The UK at risk. A corpus approach to social change 1785-2009

This book presents a case study of the proliferation of at risk-language in The Times news coverage from 1785 to 2009, illuminating the changing social experience of risk. It presents historical examination of the forces which have shaped the language of risk over time and considers how linguistic developments in recent decades are underpinned by issues such as cultural and structural transformations, the discovery of child abuse, the management of infectious and chronic diseases and recent flooding events. He also considers changes of the public sphere including the production of the news. Based on an interdisciplinary research project which combines linguistic research tools with sociological analysis of the social contexts, the book contributes to a better understanding of how ‘at risk’ has become a defining feature of the UK in recent decades, and one which permeates all kinds of social domains