ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book explains that 'genre' captures differences between texts based on their structural characteristics, their communicative purposes and their association with members of different discourse communities. It shows how the overall frequencies of different types of metaphors are lower in the patient and carer interviews than in other sections of the corpus. The book also shows that Violence and Journey metaphors are the top two most frequent types of metaphors in all subcorpora. It presents how Animal metaphors can be used by patients to evaluate negatively their own approach to the illness. The book shows how metaphors are used by some healthcare professionals to critique what they see as the depersonalisation of patients in some healthcare systems. It provides healthcare professionals' descriptions of 'good' and 'bad' deaths, particularly in response to the interview questions.