The original studies in this volume provide new insights into the history of medical discourse across centuries in both professional and lay texts. The central themes deal with changes in medical writing in various societal and cultural contexts in search for best practices in corpus pragmatics for future work. Some studies apply quantitative methods of corpus linguistics and Digital Humanities, others adopt a qualitative, discourse-analytical perspective, focusing on particular texts, authors or medical topics, or specific functionally-defined discourse forms such as narratives. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are mutually complementary and shed light on different aspects of historical medical discourse. The methodologies aim at establishing validity and reliability for pragmatic analysis, taking into account relevant contextual factors and insights from other fields, such as medical and social history, history of ideas, and science studies.

Zhonghua Wu, Zhejiang University City College & Le Cheng, Zhejiang University, in Journal of Pragmatics 202 (2022).:
One remarkable strength of this book is that combining quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore pragmatic aspects of medical writing allows readers to obtain a multi-faceted view of what the medical discourse was like in earlier times and to advance the understanding of variations in pragmatic meaning. Beyond question, corpus pragmatic studies have extended the boundary of pragmatics regarding the scope and methods and will further contribute to the development of pragmatic theories. [...] The volume is well-suited for the general public and academics interested in medical discourse and the synergy between corpus linguistics and pragmatics.