Discourse and Corpus based Analysis of Doctor-Patient Conversation in the Context of Pakistani Hospitals

Abstract

This study undertakes the analysis of the communicative patterns between doctors and patients by applying Sinclair and Coulthard’s (1975) IRF (Initiation, Response and Follow-up) Model. The focus of this study is to investigate the discourse features of the language used between the doctors and the patients in a hospital setting. It further explores how doctors and patients make sense of each other’s talk. The data was electronically recorded and then transcribed in terms of Dijk’s transcription key with the modification. IRF structural patterns of the original model were applied with modification due to change in the context in which the communication between the participants of the discourse took place. The discourse structure found in the data varied from that of the classroom discourse investigated by Sinclair and Coulthard. This study showed significant difference in the use of language in spoken and written form between the doctors and the patients. It also revealed that commonality, solidarity and familiarity in exchange structure was lacking in the communication between the doctors and patients which resulted in misunderstanding of the talk.