First Research Seminar – 13th October 2022

The Network’s first event as a space where UCL researchers (students and staff) can connect and find out about each other’s work across faculties will take place on 13th October 2022, 1-2pm

The Network will host two talks followed by time for discussions and getting to know each other. The details are as follows:

Date and time: 13^th October  2022, 1-2pm

Location: IOE – 20 Bedford Way, Room W4.01

Talks:

‘A corpus-based approach to identifying linguistic markers of suicidal ideation in Reddit data’ – Andrea Vaughan, Culture, Communication, and Media

In suicidology, a popular research topic is identifying linguistic markers of suicidal ideation in social media text. As research suggests not all people seek professional help for suicidal thoughts or intentions, the objective is typically to use these markers to identify people who could benefit from medical intervention. However, this research often compares data from people writing about suicide with data from others who are not discussing suicide, so it is possible that the currently understood linguistic markers are only indicative of the topic and not of mental health state. To explore this issue, posts on reddit’s r/suicidewatch were compared with the same users’ posts on unthematic subreddits (e.g., r/gardening). This presentation will discuss results from this pilot study and the possible implications for much of the existing research in this field.

 

The role of linguists in medical lexis reform: lessons from the past and directions for the future – Beth Malory, English Language and Literature

Where medical lexis causes demonstrable harm for patients, how should reforms be implemented? In considering this question, this talk will take as a case study the lexis used in relation to pregnancy loss in English. Here, such reform attempts have, since the 1980s, consisted of informal interventions in medical journals, and latterly more formal ‘consensus statements’ by panels of experts. Despite these attempted interventions, however, no empirical attitudinal data on the lexis used to describe experiences of pregnancy loss have been gathered in decades, and significant dissatisfaction is still reported on social media and in the popular press. Situations such as these raise fundamental questions as to the role of modern linguists. This is, after all, an era when many linguists are involved in producing guidelines for inclusive language use, to safeguard marginalised groups from harm. Against this backdrop, can we cling to the notion of a purely descriptive linguistic discipline, and should we want to? Or do we, as linguists, have a role to play in using our tools and expertise to implement language reforms that are evidence-based, proportionate, and supportive of health and wellbeing?

Live stream link for those who can’t attend: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/98164550979?pwd=T0JoNTV0Y3MvUjRTa1YrTkljd3Qwdz09 (passcode 053572)

Please get in touch (z.demjen@ucl.ac.uk) if you would like to share your work with the Network at one of our sessions. We’d like to host two speakers per seminar, and would be interested in analysis, ideas, approaches, etc. at all stages of development.