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DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributorDepartment of Englishen_US
dc.contributor.advisorMatthiessen, Christian M. I. M. (ENGL)en_US
dc.creatorNg, Tung Anthony-
dc.identifier.urihttps://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/10695-
dc.languageEnglishen_US
dc.publisherHong Kong Polytechnic Universityen_US
dc.rightsAll rights reserveden_US
dc.titleTo act or not to act : an investigation of construal of requests for action in healthcare communicationen_US
dcterms.abstractThe 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.en_US
dcterms.extent138 pagesen_US
dcterms.isPartOfPolyU Electronic Thesesen_US
dcterms.issued2018en_US
dcterms.educationalLevelM.A.en_US
dcterms.educationalLevelAll Masteren_US
dcterms.LCSHCommunication in medicineen_US
dcterms.LCSHFunctionalism (Linguistics)en_US
dcterms.LCSHSystemic grammaren_US
dcterms.LCSHHong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertationsen_US
dcterms.accessRightsrestricted accessen_US

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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/10695