Chapter published in:
Imperative Turns at Talk: The design of directives in action
Edited by Marja-Leena Sorjonen, Liisa Raevaara and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
[Studies in Language and Social Interaction 30] 2017
► pp. 299–324

Imperatives in Swedish medical consultations

| University of Helsinki
| University of Helsinki
| Stockholm University
| University of Turku
| Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore
This chapter investigates the use of imperative-formatted directives in Swedish medical consultations. The specific focus of the chapter is the division of labor between straight, non-modulated imperative turns and imperative turns which are modulated with a discourse particle or some other verbal mitigating device. The results show that non-modulated imperative turns are embedded in diagnostic work, nominating subsequent actions in a series. Orientations to projected trajectories of action and the other participant’s expectations are clearly present when modulated imperative turns are produced; they are also frequent in the opening and closing routines of the consultations. Thus, there is a link between routinized and projectable actions and the use of imperatives with a pragmatic modulating element.
Keywords: Swedish, Finland Swedish, pluricentric languages, non-modulated imperative turns, modulated imperative turns, routine actions, series of actions, diagnostic activity, discourse particles, medical consultations
Published online: 18 August 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/slsi.30.10lin
References

References

Byrne, Partick S., and Barrie E. L. Long
1976 Doctors Talking to Patients. A Study of the Verbal Behaviour of General Practitioners Consulting in Their Surgeries. London: Dept. of Health and Social Security.Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael
1992 “Pluricentric Languages – Introduction”. In Pluricentric Languages, ed. by Michael Clyne, 1–9. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Drew, Paul, and John Heritage
1992 “Introduction”. In Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew, and John Heritage, 3–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ervin-Tripp, Susan
1976 “ ‘Is Sybil there?’ The Structure of Some American English Directives.” Language in Society 5: 25–66. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hakulinen, Auli, and Mirja Saari
1995 “Temporaalisesta adverbista diskurssipartikkeliksi [From a temporal adverb to a discourse particle].” Virittäjä 4: 481–500.Google Scholar
Hellberg, Staffan
1990 “Uppmaningarnas syntax och direktiva satsers betydelse [On the syntax of directives and the meaning of directive clauses].” In Svenskans beskrivning 17, ed. by Erik Andersson, and Marketta Sundman, 21–37. Åbo: Åbo Akademis förlag.Google Scholar
Heritage, John, and Douglas W. Maynard
(eds) 2006 Communication in Medical Care. Interaction between Primary Care Physicians and Patients. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics 20 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, John, and Tanya Stivers
1999 “Online Commentary in Acute Medical Visits: A Method of Shaping Patient Expectations.” Social Science & Medicine 49: 1501–1517. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Keevallik, Leelo
2003 From Interaction to Grammar. Estonian Finite Verb Forms in Conversation. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.Google Scholar
Lindholm, Camilla
2003 Frågor i praktiken. Flerledade frågeturer i läkare-patientsamtal [Questions in practice. Multi-unit question turns in doctor-patient interaction]. Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland.Google Scholar
Lindström, Anna
2005 “Language as Social Action. A Study of How Senior Citizens Request Assistance with Practical Tasks in the Swedish Home Help Service.” In Syntax and Lexis in Conversation. Studies on the Use of Linguistic Resources in Talk-in-interaction, ed. by Auli Hakulinen, and Margret Selting, 209–230. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Lindström, Jan, Camilla Lindholm, and Ritva Laury
2016 “The Interactional Emergence of Conditional Clauses as Directives: Constructions, Trajectories and Sequences of Actions.” Language Sciences 58: 8–21. Crossref.Google Scholar
Linell, Per
2009 Rethinking Language, Mind, and World Dialogically. Interactional and Contextual Theories of Human Sense-making. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.Google Scholar
2011 Samtalskulturer. Kommunikativa verksamhetstyper i samhället [Conversation cultures. Communicative activity types in society]. Linköping: Linköping University.Google Scholar
Melander Marttala, Ulla
1995 Innehåll och perspektiv i läkare‑ patientsamtal. En språklig och samtalsanalytisk undersökning [Content and perspective in doctor-patient conversations. A linguistic and conversation analytic investigation]. Uppsala: Uppsala University. http://​urn​.kb​.se​/resolve​?urn​=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva​-179654
Mishler, Elliott G.
1984 The Discourse of Medicine: Dialectics of Medical Interviews. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Norrby, Catrin, Camilla Wide, Jan Lindström, and Jenny Nilsson
2015a “Interpersonal Relationships in Medical Consultations. Comparing Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish Address Practices.” Journal of Pragmatics 84: 121–138. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Norrby, Catrin, Camilla Wide, Jenny Nilsson, and Jan Lindström
2015b “Address and Interpersonal Relationships in Finland-Swedish and Sweden-Swedish Service Encounters.” In Address Practice as Social Action. European Perspectives, ed. by Catrin Norrby, and Camilla Wide, 75–96. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ottesjö, Cajsa, and Jan Lindström
2005 “ Så som diskursmarkör [ Så as a discourse marker].” Språk och stil 15: 85–127.Google Scholar
Reuter, Mikael
1992 “Swedish as a Pluricentric Language.” In Pluricentric Languages. Different Norms in Different Nations, ed. by Michael Clyne, 101–116. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Rossi, Giovanni
2012 “Bilateral and Unilateral requests: The Use of Imperatives and Mi X? Interrogatives in Italian.” Discourse Processes 49: 426–458. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Rothstein, Björn
2010 “Mood in Swedish.” In Mood in the Languages of Europe, ed. by Björn Rothstein, and Rolf Thieroff, 71–84. Amsterdam: Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ruusuvuori, Johanna
2000 Control in the Medical Consultation. Practices of Giving and Receiving the Reason for the Visit in Primary Health Care. Acta Electronica Universitatis Tamperensis 16. Tampere: University of Tampere.Google Scholar
Saari, Mirja
1995 “’Jo, nu kunde vi festa nog’. Synpunkter på svenskt språkbruk i Sverige och Finland [On the use of Swedish language in Sweden and Finland].” Folkmålsstudier 36: 75–108.Google Scholar
Saari, Mirja, and Hanna Lehti-Eklund
2016 “The Swedish Nu. A Historical Perspective.” In “Nu” and “Na”: A Family of Discourse Markers across the Languages of Europe and Beyond, ed. by Peter Auer, and Yael Maschler. Berlin: de Gruyter. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Statistics Finland
2015 Population Structure 2014. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. (http://​www​.stat​.fi​/til​/vaerak​/2014​/vaerak​_2014​_2015​-03​-27​_tie​_001​_en​.html)
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig
2011 “Knowledge, Morality and Affiliation in Social Interaction.” In The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, ed. by Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada, and Jakob Steensig, 3–26. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Teleman, Ulf, Staffan Hellberg, and Erik Andersson
1999 Svenska Akademiens grammatik. Vol. 4. Stockholm: Svenska Akademien.Google Scholar
Wide, Camilla, and Benjamin Lyngfelt
2009 “Svenskan i Finland, grammatiken och konstruktionerna” [Swedish in Finland, the grammar and the constructions]. In Konstruktioner i finlandssvensk syntax. Skriftspråk, samtal och dialekter, ed. by Camilla Wide, and Benjamin Lyngfelt, 11–43. Helsinki: Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland.Google Scholar
Wirdenäs, Karolina, and Catrin Norrby
2001 “En diskurspartikel vardande? Lite om lite [A discourse particle in the making? A bit about a bit ].” Språk & stil 11: 211–234.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Lindström, Jan, Camilla Lindholm, Inga-Lill Grahn & Martina Huhtamäki
2020.  In Emergent Syntax for Conversation [Studies in Language and Social Interaction, 32], ► pp. 245 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 02 march 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.