Corpus linguistics and clinical psychology: Investigating personification in first-person accounts of voice-hearing

Collins, Luke; Brezina, Vaclav; Demjén, Zsófia; Semino, Elena; Woods, Angela

Abstract

Triangulating corpus linguistic approaches with other (linguistic and non-linguistic) approaches enhances “both the rigour of corpus linguistics and its incorporation into all kinds of research” ( McEnery & Hardie, 2012 : 227). Our study investigates an important area of mental health research: the experiences of those who hear voices that others cannot hear, and particularly the ways in which those voices are described as person-like. We apply corpus methods to augment the findings of a qualitative approach to 40 interviews with voice-hearers, whereby each interview was coded as involving ‘minimal’ or ‘complex’ personification of voices. Our analysis provides linguistic evidence in support of the qualitative coding of the interviews, but also goes beyond a binary approach by revealing different types and degrees of personification of voices, based on how they are referred to and described by voice-hearers. We relate these findings to concepts that inform therapeutic interventions in clinical psychology.

Citation

Collins, L., Brezina, V., Demjén, Z., Semino, E., & Woods, A. (2023). Corpus linguistics and clinical psychology: Investigating personification in first-person accounts of voice-hearing. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 28(1), 28-59. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.21019.col

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 24, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Apr 29, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023-01
• Deposit Date: Jul 6, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 14, 2023
• Journal: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
• Print ISSN: 1384-6655
• Electronic ISSN: 1569-9811
• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 28
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 28-59
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.21019.col
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1198781