RESEARCH

My applied sociolinguistics research seeks to expand our understanding of how language shapes everyday discussions surrounding health issues through quantitative and qualitative analysis of oral and written discourses.

My work draws on prosodic and corpus-based discourse analysis to investigate how communities linguistically address health crises from both top-down (policy analysis) and bottom-up (interaction analysis) perspectives.

My other research interests include language variation, language and gender, language socialization, language documentation, and Filipino.

Hover over each card to read more

Interaction Analysis

I study interactions to understand how stakeholders interpret or make sense of policies at a local level. Such analysis employs both speech/prosodic analysis (how we say or sign things) and the motivations behind such choices (why) given the circumstances.

Language Policy

My approach to language policy research expands on the traditional examination of “policies about language usage” to include the analysis of the “language of policies,” shedding light on how language influences local implementation.

Opioid Crisis

My current work unpacks the language of pain in the context of the American opioid crisis to uncover the language policymakers use in fighting the crisis and how physicians and patients discursively negotiate, reinterpret, and enact such policies in consultations.

Healthcare Inequities

I also study the influence of race, gender, privilege, and cultural perceptions of pain on physicians’ opioid prescribing practices, providing insight into how linguistic choices and biases may contribute to structural and institutional inequities.

PUBLICATIONS

ASU Library keeps a collection of his work here.

Experts.ASU website

Torres, P. J. (2025). Race and gender disparities in pain treatment and opioid prescribing. Social Science & Medicine, 374, 118011. Link: Elsevier | Click here to download full text (Until May 2025)

Torres, P.J., (2023). Face-saving strategies and the burden of opioid policy enactments: When physicians’ compliance makes patients non-compliant. Journal of Pragmatics 205, 122–136 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.01.001

Torres, P.J., (2022). Modality and interpretive spaces in policies. In B.A. Diaz & R.W. Schrauf (Eds). Applying linguistics in health research, education, and policy: Bench to bedside and back again. 141-168. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110744804-006 Links: De Gruyter Mouton.

Torres, P. J., (2022). The Nation’s Fix: The Language of the Opioid Crisis (Order No. 29212652). Available from Dissertations & Theses @ University of California; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. (2708236876). Links: Proquest

Torres, P.J., (2021). The role of modals in policies: The US opioid crisis as a case study. Applied Corpus Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acorp.2021.100008 Links:Elsevier | Kudos

Torres, P. J., Henry, S. G., & Ramanathan, V. (2020). Let’s talk about pain and opioids: Low pitch and creak in medical consultations. Discourse Studies 22(2). 174-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445619893796 Links: Sage Publication | Kudos | PubMed | ePuB Download link

Henry S.G., White A.E., Magnan E.M., Hood-Medland E.A., Gosdin M., Kravitz R.L., Torres P.J., & Gerwing J. (2020) Making the most of video recorded clinical encounters: Optimizing impact and productivity through interdisciplinary teamwork. Patient Education and Counseling. 103(10). 2178-2184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2020.06.005 Links: ScienceDirect

Torres, P. J., (2015) “Iráhü táu ában funátu kápa” (“The Boy with a Red Cape”), The International Journal of Garifuna Creative Writing 3(1).

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

2025

Mar 22-25

📍Denver, CO

Shifting Linguistic Landscapes: English Proficiency and Perceptions Among Displaced Ukrainian Academics After 2022

2025 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Meeting

2024

Apr 11

📍Phoenix, AZ

"Everyone Taking Opioids Must”: Physicians’ Use of Broadening in Enacting Policies

2024 International Health Humanities Consortium Conference
Creighton University

Mar 19

📍Houston, TX

Disrupting Normalcy in Opioid Discourse: Exploring Markedness in Patients' Voice Quality

Contesting Normalcy Ideologies: Policies Around Disabilities, Refugees, and Opioids Colloqium
2024 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Meeting

[Recording]

2023

Jan 5-8

📍Denver, CO

Discourse analytic approaches in bridging policies with local implementations

97th LSA Annual Meeting

2022

Jan 6-9, 2022

📍Washington DC

“Creak and low pitch as prosodic features for misery and pain”

Conference Presentation
2022 Linguistic Society of America (LSA) Annual Meeting

🧷 Elizabeth Dayton Award in Sociolinguistics
🧷LSA

2022 Annual Meeting Award Winners have been announced! Congratulations and thank you to these linguists for their service to the Society and the field. Meet the recipients here: https://t.co/m5sM9nFElj
— Linguistic Society of America (@LingSocAm) October 27, 2021

Patients use a lower pitch and "creaky voice" when talking with doctors about pain and #opioids, @ucdavis linguistics study finds. “Being more attentive to shifts in the patient’s speech can help physicians navigate the conversation better.” — @petertorres https://t.co/WhG5pSr8rh
— UC Davis Letters and Science (@UCDLandS) November 17, 2021

New interdisciplinary research from #UCDavis analyzes doctor-patient conversations about #opioid use and #addiction. @UCD_CHPR @UCDLandS @UCDavisHealth @UCDavisMedCntr @petertorres https://t.co/tdDCS1g6vt
— UC Davis Research (@UCDavisResearch) November 16, 2021

2021

June 4, 2021

📍Virtual Conference

"Webinar: Publishing in the Language and Public Policy Section of Language”

Webinar
Linguistic Society of America (LSA)

Join the Language editor @andries_coetzee, associate editors of the Public Policy section Cukor-Avila & Ramanathan, and others in a Webinar THIS FRIDAY to learn more about the role that linguistics plays in our collective understanding of public issues:https://t.co/sbdP0Fykxp
— Linguistic Society of America (@LingSocAm) June 2, 2021

March 20-23, 2021

📍Virtual Conference

“Analyzing modality in policy text: How California policies respond to the opioid crisis”

Conference Presentation
2021 American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Meeting

March 3, 2021

📍Virtual Conference

“The language of opioid policies”

Short Presentation/ Lightning Talk
2020/2021 Advancing Pain Relief Symposium

January 7-10, 2021

📍Virtual Conference

"‘Under the influence’ of opioid policies: configuring interpretive spaces through language"

Conference/Panel Presentation
2021 Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting

2020

Dec 5, 2020

📍 Twitter
(Virtual Conference)

“One too many plural(s): Taglish code-switching”

Presentation
2020 Brazilian Association of Linguistics' Linguistweets (First International Twitter Conference on Linguistics)

#linguistweets #lt2015 My presen-tweet-ion today is about the double plurals in English-Tagalog code-switching as you see in the image. I will avoid the use of jargons but feel free to ask questions!
Pl=Plural
S=Singular
NP=Noun Phrase pic.twitter.com/7wEZf4TY2r
— Peter Joseph Torres (@petertorres) December 5, 2020

April 7, 2020

📍Davis, California

"We can, we should, we must, and we will fight the opioid crisis”

Contest/Presentation
UC Davis Gradslam Competition

🧷 Top 10 Finalist (Final round cancelled due to Corona Virus)
🧷 Feature

2019

July 17, 2019

📍Davis, California

"If I may, shall we address pain or should we focus on addiction: A talk about the language of opioid policies."

Contest/Presentation
2019 Linguistic Society of America's 3MT (Three-Minute Thesis Competition)

🧷 Runner Up

July 14, 2019

📍Davis, California

"Enacting opioid policies in text and speech: A multi-'modal' type of fix"

Peter's LSA Poster Academic Poster Example

Conference Poster
2019 LSA Linguistic Institute

Come listen to Peter Torres talk about drugs! Pro tip: Target about 150 Hz in your pitch frequency if you are aiming to obtain opiods from your doctor. #lingstitute2019 pic.twitter.com/zg30ZJcs6u
— 2019 LSA Summer Linguistic Institute (@LSA2019) July 14, 2019

June 26, 2019

📍Davis, California

“Modality in policy text: How California addressed the opioid crisis"

Panel/Workshop
2019 Linguistic Society of America Institute

🧷 Workshop: Local in Language Policy

Panel discussion: The Local in Language and Public Policy #LanguagePolicy #lingstitute2019 pic.twitter.com/S3ap2p4HYx
— Lisa Gonzalves (@LisaTheLinguist) June 28, 2019

May 24, 2019

📍Davis, California

"When heroin was a hero and solutions created problems: The discourse of opioid policy enactments"

Conference Presentation
6th Annual UC Davis Symposium on Language Research

2018

November 14-18, 2018

📍San Jose Convention Center
(Remote Participation)

"Immigrant speech in healthcare: Ideologies and intelligibility"

Conference Presentation
2018 American Anthropological Association Annual (AAA) Meeting

May 25, 2018

📍University of California, Davis

"'On a Scale of 1 to 10, How much pain are you in?' Conversations on chronic pain and controlled substances"

Contest/Presentation
5th Annual UC Davis Symposium on Language Research: Most Innovative Panel

🧷 Runner Up

April 6, 2018

📍University of California, Los Angeles

"Register shift as a pragmatic resource: Manifesting pain in medical consultations"

Conference Presentation
24th Annual Conference on Language, Interaction, and Culture (CLIC)

March 10, 2018

📍Georgetown University

"Discussing opiates in medical consultations: Expressing pain, mitigated questions, implicit requests and formulating credibility"

Conference Poster
Georgetown University Roundtable on Languages and Linguistics (GURT): Approaches to Discourse

February 8, 2018

📍Davis, California

"Low pitch and creaky voice as linguistic resources: Describing pain, narrating symptoms, and requesting for opiates in medical interactions"

Contest/Presentation
UC Davis Gradslam

2016

April 22-23, 2016

📍University of California, Los Angeles

"Memory loss is not identity loss: The complex language participation frameworks of the elderly with dementia"

Conference/Presentation
22nd Annual Conference on Language, Interaction, and Culture (CLIC)