Understanding the multi-dimensional nature of informational language in health care interactions

Abstract Much of the corpus-based research on medical discourse has focused on “involved” language (e.g., 1st person pronouns, discourse markers) and its importance in creating patient rapport ( Adolphs, Brown, Carter, Crawford, & Sahota, 2004 ; Skelton & Hobbes, 1999 ; Staples, 2016 ). However, in the broader literature on health care interactions, providers’ information provision is equally important in patient-centered care ( Ong, de Haes, Joos, & Lammes, 1995 ). This paper investigates the ways in which providers and patients use informational language in medical discourse using multidimensional analysis (MDA; Biber, 1988 ). We first examine three corpora of medical interactions and then focus a new MDA on one type of interaction that requires more informational language use: discussions of disease and treatment options. The analysis revealed multifaceted aspects of information provision that differ depending on the nature of the information, including providers’ procedural information for medical treatment and impersonal information provision for explaining the disease.