genre as struggle
Toward a cognitive-pragmatic account of an emerging genre
This study investigates the cognitive-pragmatic motivations for the emergence of a genre of health communication
called
Patient Decision Aid (PDA). It elucidates
genre as struggle, i.e. how the emerging genre
exemplifies various struggles on three strata: the difficulties facing patients, doctors, and health providers at practice level;
the changes anticipated to take place at discourse level; and the tensions in the pragmatics-cognition-society nexus. Particularly
illustrated here are five struggles that characterize changes or breakthroughs that PDAs are anticipated to make. It suggests that
the five struggles roughly correspond to five principles for genre theory proposed by
Berkenkotter and Huckin (1993), with some modification of the latter. It also illustrates that genre intervenes in
the complexity between social issues and social cognition and that PDAs as a new genre involve restructuring, reshaping and
redesigning the key discourse facets (e.g. prior discourse, participants, language, medium, the world, and purpose). Based on
examples of Chinese-language PDAs officially released in Taiwan and on information from health professionals, policy makers, and
PDA developers, this study contributes empirical evidence toward a better understanding of an emerging genre.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 2.1PDAs as an emerging genre
- 2.2Genre as metaphor
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Data
- 3.2Toward a cognitive-pragmatic, discourse analytical approach
- 4.
genre as struggle
- 4.1Struggle to provide more than health information: To restructure prior discourses and medium
- 4.2Struggle to become more patient-centered, interactive and multi-directional than before: To reconnect participants
- 4.3Struggle to develop a form: To redesign language and medium
- 4.4Struggle to adapt the conventions of English-language PDAs to local situations: To readapt to the world
- 4.5Struggle to improve decision quality and decision outcome: To reset purpose
- 5.Tensions between pragmatics, society, and cognition
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References