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Part of
A Pragmatic Agenda for Healthcare: Fostering inclusion and active participation through shared understanding
Edited by Sarah Bigi and Maria Grazia Rossi
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 338] 2023
► pp. 263–290

Chapter 11
Whose common ground?

Analyzing communication between physiotherapists and patients in a Hungarian hospital

| University of Szeged

The chapter examines 76 audio-recorded first encounters between physiotherapists (PT) and patients. It argues that the knowledge translation during a medical visit starts by fully understanding the patient’s agenda. There are four main foci of the analysis: (1) the classification of PTs’ opening questions, which initiate the problem presentation phase of the visit, (2) the classification of patients’ answers given to those questions, (3) analyzing the relations between these question-answer pairs, and (4) the identification of dialogical mechanisms that may help or hinder the creation of common ground. Within the last aspect, the analysis demonstrates three main communicative practices: meaning negotiation and summary, question-answer style, and redirection. The first one is argued to best enhance the co-construction of common ground.

Keywords: physiotherapist-patient interaction, common ground, socio-cognitive approach, problem presentation phase, dialogical mechanisms, qualitative analysis
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Common ground and the socio-cognitive approach
    • 1.2The opening question and the problem presentation phase of the visit
    • 1.3The goal and structure of the chapter
  • 2.Data and method
    • 2.1General description of the data
    • 2.2Methodological considerations
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Physiotherapists’ Opening Questions (OpQ)
    • 3.2Patients’ answers (T2)
    • 3.3Relations between physiotherapists’ opening questions and patients’ answers
      • 3.3.1Qualitative results
      • 3.3.2Quantitative results
  • 4.Dialogical mechanisms and the creation of common ground
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 17 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.338.11udv
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