La interacción médico-paciente en el escrutinio: un estudio de Sociolingüística interaccional

Abstract

This paper explores doctor-patient communication during the consultation by adopting the interactional sociolinguistic perspective, incorporating both Gumperz’s ‘socio-cultural background knowledge’ and Goffman’s ‘interactional framework’ approaches to understand the institutional alignments and social identity stances that are represented in the discourse. The data was collected in an outpatient clinic in Santiago, Chile. Twenty- two natural recorded consultations carried out by female and male patients visiting both sex doctors constitute the data set for this investigation. The analysis indicates that doctors use a set of voices when interacting with their patients in the medical consultation. Each voice is accomplished by using discourse forms and strategies within a framework of discourse functions. In this process, the consultation is a rich place to get information about patients’ health Doctor voice), to make patients acquire knowledge about their condition (Educator voice) and to create a rapport with patients by using discourse markers and strategies aiming at paying attention to the social identity of the person who is unwell (Human Fellow voice). The concluding remarks highlight the importance of using these three medical voices in the consultation to facilitate a dynamic interaction allowing patients to explore their health and social identity.