The Americanization of Chinese medicine: A discourse-based study of culture-driven medical change

The aim of this dissertation was to study culture-driven medical change. Medical discourse, expressed through medical speaking, writing, image-making, and thinking, was chosen as the chief source of data. "Quick scan" sociolinguistic methods were developed to assess change in language across a number of channels of medical communication.;The assumption was that a grasp of change in language use would offer an indication of change in a whole cultural system. Hence, a measure of the types, amounts, and trajectory of change in medical language, could serve as a rough measure of the trajectory of change or evolution in a whole medical system.;It was determined that Chinese medical language is undergoing change in America. Change is occurring through the synthesis of traditional and modern discourse forms. This synthesis is an adaptive response to a new environment. Through association, new combinations of medical thought and discourse are formed, which aid professional survival.;The most basic change is seen in a number of different "strains of discourse" now diverging from a purely traditional strain. These strains are formed when modern western concepts are inserted in traditional discourse strings. Parallel processing of information also occurs, involving a shifting back and forth between traditional and modern discourse frameworks.;Change in Chinese medical language is the result of an adaptive response to the American cultural context. The underlying motivation is survival as a business and a profession. Actual objective progress in medical knowledge has been less intentional and more accidental, a matter of chance catches in casting a broad business net.