To cure sometimes, to relieve often, to publicise always: a case study of linguistic medicine landscapes in a (post)pandemic era

Abstract

Hospitals serve as a public space for medical practice. They also serve as an educational space. Effective, transparent, and timely delivery of health information is important at all times but especially in times of pan/epidemics. A crucial part of the necessary information dissemination is language-in-use for multiple purposes (medical practice, education, research) among stakeholders. This study investigated the linguistic landscapes of hospitals in the People’s Republic of China (China) in the COVID (post)pandemic period, roughly 2019–2022, to consider health information as language-in-use. Specifically, we examine the linguistic landscapes of three Grade A Class 3 hospitals in a multilingual, ethnic minority region by analysing 2354 signs for multilingual combinations, functionality and the way translations were used. We consider the role of language awareness in the experiential dimension to understand the linguistic medical landscapes. Our findings detect potentially biases linked to translation and language awareness and leading to potentially misleading information. The analysis also suggests the importance of a socio-cognitive perspective of the experiential dimension for future LL studies.