| Peer-Reviewed

A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia

Received: 10 August 2022     Accepted: 3 September 2022     Published: 14 September 2022
Views:       Downloads:
Abstract

This paper includes a detailed analysis of a consultation between a general practitioner and his male patient in a Canberra suburb. This study illustrates the shift toward a model of patient-centeredness which is applaused in Australia. The purpose of this study is not only to reinforce the new concept of medical consultation – patient-centeredness but also to confirm the necessity of change in medical discourse and reveal the reasons that lead to the movement in doctor talk. The data was collected by note taking and recording which was later transcribed for the aim of data analyses. The researcher’s role was that of the passive ethnographic researcher, playing no further role in the consultation. In other words, there was no intervention when the consultation occurred. Therefore, the information obtained from the consultation was completely natural. The theoretical framework used in this current study is Conversation Analysis (CA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which transcribed the discourse of doctor talk. Aspects of data analyses were followed by a bottom-up approach and conducted by both qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper concludes that the language of the doctor cannot standstill when the language of society is always changing. In other words, the doctor’s language in this study has obviously been affected by the language used in Australian society. The movement towards a trend of politeness, informality and solidarity in the Australian language has entailed a shift in the language of Australian doctors.

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 10, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11
Page(s) 275-287
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Doctor-Patient Consultation, Conversation Analysis (CA), Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Turn-Takings, Lexico-Grammatical Characteristics

References
[1] Adam, Q. A. (2014). Study of power relations in doctor-patient interactions in a selected hospital in Lagos State, Nigeria. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 5 (2), 177-184. DOI: 10.7575/aiac.alls.v.5n.2p.177.
[2] Adegbite, W. & Odebunmi, A. (2006). Discourse tact in doctor-patient interactions in English: An analysis of diagnosis in medical communication in Nigeria. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 15 (4), 499-519.
[3] Aitchison, J. (2000). Language Change: Progress or Decay? 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[4] Anita, L. S. (2015). Linguistic Aspects of Family Doctor-Patient Consultations. PhD thesis, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary.
[5] Bowles, H. (2006). Conversation Analysis and Health Communication: Updating a Developing Relationship. In Gotti, M. & Salager-Meyer, F. (eds.), Advances in Medical Discourse Analysis: Oral and Written Contexts, pp. 43-64. Bern, Peter Lang.
[6] Brody, H. (1997). The physician-Patient Relationship. In Robert, M. (ed.), Medical Ethics, pp. 70-99, (2nd ed). Boston, Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
[7] Bruce, H (2009). Doctor patient communication. Italy, Lego Print S.r.l.
[8] Candlin, S. (2006). Constructing knowledge, Understanding and meaning between patients and nurses. In Gotti, M. & Salager-Meyer, F. (eds.), Advances in Medical Discourse Analysis: Oral and Written Contexts, pp. 65-86. Bern, Peter Lang.
[9] Eggins, S & Slade, D. (1997). Analyzing Casual Conversation, London, Continuum.
[10] Fairclough, N (2001). Language and Power (2nd ed), London, Longman.
[11] Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In Van Dijk, T. A. (ed.), Discourse studies. A multidisciplinary introduction, pp. 258-284. London, Sage.
[12] Frankel, R. (1990). Talking in Interviews: A Dispreference for Patient-initiated Questions in Physician-Patient. In Pasathas, G (ed.), Interactional competence, pp. 231-262. Washington, University Press of America.
[13] Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London, Edward Arnold.
[14] Halliday, M. A. K, (1979). Modes of Meaning and Modes of Expression: Types of Grammatical Structure and Their Determination of Different Semantic Functions. In Allerton, D. J., Carney, E., & Holdcroft, D (eds.), Functions and Contexts in Linguistic Analysis: Essays Offered to William Haas, pp. 57-79. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
[15] Halliday, M. A. K (1985). Spoken and written language. Geelong, Vic, Deakin University Press.
[16] Halliday, M. A. K (1994). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed). London, Edward Arnold.
[17] Halliday, M. A. K, (2012). Dẫn luận ngữ pháp chức năng (3nd ed). (Trans: Hoang V. V. Hanoi: Hanoi National University Press. https://doi.org/10.25073/2525-2445/vnufs.4229
[18] Halliday, M. A. K, McIntosh, A & Stevens, P (1964). The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching, London, Longmans.
[19] Halliday, M. A. K. & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. Hong Kong: Longman.
[20] Halliday, M. A. K & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective: Language Education (2nd ed). Oxford, Oxford University Press.
[21] Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (1999). Construing Experience Through Meaning: A Language-based Approach to Cognition. London: Cassel.
[22] Halliday, M. A. K & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar (3rd ed). London: Edward Arnold.
[23] Hasan. R (1993). Context for Meaning. In Alatis. J. E. (ed.), Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics: Language, Communication and Social Meaning, pp. 79-103. Washington D. C.: Georgetown University Press.
[24] Hasan. R (1995). The Conception of Context in Text. In Vol. L., Fries, P. H. & Gregory. M (eds.), Discourse and Meaning in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives. Meaning and Choice in Language: Studies for Michael Halliday. Norwood, NJ, Alblex.
[25] Hasan. R (1996) Semantic Networks. In Cloran. C., Butt. D. G., & Wiliams. G (eds.), Ways of Meaning: Selected Papers of Rugaiya Hasan, pp 104-131. London, Cassell.
[26] Hasan, R. (1999). Speaking with reference to Context. In Ghadessy, M. (ed.), Text and Context in Functional Linguistics, pp. 219-328. Amsterdam, Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company.
[27] Hasan, R. (2009). The place of context in a Systemic Functional Model. In Halliday, M. A. K. & Webster, J. J. (eds.), Continuum Companion to Systemic Functional Linguistics, pp. 166-189. London and New York, Continuum.
[28] Hasan, R. & Perrett, G. (1994). Learning to function with the other tongues: A systemic functional perspective on second language teaching. In T. Odlin (ed.), Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar, pp. 179–226. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139524605.010
[29] Heath, C. (1982). Preserving the consultation: medical record cards and professional conduct. Sociology of Health and Illness, 4, 56-74. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.ep11345612.
[30] Heath, C. (1986). Body Movement and Speech in Medical Interaction. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
[31] Heath, C. (1992). The delivery and reception of diagnosis in the general practice consultation. In Drew, P & Heritage, J (eds.), Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional settings, pp. 235-267. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
[32] Helman, C. G. (1990). Culture Health and Illness (2nd ed), Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann.
[33] Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge, Polity Press.
[34] Heritage, J., & Lindström, A. (1996). Motherhood, medicine and morality: scenes from a series of medical encounter. Research on Language and Social Interaction, Lawrence Erburn Associates, Inc, 31 (3&4), 397-438. DOI: 10.1080/08351813.1998.9683598.
[35] Heritage, J., & Maynard, D. W. (2006). Communication in medical care. Interaction between primary care physicians and patients. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
[36] Heritage, J., & Stivers, T. (1999). Online Commentary in Acute Medical Visits: A Method of Shaping Patient Expectations. Social Science and Medicine, 49 (11), 1501-1517. DOI: 10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00219-1.
[37] Hoang, V. V (2006). Introducing Discourse Analysis. Vietnam Education Publishing House, Hanoi.
[38] Hoang, V. V (2012). An Experiential Grammar of the Vietnamese Clause. Vietnam Education Publishing House, Hanoi.
[39] Hoang, V. V. (2013). Multifunctionality: The Organizing Principle of Language. Journal of Language, 7 (290), 14–34. https://doi.org/10.25073/0866-773x/205
[40] Hoang, V. V (2017). The Language of School Science Textbooks: An Interpersonal Analysis of the Lexico-grammatical Features of Seven Lessons (Texts) of Biology 8. Vietnam Social Sciences, 9 (340), 28-54.
[41] Hoang, V. V. (2020). The Language of Vietnamese School Science Textbooks: A Transitivity Analysis of Seven Lessons (Texts) of Biology 8. Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 14 (1-2), 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1558/lhs.31751
[42] Hori, M. (2006). Pain expression in Japanese. In Thompson, G & Hunston, S. (eds.). System and corpus: exploring connections, pp. 206-225. London, Equinox.
[43] Hyden, L. C & Mishler, E. G. (1999). Language and Medicine. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 19, 174-192. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/42.3.293
[44] Jack, S & Tanya, S. (2013). The handbook of Conversation Analysis. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, UK.
[45] Jones, J. F (2004). Australian Politeness for Australian ESL.
[46] Lascaratou, C. (2003). Language in Pain. Expression or Description? The Case of Greek. Athens, Parousia.
[47] Luo, X. (2015). Patients’ Interrogative Choices in Chinese Doctor-Patient Conversations. Studies in Sociology of Science, 6 (4), 65-69. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/n.
[48] Martin J. R (1992). English Text: System and Structure, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
[49] Matthiessen, C. (1995). Lexicogrammatical Cartography: English Systems. Tokyo International language Science Publishers.
[50] Mishler, E. G. (1984). The Discourse of Medicine. New Jersey, Ablex Publishing Corporation.
[51] Monagle, J & Thomas, D. (1994). Health Care Ethics: Critical Issues, Gaithersburg, Md, Aspen Publishers.
[52] Montgomery, M. (1996). An introduction to language and society (2nd ed.). London, Routledge.
[53] Nguyen, T, N (2017). Doctor-patient power relation: a systemic functional analysis of a doctor-patient consultation. VNU Journal Foreign Studies, 33 (3), 24-43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25073/2525-2445/vnufs.4153.
[54] Overlach, F. (2008). Sprache des Schmerzes, Sprechen über Schmerzen: eine grammatisch-semantishe und gespräschsanalytische Untersuchung von Schmerzausdrücken im Deutschen. Berlin, De Gruyter.
[55] Pappas. S & Perlman, A. (2002). Complementary and alternative medicine. The importance of doctor-patient communication. Med Clin North Am, 86 (1), 1-10. DOI: 10.1016/s0025-7125(03)00068-3.
[56] Raymond, G. (2010). Grammar and social relations: Alternative forms of yes/no - type initiating actions in health visitor interactions. In Freed, A. F & Ehrlich, S. (eds.), ‘Why do you ask?’: The function of questions in institutional discourse, pp. 87-107. New York, Oxford University Press.
[57] Roter, D. L & Hall, J. A. (1992). Doctor talking with patients/Patients talking with doctors. London, Auburn House.
[58] Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., and Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest Systematics for the Organisation of Turn-taking for Conversation. Language, 50 (4), 696-735. DOI: 10.17323/1728-192X-2015-1-142-202.
[59] Steven, I. D., Thomas, S. A., Eckerman, E., Browning, C. and Dickens E. (1999). A patient determined general practice questionnaire. Aust Fam Physician, 28 (4), 8-342.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Thanh Nga Nguyen. (2022). A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 10(5), 275-287. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Thanh Nga Nguyen. A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2022, 10(5), 275-287. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Thanh Nga Nguyen. A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia. Int J Lang Linguist. 2022;10(5):275-287. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11,
      author = {Thanh Nga Nguyen},
      title = {A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia},
      journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
      volume = {10},
      number = {5},
      pages = {275-287},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20221005.11},
      abstract = {This paper includes a detailed analysis of a consultation between a general practitioner and his male patient in a Canberra suburb. This study illustrates the shift toward a model of patient-centeredness which is applaused in Australia. The purpose of this study is not only to reinforce the new concept of medical consultation – patient-centeredness but also to confirm the necessity of change in medical discourse and reveal the reasons that lead to the movement in doctor talk. The data was collected by note taking and recording which was later transcribed for the aim of data analyses. The researcher’s role was that of the passive ethnographic researcher, playing no further role in the consultation. In other words, there was no intervention when the consultation occurred. Therefore, the information obtained from the consultation was completely natural. The theoretical framework used in this current study is Conversation Analysis (CA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which transcribed the discourse of doctor talk. Aspects of data analyses were followed by a bottom-up approach and conducted by both qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper concludes that the language of the doctor cannot standstill when the language of society is always changing. In other words, the doctor’s language in this study has obviously been affected by the language used in Australian society. The movement towards a trend of politeness, informality and solidarity in the Australian language has entailed a shift in the language of Australian doctors.},
     year = {2022}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - A Shift Towards Politeness in Doctor-Patient Consultation: A Case Study in Australia
    AU  - Thanh Nga Nguyen
    Y1  - 2022/09/14
    PY  - 2022
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11
    T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
    JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
    JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
    SP  - 275
    EP  - 287
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2330-0221
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20221005.11
    AB  - This paper includes a detailed analysis of a consultation between a general practitioner and his male patient in a Canberra suburb. This study illustrates the shift toward a model of patient-centeredness which is applaused in Australia. The purpose of this study is not only to reinforce the new concept of medical consultation – patient-centeredness but also to confirm the necessity of change in medical discourse and reveal the reasons that lead to the movement in doctor talk. The data was collected by note taking and recording which was later transcribed for the aim of data analyses. The researcher’s role was that of the passive ethnographic researcher, playing no further role in the consultation. In other words, there was no intervention when the consultation occurred. Therefore, the information obtained from the consultation was completely natural. The theoretical framework used in this current study is Conversation Analysis (CA) and Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which transcribed the discourse of doctor talk. Aspects of data analyses were followed by a bottom-up approach and conducted by both qualitative and quantitative methods. This paper concludes that the language of the doctor cannot standstill when the language of society is always changing. In other words, the doctor’s language in this study has obviously been affected by the language used in Australian society. The movement towards a trend of politeness, informality and solidarity in the Australian language has entailed a shift in the language of Australian doctors.
    VL  - 10
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Foreign Languages, Vietnam Military Medical University, Hanoi, Vietnam

  • Sections