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Pragmatics and Society: Online-First Articles

Chinese patients’ unsolicited presentation of primary concerns

ORCID logo | University of Science and Technology Beijing,
| University of International Business and Economics,
Through an observation of naturally-occurring medical openings in China, we show that problem solicitation is not necessarily a routine practice in medical consultations. There are four common conversational slots in a Chinese medical opening allowing an unsolicited problem presentation, featuring a common deep structure – a generic pre-sequence followed by the specific base sequence of problem presentation. Three logically connected factors distinguishing Chinese medical openings from their Western counterparts are identified to provide the rationale for the normality of unsolicited problem presentation in China. The study enriches the understanding of culture-specificity in certain local structural organization of medical consultations, calls for activity-specific reconsideration of medical authority and reveals further resemblance between medical consultations and service encounters.
Keywords: problem solicitation, primary concerns, unsolicited problem presentation, Chinese medical opening, sequence organization, opening tasks
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and method
  • 3.Findings and discussion
    • 3.1Conversational slots for unsolicited presentation of primary concerns
      • 3.1.1Self-initiation following a minimal response from the doctor
      • 3.1.2Self-initiation after the doctor’s non-solicitation-oriented opening turn
      • 3.1.3Self-initiation as silence-prefaced turn resumption
      • 3.1.4Self-initiation as the opening turn
    • 3.2Rationale behind unsolicited problem presentation in Chinese medical openings
      • 3.2.1Optionality of Western routine opening tasks
      • 3.2.2Problem presentation as the first projectable sequence
      • 3.2.3The doctor’s availability as the go-ahead signal to problem presentation
    • 3.3Sequence organization of unsolicited problem presentation
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 15 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20063.yan
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