Abstract
This study deals with the social and communicative role of the patient's attendant -a relative- in primary care medical consultation. The theoretical and methodological background is based on cultural sociopragmatics and discourse analysis. The qualitative data analysis aims to show that the attendant's roles are confirmed in keeping with social expectations but also negotiated and constructed in the communicative interaction. The attendant's roles depend on the other participants' -doctor and patient- behaviors and these roles are related to the speakers' face wants. The results confirm previous studies about the attendant's multiplicity of roles and about the instrumental and practical characteristics of these roles, such as nurse, care-giver and secretary. Furthermore, other socially and psychologically related roles have been identified in the analysis. The role of social 'driver' contributes to the positive development of the social and communicative interaction -for example by introducing topics that are not related to medical topics. The role of emotional assistant means an emotional support to the patient. Both types of roles reinforce the interactants' wants of affiliation face.
| Original language | Spanish |
|---|---|
| Journal | Oralia |
| Volume | 20 |
| Pages (from-to) | 179-201 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| ISSN | 1575-1430 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
Keywords
- Faculty of Humanities