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Updated: Jul 17, 2026
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Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
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[Do doctors speak a different language? The case of 'patient' without an article]
Tijdschrift Voor Psychiatrie
|March 23, 2023
Summary
Medical professionals in the Netherlands often omit the definite article before "patient," a linguistic pattern not found in Standard Dutch. This omission is preferred even when "patient" functions as a direct object or in complex sentences.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Medical Communication
Context:
- Medical Dutch exhibits unique grammatical features.
- The omission of articles before 'patient' is a notable deviation from Standard Dutch.
Purpose:
- To investigate the patterns and conditions of article omission before 'patient' in medical Dutch.
- To understand the linguistic characteristics of medical communication in Dutch.
Summary:
- A study involving 85 medical professionals revealed a strong preference for omitting the definite article ('the') before 'patient' and related terms.
- This omission was consistent regardless of the word's grammatical function or sentence structure, unlike the indefinite article ('a').
Impact:
- Identifies a distinct linguistic variety within Dutch medical discourse.
- Suggests 'patient' may function as a proper noun substitute in this context, explaining the grammatical phenomenon.
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