Dr. WAN Yau Ni, JennyJennyDr. WAN Yau NiZENG Huiheng, WinnieWinnieZENG Huiheng2026-05-112026-05-112026Wan, Y. N. (8 May 2026). Digital healthcare discourse: A comparative study of public hospice websites across cultures. International Symposium on Language Science (ISLS) 2026: Interdisciplinary Research and the Legacy of Yuen Ren Chao, PolyU, Hong Kong.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/27153This comparative study examines the ways in which digital support and interpersonal engagement are embedded in the digital discourse surrounding public hospice centre websites in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. In the digital era, these websites often serve as the primary means of disseminating health information and hospice resources to patients with terminal illnesses and their families and caregivers. Through analysing how institutional communication in the health sector reflects sociocultural attitudes towards expressing support, building relationships, and alleviating fear and pressure surrounding end-of-life issues in these two regions, this study will make a valuable contribution to the field of intercultural pragmatics. Focusing on the interpersonal metafunction and grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the research explores how lexicogrammatical features construct discourse semantics and reflect the values and professional roles of service providers, patients and the local community. In 2025, we compiled a corpus of 40 websites, with 20 from each region, totalling 52,086 words. Using computational analysis, such as NLP-based topic modelling, and corpus tools such as AntConc, we generated loglikelihood ratio statistics to identify statistically significant thematic patterns. We also conducted a nuanced qualitative investigation of collocations and concordancers to analyse key lexicogrammatical patterns across the websites. We analysed specific sections of the websites, including “Our Mission” to understand institutional purpose and targets, “Our People” to learn about human resources, and “Our Services” to identify the range of services offered. The findings reveal distinctive intercultural differences in communication strategies between the two regions. For instance, websites in Hong Kong tend to emphasise institutionalised, role-based, service-oriented discourse. They frequently use terms such as “elderly”, “residential care” and “stage of illness” to categorise patient groups and treatment pathways. Their discourse is more formal and service-centred, with a sharper focus on professional expertise and systematic care structures. Conversely, UK websites often adopt a more narrative-driven and emotional tone. The frequent use of personal pronouns (“you”, “us” and “our”), storytelling devices (“families tell us”, “she said”) and emotional realising collocation (“time is precious”, “stay the night”) establishes a relational, inclusive, community-centred discourse. This discourse uses shared, personalised, connected language that blurs the boundaries between professional care and personal support. This study can enhance our understanding of cultural, discursive, and lexicogrammatical differences in globalised digital healthcare texts, offering valuable insights into communication in the hospice care sectors of the digital space.enConference Paper