Doctor-Patient Interview Essay

990 Words2 Pages

Introduction This essay will analyse the doctor-patient interview in Appendix B, paying attention to the topic and turn taking, structure, the co-operative principle, modality, question forms, back-channelling and semantics. Analysis of these features will provide evidence for the tension and misunderstandings in the discourse. Topic and Turn taking The topic of the discourse is lead mainly by the doctor in the beginning but there is a struggle for topic and turn taking (Yule 2006) from the middle to the end. The doctor first loses some control in line 13 when the patient misreads the doctor’s intention when he asks about her headaches (line 12) and begins talking about the personal social aspect of their life, when the doctor is clearly …show more content…

The interview initially seems to follow the initiation, response, follow up model (Sinclair and Coulthard: 1975). However, as the interview progresses, the interview appears to break down, especially between lines 17-22 where the doctor does speaks over the patient cutting of the patient’s response, does not give any feedback and simply proceeds to the next question. From lines 22-24, there is more of a reluctance of the patient to elaborate and only gives 1 word answers, perhaps as a result of the doctor’s previous interruptions. The doctor does not provide any feedback, and as above, simply asks the next question. The breakdown of the IRF structure makes the interview appear more stilted and impersonal, perhaps not leaving the patient at ease. Modality At lines 31-33, the interview takes a worse turn. The doctor uses deontic modality (Palmer 1986) when he tells the patient that she ‘can’t drink that for any reason’ (line 31-32). The doctor takes advantage of their higher social power to command the patient that she cannot do something. This is a face-threatening act (Yule 2006) to the patient’s negative face (Yule 2006) which means that it can be interpreted as impoliteness on the doctor’s

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