𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭:

This plenary talk offers a framework for examining how language shapes policies, identities, cultures, and everyday conversations surrounding complex social issues. Using various discourse analytic approaches and the U.S. opioid crisis as a case study, I demonstrate how written and spoken language operates across multiple levels: from policymakers addressing health crises to patients and physicians responding to such policies. The analysis reveals racial disparities in treatment, underscoring the need to understand language across cultural settings. Given the Philippines' significant contribution to the global medical workforce and its own healthcare challenges, these findings offer valuable insights into the meanings that emerge when policies intersect with public discourse. This sociolinguistic framework provides a model for understanding culturally mediated interactions in diverse contexts that Filipino language researchers can utilize to investigate comparable dynamics within the Philippine healthcare system, among other fields, highlighting the influence of language in shaping research directions and policy reforms across disciplines.

𝐁𝐢𝐨:

Dr. Peter Joseph Torres is an assistant professor of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in the Department of English at Arizona State University.

An applied sociolinguist, Peter incorporates qualitative and quantitative methodologies to examine how sociocultural factors impact language use in healthcare policies and interactions. His work has been published in Patient Education and Counseling, Applied Corpus Linguistics, Discourse Studies, Language in Society, and Journal of Pragmatics. 

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The 7th Linguistic Society of the Philippines International Conference (𝐋𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐂𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓), which is happening on 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟰-𝟮𝟲, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 at 𝗣𝗦𝗨 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘂𝘀, is jointly hosted by the Linguistic Society of the Philippines (LSP) and the Pangasinan State University (together with the Provincial Government of Pangasinan and the Local Government Unit of Lingayen).