22 October 2026 | Thursday | 10:00 AM

Pilar Herrera Lecture Hall

SPEAKER

Mary Ann G. Bacolod, PhD

Professor, UP Department of Linguistics

ABSTRACT

Effective disaster risk communication relies on a shared linguistic understanding among scientific institutions, media, and communities. During earthquakes, official advisories typically employ standardized technical scales, whereas public risk perception is shaped primarily by immediate sensory experience. This study examines the semantic distinctions among Tagalog terms for shaking, specifically yanig, alog, uga, and yugyog, and evaluates how these linguistic nuances shape earthquake risk communication. By analyzing institutional bulletins, media reports, and public narratives, the research maps how various stakeholders conceptualize and describe seismic events. The findings reveal a significant register disconnect: expert risk-warning frameworks prioritize quantitative parameters, whereas public narratives utilize spatial, directional, and sensory descriptors that convey distinct threat levels and disaster responses. Ultimately, the analysis demonstrates that linguistic approaches can effectively bridge technical risk data with lived human experience. These results underscore the need to incorporate local conceptualizations into disaster risk reduction strategies to foster immediate, protective action in communities.

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This lecture is free and open to the public.