A Critical Analysis On The Construction Of Doctor's Identity In Doctor-patient Discourse

Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA for short),dating back to the end of 1970 s,is an emerging approach for discourse analysis which focuses on the interrelationship among language,power and ideology(Xin Bin,1996).It regards discourse as a kind of social practice and aims to raises people's critical language awareness to many unequal power relations of social problems,like racism,sexism,and educational unfairness,etc..In recent years,doctor-patient relationship in our country is increasingly tense and the contradiction between the doctors and the patients occur time and again.This issue has been discussed from various perspectives,but there are not many from the angle of critical discourse analysis.Therefore,with Halliday's(2004)SFG as the theoretical tool,this thesis conducts an critical analysis on the doctor-patient interaction which is collected from one top three hospital in Nanchang.Based on the quantitative analysis on the 30 transcribed useful samples,this thesis then performs a qualitative research on the doctor-patient discourse from the perspective of CDA to uncover the construction of doctor's identity by figuring out the following questions:1.How is ideology embedded in the construction of doctor's identity?2.What role does the power play in the construction of doctor's identity?3.Does dominance affect the construction of doctor's identity?Through the elaborate analysis on the collected data,the related conclusion is able to be made that the construction of doctor's identity is mainly embedded in ideology,power and dominance.To this ideational function,interpersonal function as well as turn-taking theory can provide the gist of explanation.Firstly,ideational metafunction is an effective way to reveal ideology.Through the analysis on transitivity system,the doctors tent to use material and relational process,in which what the doctors ask the patients to do is the core of a clause,while the participants and circumstances are neglected.Besides,through the ideational metaphor(nominalization and the transference of processes included),the doctors package the information in a metaphorical way in which a clause is presented as one thing,rather than a process with the doer.In this rate,the doctors implicitly induce the patients to agree that the whole instruction is undoubted.With all these efforts,the doctors imperceptibly construct the identity of “controller”,“conductor”,and“medical expert”.Secondly,the analysis on basic speech roles and modality illustrates the asymmetric power relationship between the doctors and the patients.All the doctors' question,command and statement come out from their higher position and medical knowledge,through which they realize the identity of “medical export”.Besides,the doctors are more inclined to apply an implicit subjective way and modulation in high modal value to establish the authority and powerful status.Lastly,dominance plays an important role in the construction of doctor's identity.It is found that the start and control of topic are almost grasped in the hands of the doctors,that is,the doctors control the introduction,the development and the end of topics with frequently interrupting the patients' speeches,but rarely interrupted.As for the number and the length of turns,there is no big difference between the doctors and the patients.However,the doctors in this process are still of domination,for they usually think many of the patients' questions do not need to be answered,especially some unrelated to the diagnosis of illness.In the whole process,the doctors dominant the conversation in a direct way,successfully constructing their identities of“organizer”,“controller” and “Dominating ” status.This thesis is to provide an innovative standpoint for construing this social issue,and further to raise the public awareness for critical reading.In this way,it will also be beneficial for exploring an equal,interactive,and cooperative relationship between doctor and patient in our contemporary society,which is able to release the contradiction between the doctors and the patients.