Pharmaceutical discourse

Nicola Pelizzari, Pharmaceutical Discourse in English and Italian: A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 291. ISBN: 1-0364-6224-2 This monograph investigates how language shapes patient understanding in pharmaceutical communication, focusing on patient information leaflets (PILs) in the UK and Italy. Through a corpus-based comparative analysis of over-the-counter and prescription PILs, the book systematically examines key linguistic features – including modality, passive constructions, sentence length, and specialised terminology – and evaluates their potential implications on readability and accessibility. Combining quantitative frequency analysis with close qualitative examination, the study highlights significant cross-linguistic differences in the structure and presentation of medical information. It also explores how national regulatory frameworks influence linguistic choices and how these, in turn, affect patient comprehension. At a methodological level, the book illustrates how corpus-based approaches can be used to investigate complex specialised genres systematically. It also demonstrates how shared communicative aims are realised through different lexico-grammatical configurations across languages and sub-genres, highlighting the interplay between regulatory conventions, medical register, and accessibility concerns. By bringing applied linguistics into dialogue with health communication, the book exposes the communicative tensions between legal compliance and patient-centredness. It argues for more linguistically informed policies and advocates for interdisciplinary collaboration in the production of public-facing medical texts. This work will be of interest to researchers in corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, and medical communication, as well as to professionals involved in pharmaceutical writing, public health, and health policy development.