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Part of
Exploring Language and Society with Big Data: Parliamentary discourse across time and space
Edited by Minna Korhonen, Haidee Kotze and Jukka Tyrkkö
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 111] 2023
► pp. 194–226

Chapter 7
From criminal lunacy to mental disorder

The changing lexis of mental health in the British parliament

| University of Helsinki
| Linnaeus University

This chapter investigates discourses of mental health in the British parliament over two centuries (1800–2020). A pattern-driven approach is used to explore terminology related to mentally ill people, mental institutions, and mental health in general. The study focuses on lexical trends in parliamentary discourse, the extent to which mental health discourse was discussed in general, and the way in which the lexis of modern mental health care has developed. The results show that the major shifts in the entire lexical field have happened in specific time periods, the turning points being in the 1840s, 1930s and 1950s. The general attitude also seems to have shifted, and the data show an increasing concern for legally protecting people with mental illness.

Keywords: mental health, mentally ill people, mental health legislation, lexis, parliamentary discourse, big data
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Two hundred years of ‘mad’ society: On British mental health history and legislation
    • 2.1Social view
    • 2.2Legislation and terminology
    • 2.3The Hansard as a record of parliamentary discourse
  • 3.Data and methods
    • 3.1The Hansard Corpus
    • 3.2Lexis of mental health
    • 3.3Analytical steps
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Quantitative results: The big picture
      • 4.1.1References to persons with psychiatric disabilities
      • 4.1.2References to psychiatric illnesses
      • 4.1.3References to psychiatric institutions
      • 4.1.4Diachronic overview
    • 4.2Case study: The term lunatic
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 13 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.111.07nev
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