammar rather under lexicon.
- 2.
The other topic of corpus pragmatics consistently to be included is what Romero-Trillo (2008: 7) describes as “[c]orpus linguistics and Intercultural Pragmatics from a theoretical and language learning stance.”
- 3.
Informal and widely known acronyms popular in computer-mediated communication such as lol or IMHO do not occur in the corpora.
- 4.
Lower-case abbreviations – for example e.g., i.e., and units of measurement – are not considered acronyms here because they are always used with full stops between letters and are not even theoretically pronounceable.
References
Baker, P. (2006). Using corpora in discourse analysis. London/New York: Continuum.
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse & Society, 19(3), 273–305.
Beattie, A. (1991). Knowledge and control in health promotion. A test case for social policy and social theory. In J. Gabe, M. Calnan, & M. Bury (Eds.), The sociology of the health service (pp. 166–202). London: Routledge.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow: Longman.
Booij, G. (2007). The grammar of words. An introduction to morphology (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clarke, A. (2010). The sociology of healthcare (2nd ed.). Harlow/New York: Longman.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Hardt-Mautner, G. (1995). ‘Only Connect.’ Critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. UCREL (University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language) Technical Papers 6: Lancaster University. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/papers/techpaper/vol6.pdf. Accessed 9 Oct 2014.
Journal of Pragmatics (2004), 36(2) and 36(9) (Special issue: Corpus Linguistics Part III).
Jucker, A. H., Schreier, D., & Hundt, M. (2009). Introduction. Corpus linguistics, pragmatics and discourse. In H. Andreas, D. S. Jucker, & M. Hundt (Eds.), Corpora: Pragmatics and discourse (pp. 3–9). Papers from the 29th International Conference on English Language Research on Computerized Corpora (ICAME 29). Ascona, Switzerland, 14–18 May 2008. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.
Marko, G. (2008). Penetrating language. A critical discourse analysis of pornography. Tübingen: Narr.
Marko, G. (2009). Eat the right thing. A critical analysis of orthorexic discourses. In E. Lavric & C. Konzett (Eds.), Food and language. Sprache und Essen (pp. 261–274). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Marko, G. (2012). My painful self. Health identity construction in discussion forums on headaches and migraines. AAA – Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 37(2), 243–270.
Mautner, G. (2012). Die kritische Masse. Korpuslinguistik und kritische Diskursanalyse. In E. Felder, M. Müller, & F. Vogel (Eds.), Korpuspragmatik. Thematische Korpora als Basis diskurslinguistischer Analysen (pp. 83–114). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.
Murphy, S. L., Xu, J., & Kochanek, K. D. (2013). Deaths. Final data for 2010. National Vital Statistics Reports, 61(4). http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr61/nvsr61_04.pdf. Accessed 1 Jan 2014.
Nettleton, S. (2006). The sociology of health and illness (2nd ed.). Cambridge/Malden: Polity Press.
Nettleton, S., & Bunton, R. (1995). Sociological critiques of health promotion. In R. Bunton, S. Nettleton, & R. Burrows (Eds.), The sociology of health promotion: Critical analyses of consumption, lifestyle, and risk (pp. 41–58). London: Routledge.
OECD. (2012). Health at a glance: Europe 2012. No place given: OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264183896-en. Accessed 1 Apr 2014.
Partington, A., Morley, J., & Haarman, L. (Eds.). (2004). Corpora and discourse. Proceedings of CamConf 2002. Bern, etc.: Peter Lang.
Plag, I. (2003). Word-formation in english. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rayson, P. (2009). Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment. Computing Department: Lancaster University. [Online] http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix. Accessed 14 Apr 2014.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach (DHA). In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 87–121). Los Angeles: Sage.
Romero-Trillo, J. (2008). Introduction. Pragmatics and corpus linguistics – A mutualistic entente. In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Pragmatics and corpus linguistics (pp. 1–10). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Romero-Trillo, J. (Ed.). (2013). Yearbook of corpus linguistics and pragmatics 2013. Dordrecht: Springer.
Searle, J. R. (1969). Speech acts. An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Stubbs, M. (1994). Grammar, text, and ideology: Computer-assisted methods in the linguistics of representation. Applied Linguistics, 15(2), 201–223.
van Dijk, T. (1998). Ideology. A multidisciplinary approach. Thousand Oaks/London: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Marko, G. (2015). Making Informed Healthy Lifestyle Choices: Analysing Aspects of Patient-Centred and Doctor-Centred Healthcare in Self-Help Books on Cardiovascular Diseases. In: Romero-Trillo, J. (eds) Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2015. Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17948-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17948-3_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-17947-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-17948-3
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)