EXPERTISE, CONTROL, AND RELATIONAL DISCOURSE IN HEALTH CARE SETTINGS
EXPERTISE, CONTROL, AND RELATIONAL DISCOURSE IN HEALTH CARE SETTINGS

Summary/Abstract: Expertise and control are fundamental, integral and intricately related components constituting human interaction. Previous studies on control in discourse in health care settings have analyzed control predominantly from the perspective of the individual. The main purpose of our study is to investigate it from the interpersonal perspective, in which control is seen as a relational phenomenon. Our research focuses on language use in expert and lay discourse exploited and realized as interactive control sequences. The analysis suggests that the choice of different control mechanisms realized by the interlocutors is motivated by the acknowledgement of and adherence to the institutional framework. Control may well interact with the participants’ role expectations, which in turn results in a struggle to fulfil intended roles against conventionally assigned roles. The paper discerns discourse strategies as they are applied in both explorative and therapeutic interviewing.

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