Cover not available
Article published In:
Language and Covid-19
Edited by Michaela Mahlberg and Gavin Brookes
[International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 26:4] 2021
► pp. 557–582

Networked discourses of bereavement in online COVID-19 memorials

ORCID logo | Birmingham City University
This paper reports on study of online COVID-19 memorials posted during 2020 to the Church of England website https://​www​.rememberme2020​.uk/. The paper employs a Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) approach to analyse networks of co-occurring linguistic items (types and lemmata) and patterns (ngrams) within online memorials, and examines how these frequent items/patterns exist within networked discourses that underpin an overarching bereavement discourse. The analysis finds that bereavement discourse is underpinned by frequent reference to love, relationships and relational identification, time and temporality, loss/absence, and memory, as well as metaphors based on container and journey image schema. An analysis of these metaphorical representations of death and bereavement suggest that online memorials serve as a space for the social practice of bereavement and shows how the language used to grieve attempts to ideologically (re)present the relationships between the bereaved and decedent. All code used in this paper can be found at https://​osf​.io​/khcj2/.
Keywords: bereavement discourse, memorials, COVID-19, corpus-assisted discourse studies
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language and online bereavement discourse
  • 3.Data
  • 4.A corpus-assisted approach to identifying networked discourses
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Frequent types
    • 5.2Frequent lemmata
    • 5.3Ngrams
    • 5.4Memorials as social practice
    • 5.5Metaphor in memorials
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 27 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.21135.mcg
References (63)
References
Alali, A. O. (1994). The disposition of Aids imagery in New York Times’ Obituaries. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 29 (4), 273–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anderson, K. A., & Han, J. (2008). An exploration of ageism and sexism in obituary photographs: 1967–1997. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 58 1, 335–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, P. (2006). Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. Continuum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2014). Using Corpora to Analyze Gender. Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
(2016). The shapes of collocation. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 21 (2), 139–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., KhosraviNik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse & Society, 19 (3), 273–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, P., & McEnery, T. (2015). Corpora and Discourse Studies. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, P., & McGlashan, M. (2020). Critical Discourse Analysis. In S. Adolphs & D. Knight (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of English Language and the Digital Humanities (pp. 220–241). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bell, J., Bailey, L., & Kennedy, D. (2015). ‘We do it to keep him alive’: Bereaved individuals’ experiences of online suicide memorials and continuing bonds. Mortality, 20 (4), 375–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benoit, K., Watanabe, K., Wang, H., Nulty, P., Obeng, A., Müller, S., & Matsuo, A. (2018). quanteda: An R package for the quantitative analysis of textual data. Journal of Open Source Software, 3 (30), 774. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bonsu, S. (2007). The presentation of dead selves in everyday life: Obituaries and impression management. Symbolic Interaction, 30(2), 199–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brezina, A., McEnery, T., & Wattam, S. (2015). Collocations in context: A new perspective on collocation networks. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 20 (2), 139–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brookes, G., & McEnery, T. (2020). Correlation, collocation and cohesion: A corpus-based critical analysis of violent jihadist discourse. Discourse & Society, 31 (4), 351–373. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Charteris-Black, J. (2006). Britain as a container: Immigration metaphors in the 2005 election campaign. Discourse & Society, 17 (5), 563–581. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crespo-Fernández, E. (2006). The language of death: Euphemisms and conceptual metaphorization in Victorian obituaries. SKY Journal of Linguistics, 19 1, 101–130.Google Scholar
(2007). Linguistic devices coping with death in Victorian obituaries. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 201, 7–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011). Euphemistic conceptual metaphors in epitaphs from Highgate Cemetary. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 9 1, 198–225. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013). Euphemistic metaphors in English and Spanish epitaphs: A comparative study. ATLANTIS Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies, 35 (2), 99–118.Google Scholar
Davis, C. S., Quinlan, M. M., & Baker, D. K. (2016). Constructing the dead: Retrospective sensemaking in eulogies. Death Studies, 40 (5), 316–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
de Vries, B., & Rutherford, J. (2004). Memorializing loved ones on the World Wide Web. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 49 (1), 5–26. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
DeGroot, J. M. (2014). “For whom the bell tolls”: Emotional rubbernecking in Facebook memorial groups. Death Studies, 38 (2), 79–84. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dennis, M. R., & Kunkel, A. D. (2004). Fallen heroes, lifted hearts: Consolation in contemporary presidential eulogia. Death Studies, 28 (8), 703–731. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Doka, K. L. (1987). Silent sorrow: Grief and the loss of significant others. Death Studies, 11 (6), 455–469. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ergin, M. (2012). Religiosity and the construction of death in Turkish death announcements, 1970–2009. Death Studies, 36 (3), 270–291. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. (2021). Data on 14-day notification rate of new COVID-19 cases and deaths. Retrieved May 27, 2021, from [URL]
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2014). Corpus-based discourse analysis. In J. P. Gee & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 174–187). Routledge.Google Scholar
Fries, U. (1990). Two hundred years of English death notices. In M. Bridges (Ed.), On Strangeness (pp. 57–71). Gunter Naar.Google Scholar
Gabrielatos, C. (2020). DOCS Bibliography. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from [URL]
Giaxoglou, K. (2015). ‘Everywhere I go, you’re going with me’: Time and space deixis as affective positioning resources in shared moments of digital mourning. Discourse, Context & Media, 91, 55–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J. H. (1996). Embracing the Memory: Loss and the Social Psychology of Storytelling. Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Heynderickx, P. C., & Dieltjens, S. M. (2016). An analysis of obituaries in staff magazines. Death Studies, 40(1), 11–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hirji, S., Hirji, A., & Lakasing, E. (2020). The Impact of COVID-19 on Islamic Burial Rites. Geriatric Medicine Journal. Retrieved September 10, 2021, from [URL]
Jones, S. (2004). 404 not found: The internet and the afterlife. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 48 (1), 83–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaplan, D. (2021). Public intimacy in social media: The mass audience as a third party. Media, Culture & Society, 43(4), 595–612. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kunkel, A. D., & Dennis, M. R. (2003). Grief consolation in eulogy rhetoric: An integrative framework. Death Studies, 271, 1–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought (2nd ed.; pp. 202–251). Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lingel, J. (2013). The digital remains: Social media and practices of online grief. The Information Society, 29 (3), 190–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marchi, A., & Taylor, C. (2018). Introduction: Partiality and reflexivity. In C. Taylor & A. Marchi (Eds.), Corpus Approaches to Discourse: A Critical Review (pp. 1–15). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McEnery, T., & Hardie, A. (2012). Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus-Based Language Studies: An Advanced Resource Book. Routledge.Google Scholar
Meyrowitz, J. (1994). The life and death of media friends: New genres of intimacy and mourning. In R. Cathcart & S. Drucker (Eds.), American Heroes in the Media Age (pp. 62–81). Hampton Press.Google Scholar
Neimeyer, R. A. (1998). Lessons of Loss: A Guide to Coping. McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Neimeyer, R. A., Klass, D., & Dennis, M. R. (2014). A social constructionist account of grief: loss and the narration of meaning. Death Studies, 38 (8), 485–498. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Neimeyer, R. A., Prigerson, H. G., & Davies, B. (2002). Mourning and meaning. American Behavioral Scientist, 46(2), pp. 235–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Partington, A. (2004). Corpora and discourse, a most congruous beast. In A. Partington, J. Morley, & L. Haarman (Eds.), Corpora and Discourse (pp. 11–20). Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Philip, G. (2017). Conventional and novel metaphors in language. In E. Semino & Z. Demjén (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language (pp. 219–232). Routledge.Google Scholar
Phillips, J. B. (2007). The changing presentation of death in the obituary, 1899–1999. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 55 (4), 325–346. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
R Core Team (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing (Version 4.0.1.) [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. [URL]
Refslund Christensen, D., & Gotved, S. (2015). Online memorial culture: An introduction. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, 21 (1–2), 1–9. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts, P. (2004). Here today and cyberspace tomorrow: Memorials and bereavement support on the Web. Generations: Journal of the American Society on Aging, 28 (2), 41–46.Google Scholar
Rodler, C. K. E., & Hölzl, E. (2002). Gender stereotypes of leaders: An analysis of the contents of obituaries from 1974 to 1998. Sex Roles, 45 (11), 827–843. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roque Ramírez, H. N. (2010). Gay latino histories/dying to be remembered. In G. Perez, F. Guridy, & A. Burgos (Eds.), Beyond el Barrio: Everyday Life in Latina/o America (pp. 103–128). New York University Press.Google Scholar
Sunderland, J. (2004). Gendered Discourses. Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
The New York Times (2021). Those We’ve Lost. [online] Available at: [URL] [accessed 10/09/2021]
Time Staff (2021). The Lives Lost to Coronavirus. [Online] Available at: [URL] [accessed 10/09/2021]
Tognini-Bonelli, E. (2001). Corpus Linguistics at Work. John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Walter, T. (2015). Communication media and the dead: From the stone age to Facebook. Mortality, 20 (3), 215–232. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wickham, H. (2021). rvest: Easily Harvest (Scrape) Web Pages (Version 1.0.1). [Computer software]. [URL]
Williams, J. E. (1997). Discourses on death: Obituaries and the management of spoiled identity. OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying, 34 (4), 301–319. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2003). Obituaries. In C. D. Bryant (Ed.), Handbook of Death and Dying (pp. 694–702). Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wright, D., & Brookes, G. (2019). ‘This is England, speak English!’: A corpus-assisted critical study of language ideologies in the right-leaning British press. Critical Discourse Studies, 16 (1), 56–83. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Ai, Qi, Yansheng Mao & Xiaobing Lu
2024. Grief is the price we pay for love: Emotions disclosed by Chinese mourners in online memorial platform. Discourse & Communication DOI logo
Bednarek, Monika, Martin Schweinberger & Kelvin K. H. Lee
2024. Corpus-based discourse analysis: from meta-reflection to accountability. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 20:3 ► pp. 539 ff. DOI logo
Miller, Chris
2024. A century of Canadian obituaries: transforming ways in which people commemorate the deceased. Mortality ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Miller, Chris, Hannah McKillop & Sohini Ganguly
2024. Remembering the Dead: Shifting Forms of Commemoration and Immanent Understandings of Death in Obituaries. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying DOI logo
蒋, 皎
2024. Linking Life and Death: A Study on the Spatial Design of Online Memorials in the Context of a Mediatized Society. Design 09:04 ► pp. 311 ff. DOI logo
Leone, Ljubica
2023. The representations of freedom in The Sun newspaper between 2019 and 2021: A corpus-based study. Topics in Linguistics 24:1 ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
McClaughlin, Emma, Sara Vilar-Lluch, Tamsin Parnell, Dawn Knight, Elena Nichele, Svenja Adolphs, Jérémie Clos & Giovanni Schiazza
2023. The reception of public health messages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applied Corpus Linguistics 3:1 ► pp. 100037 ff. DOI logo
McGlashan, Mark
2023. (Mental) Health in the Manosphere. In Masculinities and Discourses of Men's Health [Palgrave Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality, ], ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 6 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.