A Conversation Analysis Of Talks Between American Doctors And Patients

This thesis intends to probe into the features, which characterize the conversation organization of talks between doctors and patients by adopting the method of conversation analysis.The first part is an introduction to the whole thesis, and then in chapter one, the author provides literature review of studies of talks between doctors and patients abroad and at home; in chapter two, the author introduces a general survey and methodology of conversation analysis.In chapter three, the author analyzes the conversation between doctors and patients with reference to its overall organization (including opening, body and closing), turn-taking system, on the purpose of showing how the patients take turns under the doctor's direction. What is more, the author analyzes the occurrence of backchannels. In addition, talks between doctors and patients adopt a leisure style. Overlapping frequently occurs under such situations: when the information given by the doctor is enough, or when the patient is saying useless things to help find out the cause of illness, the doctor may interrupt what the patient is saying for topic shift. At last, the author analyzes the characteristics of adjacency pairs in doctor-patient conversation.This thesis is a tentative study of talks between doctors and patients. The author hopes that the attempt will be of much value both in the field of conversation analysis and in the study of talks between doctors and patients.