A Linguistic Analysis of the Politeness Strategies Used in Doctor-Patient Discourse

Abstract

Effective and well-organized communication between the doctors and patients plays a fundamental clinical role and results patient’s early healing of body and mind. Most of the patients’ annoyance and complaints are observed due to the communication gap found in the doctors-patients discourse. This research study was carried out to locate whether divergences occur or not in the utilization and integration of politeness strategies used in medical discourse. The aim of the study is to discover and highlight the communication gap between doctors and patients. In this ethno-linguistic exploratory study, both quantitative and qualitative data were obtained to find answers of the formulated research questions. Findings reveal that majority of the doctors unduly focus on exhibiting power and dominance over patients in their talks made with them. It was also found that doctors mostly use the strategy of ‘Bald on Record’ with both male and female patients; and wide majority of patients showed dissatisfaction with doctors’ conversation during diagnosing, treatment and follow-up visits. It is recommended that doctors should be made liable to execute good politeness and ethical strategies while communicating with patients for medical purposes.