ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the key background of the author's study in the three main fields that inform their research: health communication, corpus methods and metaphor studies. It introduces the author's methodological perspective, namely corpus linguistics: the study of language via computer-assisted analysis of very large bodies of text. The chapter addresses what role metaphors tend to play in communication around illness, cancer and dying, and how the study of metaphor has drawn on corpus-based and computational methods. Information provision can involve two-party exchanges between professionals—;;with or without patients or family members/carers—;;but is by no means limited to such exchanges. The now large and varied literature on metaphor use in relation to physical illness includes work on public communication about illness, such as news reports and adverts, as well as on the 'lived experience' of illness and healthcare. There has also been research into metaphors for death and dying, mostly within the tradition of Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT).
