Cognitive linguistic approaches to discourse and menopause

英国的公共话语正在经历一场更年期意识的驱动，以解决围绕这种情况的耻辱。这反映在社交媒体上的#menopauserevolution等运动，医疗倡议（皇家妇产科医师学院2019）以及最近推动的关于治疗更年期症状的生殖器替代疗法（HRT）的新法案（卫生和社会护理部2021; Muir 2021）。后者强调了精神和身体更年期症状的复杂性，因此突出了像HRT这样的医疗干预可能对患者生活的积极影响。虽然从医学角度来看，这些干预措施可能会改善她们的更年期体验，但语言在临床更年期咨询中的作用及其对患者的影响还没有得到充分的研究。对更年期的研究主要来自医学、社会学或心理学，而语言学的贡献相对较少。因此，本研究的目的是开始填补这一空白，并检查语言在医生和更年期患者之间的初级保健互动中的作用。本研究将立足于认知语言学的健康传播和语篇分析方法，对此类咨询的语言特征进行识别和分析。它将通过实验测试这些特征对患者的影响，以衡量医疗干预对更年期生活经历的社会和情感影响。

The public discourse in the UK is experiencing a drive formenopause awareness to tackle the stigma surrounding thecondition. This is reflected in movements such as#menopauserevolution on social media, medical initiatives(Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists 2019) andthe recent push for a new bill concerning hormonalreplacement therapy (HRT) for the treatment ofmenopausal symptoms (Department of Health and SocialCare 2021; Muir 2021). The latter emphasise the complexityof mental and physical menopausal symptoms andtherefore highlight the positive impact that medicalintervention like HRT may have on patients' lives. Whilesuch intervention may improve their menopauseexperience from a medical perspective, the role oflanguage use in clinical menopause consultations and itsimpact on patients is under-researched.Research on the menopause stems mainly from medicine,sociology or psychology, whereas linguistic contributionsare comparatively scarce. Therefore, the present studyaims to start filling this gap and examine the role oflanguage used in primary care interactions between doctorsand menopausal patients. Rooted in cognitive linguisticapproaches to health communication and discourseanalysis, the study will identify and analyse prevalentlinguistic features of such consultations. It will empiricallytest the effects of these features on patients to gauge thesocial and emotional impact of medical intervention onlived menopause experiences.