Politeness strategies observed in medical interviews in Japanese and English

• Project/Area Number: 17K12112
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Fundamental nursing
• Research Institution: Gifu University
• Principal Investigator: TAJIMA YAYOI 岐阜大学, 医学部, 准教授 (10758204)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2019)
• Budget Amount: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000); Fiscal Year 2018: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000); Fiscal Year 2017: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
• Keywords: ポライトネス / 異文化理解 / 語用論的規則 / 医療コミュニケーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In line with the Politeness Theory, which was introduced by Brown and Levinson (1987), we compared Negative Politeness and Positive Politeness observed in medical interviews in Japanese and English. The findings showed that a larger number of politeness strategies, including both Negative Politeness and Positive Politeness, were observed in Japanese medical interviews than English ones. It was also found that the types of politeness strategies used in medical interviews were widely divergent between Japanese and English.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本語と英語の医療面接を会話分析し、患者に対して用いられるポライトネス・ストラテジーに言語による違いがあることが示された。また、同じ言語であったとしても、発話場面によって使用されるポライトネスに違いが生じることも示唆された。これらの結果は、外国人患者に対する円滑な医療コミュニケーションの構築に役立てることが出来るとともに、ポライトネス研究に新たな知見を与えるものである。