Conceptual Semantics and Public Messaging

Abstract

This study explores the conceptual semantics of risk–benefit discourse about COVID-19 vaccination and the implications for public health messaging. The underlying methodology is the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) approach. The study proposes a semantic explication of the English word risk in one of its most frequently used frames in COVID-19 vaccine discourse (i.e. the risk of ...), as well as an “advice script” for the complex task of “weighing the risks and benefits” of a vaccination decision. Drawing on COVID-19 vaccination campaigns in Australia and Denmark, the study stresses the difficulties of communicating public health messages using conceptually complex and culture-specific words such as risk. Though the issues are complex, it is argued that adopting a minimal languages approach may provide a way forward, by enabling the creation of texts that are both easier to understand and more easily translated.