Politeness in Doctor-Patient Dialog

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Abstract：In our everyday communication, we often use Euphemism to express our thought indirectly, for example, doctors usually do not tell the patients the truth when treating serious patients. This paper aims at exploring the nature of euphemism in doctor-patient interactions and how do doctors use euphemism to attain the goal of politeness on the basis of the Face Theory and Politeness theory.

Key Words：Euphemism tFace TheoryPoliteness theory

I．the Face Theory

According to Brown and Levinson, certain types of acts are threatening to the speakers’, the hearers’face, or to both. They proposed that there are four threatening acts: threatening to the hearer’s Negative Face； to the hearer’s Positive Face; to the speaker’s Negative Face; to the speaker’s Positive Face。

They put forward the face theory which claims that people have to save faces for themselves or respect others’ faces through cooperating with others in the social communication, and a better way to reach the aim is to use polite language in daily conversation. Euphemism is one of this case.

II．doctor-patient Discourse Analysis

In this chapter, some dialogs between doctor-patient will be analyzed, so that we can find the function and implications of politeness principles applying to these doctor-patient dialogs.

Case1: The first patient who suffered from lupus erythematosu.

D: Listen to me, you will become healthy if you are treated with medicines.

P: I don’t want to stay in hospital.

D: Don’t worry, the treatment here is very effective and fast.

P: yes, but I’ve got bored of life.

D: But think of your illness, you’d better stay in hospital. Please listen to me, You will recover from illness quickly and live happily like a normal person after you are diagnosed and take the medicine, and the effect will be very good.

This patient has a heavy burden in her deep soul. The doctor didn’t tell her the truth although she is seriously illed. That’s because the patient has lost her confidence to her future and life, and if the doctor tells her the truth about her disease, she may give up the treatment and choose to die early. They don’t usually tell the patients the truth because they don’t want to hurt their patients, so that they are disappointed and lose the courage of life. In this way, they protect the hearers ‘face----patients ‘face.

Case2: One patient suffered from a kind of blankness in the brain.

D: How are you feeling now? A little bit better?

P: yes, but a little bit bitter.

D: Are you still have the phenomenon of blankness?

P: Not for recent two days.

D: your head still feel dizzy ?

D: kind of ?.

In the dialogue, the doctor often uses questions either general or tag to ask to the patient, and sometimes repeats the patient’s words. It’s a good way to leave the hearer much room for manoeuvre when a speaker indirectly inquire a hearer’s ability, willingness, opinion, etc. finally, the euphemistic effect can be achieved, and face on both sides can be saved,

III．Conclusion

From the above analysis, we can figure out that the dialogs between doctors and patients conform to the principles of Euphemism, the Politeness Principle, and Face Theory. To sum up, in our daily communication, people use euphemisms by speaking indirectly because they want to be polite to the hearers, or they don’t want to make the hearers embarrassed, that is to say, they are inclined to save other’s or their own faces.

References:

[1]Verschueren Jef. Understanding Pragmatics. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.2000.

[2]Radford Andrew. Linguistics: An Introduction. Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2008

[3]陈融.面子.留面子.丢面子[J].外国语，1998.

[4]何兆熊.新编语用学概要[M].上海外语教育出版社，1999.