A Conversation Analysis Of The Doctor's Repetition In The Outpatient Service

Language plays a critical role in doctor-patient interaction,which draws close attention from more and more scholars in recent years.In doctor-patient interaction,verbal communication serves as the main way for doctors to work out diagnosis and treatment plans.Moreover,doctor-patient interaction as a type of institutional discourse has its own purposes and functions.The vitality of verbal communication has a direct effect on the relationship between doctors and patients which can also affect patients' satisfaction with the treatment.Self-repetition or other-repetition of doctors is a frequent phenomenon in doctor-patient interaction.Hence,based on the data of doctors' repetition in outpatient services collected from two best-known hospitals in Zhejiang province,this thesis does an analysis on the characteristics and pragmatic functions of repetition from the perspective of sentential modalities.The analysis of the data finds out that the doctor's repetition in the interaction with the patient can be divided into four types.They are confirmative repetition,explanatory repetition,inquisitive repetition,and directive repetition respectively.And four functions,i.e.,emphasis,acceptance,clarification and confirmation,are discussed based on the analysis of the repetition types.They are emphasizing some vital information to draw the patient's attention or to ensure the patient to follow the doctor's suggestions;accepting some opinions from the patient to build trust with the patient or to release the patient's anxious feelings;clarifying some detailed information about disease to give the patient more confidence or to ease the tension between the doctor and the patient;confirming some uncertain expressions to make sure the veracity of transmitted information and then make out accurate treatments.To summarize,the study proves that the doctor's repetition can help the doctor to diagnose the patient's disease and release his/ her anxiety.It can also help the patient to have a better understanding of his/ her own disease.