Medical professionals and parents: A linguistic analysis of communication across contexts

~he study is based on analysis of videotaped conversation that occurred in five different settings involving various family members and medical pro fessionals in a single pediatric case. We examine (1) the elaboration and condensation of information through spoken and written channels ~ (2) the negotiation of information exchanged in interactions characterized by dif ferent participant structures ~ and (3) the methodological benefit of examin ing interaction across contexts. We find that (a) information is negotiated, as well as discovered, during the medical interviews; and (b) information exchanged is often less resilient than participants ' cognitive schemas which precede and apparently outlive the exchange of information in the interac tion. These findings contribute to an understanding of the negotiation of meaning as well as the creation of context in interaction. (Discourse, in teractional sociolinguistics, context, doctor-patient communication, spo ken and written language, schema theory) A confluence of concerns among medical professionals and analysts of interac tion, paralleling more general societal and scholarly trends, has resulted in in\ creased attention to discourse in nledical settings. Similar trends have led medi cal professionals to call for, and In some cases to implement, increased family involvement in medical encounters. The interest of medical professionals in understanding the part played by communication in the delivery of health services has paralleled the rise of con versational and discourse analysis in linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. These fields have seen a burgeoning of interest in examining language as it occurs in everyday interaction, and in particular microanalysis of taped, tran scribed discourse, in order to understand what Gumperz (1982) calls "situate