| Author: | Ng, Tung Anthony |
| Title: | To act or not to act : an investigation of construal of requests for action in healthcare communication |
| Advisors: | Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. (ENGL) |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Subject: | Communication in medicine Functionalism (Linguistics) Systemic grammar Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of English |
| Pages: | 138 pages |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The study of requests is under-represented in systemic functional linguistics (SFL) and healthcare, let alone in terms of ideational resources. This thesis presents an investigation of requests for action and their implications for SFL and cross-institutional communication in pre-hospitalization healthcare, examining quantitatively and qualitatively government "health letters" to education institutions by drawing upon resources from traditional SFL theories (e.g. register variation and contextualized choices) and critical theories (e.g. communicative equalities and critical consciousness). This investigation offers a complementary (ideational rather than interpersonal) way of looking at requests and an opportunity for a more comprehensive understanding of semiotic systems for creating and interpreting meanings between institutional addressers and addressees. The findings showed that the registerial profiling of requests for action can enhance the descriptive delicacy in the typology of Fields of Activity and extend the description of the system of PROCESS TYPE. Most importantly, the notion of Action Orientation contributes to preventively reducing indeterminacy (due to hidden requests and references) that causes potential socio-communicative risks and failures in healthcare, where a system of ORIENTATION and a cartographical model of Action / Information Orientation are proposed for further exploring the language of requests and systemically describing registers in healthcare. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5151.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.66 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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