The Language of the Medical Profession: Doctor-Patient Discourse

Abstract

This paper examines language use in a doctor-patient context (situation) with specific focus on the doctors’ use of language to achieve a wide range of purposes, from empathy, egotism, to concealing the true state of their patient’s health status and many others. In any doctor-patient situation, the context leading to the communicative event is important as it determines what type of language the doctor will employ in conversing with his patients. In other words, the language used by the doctor in the presence of the patient depends on whether s/he is communicating with the patient directly or discussing with his or her colleagues or other team of doctors about the patient’s situation. Again, the language used by the doctor in the patient’s presence depends on the seriousness of the symptoms or ailment the patient presents with.

Keywords: Polysemy, euphemism, dysphemism, ambiguity, eponym, and neologism