A comparative study of doctor's meaning construction in diagnostic discourse with different degrees of patient...

Drawing on the theory of ideational meaning construction in Systemic Functional Linguistics, and using 22,945 words of 4 doctor's outpatient doctor-patient interaction as its data resource, the paper makes a comparative analysis of doctors' meaning construction in their diagnostic discourse via transitivity system employed by doctors with higher patient satisfaction and those with lower patient satisfaction. The results show that doctors with higher patient satisfaction choose more behavioral process, attribute and extent, in the process type, participants, and circumstantial elements respectively, indicating they pay more attention to the detailed information of the disease and patients' daily life in order to give more accurate diagnosis and relieve the pressure of the patients. By contrast, doctors with lower patient satisfaction employ fewer behavioral process, more goal, and more manner, cause and contingency, suggesting they pay less attention to patients' condition and the degree of patients' acceptance and participation, instead emphasizing their authority in medicine and the way of treatment. The research findings offer reference to the harmonious relationship establishment between the doctor and the patient.