Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts

• Main Authors: Zuczkowski, Andrzej, Bongelli, Ramona, Riccioni, Ilaria, Canestrari, Carla
• Format: eBook
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands John Benjamins Publishing Company 2014; John Benjamins
• Edition: 1
• Series: Dialogue Studies
• Subjects: Communication in medicine; Communication in psychology; Communication in science; Discoveries in science; Language. Philosophy and theory; Science; Science in mass media; Social aspects

This paper investigates the connection between self-repairs, conversation analytical mechanisms, and the concept of certainty in Romanian academic meetings. The focus is on the design of turn(s) in which the chair and the other participants provide feedback on a piece of writing. The data reveal tha...

Table of Contents:

• Communicating Certainty and Uncertainty in Medical, Supportive and Scientific Contexts -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Table of contents -- Preface -- I. Theoretical and general models -- 1. Subjectivity in modality, and beyond -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The 'traditional' analysis of subjectivity in modality -- 3. Subjectivity vs. intersubjectivity, in modality and beyond -- 4. The cognitive status of (inter)subjectivity -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- 2. Certainty and uncertainty in assertive speech acts -- 1. Introduction -- 2. What is an assertion? -- 3. A more comprehensive speech-act theoretical view -- 4. From assertion to the expression and communication of certainty/uncertainty -- 5. Expression and communication of certainty/uncertainty in the "Stamina case" -- 6. Concluding remarks -- References -- Appendix -- 3. Ideal and deviant interlocutors in a formal interpretation system -- 1. Our formal discourse-semantic framework: ℜeALIS -- 2. Formalization -- 3. Communication situations -- 4. Sentences with adverbs or auxiliaries of certainty -- 5. Lying while saying the truth -- 6. Conclusions and loose ends -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 4. On being certain whether. A puzzle about indirect interrogatives -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The factivity hypothesis -- 3. Direct and indirect interrogatives and exclamatives -- 4. A pragmatic hypothesis -- 5. Wh-clauses that are not interrogative -- 6. Huddelston's criticism of the Elliott-Grimshaw analysis -- 7. Conclusion -- References -- 5. Uncertainty as integrated part of meaning and understanding -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Setting the scene: Dialog -- 3. Meaning-in-use -- 4. Cross-cultural dialog and expert-layperson communication -- 5. Inner voices: Dialog within -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- 6. Epistemic stance: Knowing, Unknowing, Believing (KUB) positions -- 1. Introduction
• 12. The fabric of certainty: Ignoring interactional details as an epistemic resource in research int -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Scientific knowledge and collective praxis -- 3. Questioning and answering in research interviews -- 4. The conversational roots of statistics: A case study -- 5. Devil (and knowledge) is in the details: Respondents' resources in answering surveys -- 6. Pursuing a response: The work of doing what a survey is -- 7. Lost in statistics: The respondents' epistemic stances towards their answers -- 8. Ignoring conversational details as a certainty-building activity: Concluding remarks -- References -- 13. Hedging and attitude markers in Spanish and English scientific medical writing -- 1. The role of English in professional communication -- 2. Discourse analysis, academic genre and contrastive rhetoric -- 3. First study: Hedging devices -- 4. Second study: Attitude markers -- 5. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 14. A theoretical contribution to tackling certainty and uncertainty in scientific writing. Four res -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Theoretical overview of the different possibilities of tackling uncertainty/certainty in experime -- 3. Research questions and the study -- 4. The study -- 5. Results -- 6. Discussion -- 7. Conclusion -- References -- 15. BioUncertainty: A historical corpus evaluating uncertainty language over a 167-year span of biom -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Linguistic theoretical underpinnings behind uncertainty markers -- 3. Method -- 4. Qualitative results -- 5. Quantitative results -- 6. Conclusion -- Dedication -- Acknowledgments -- References -- BMJ references -- 16. Uncertainty markers in a corpus of German biomedical papers from Spektrum der Wissenschaft (1993 -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Corpus and aims -- 3. Methodology -- 4. Qualitative and quantitative results -- 5. Conclusion -- Acknowledgments
• References -- 17. Questioning certainty in research articles and popular science articles: A case-study of modaliz -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Methodology -- 3. State of the art: Wh-questions, rhetorical questions and ratiocinative questions -- 4. Rhetorical questions in RAs and PAs: Distribution and functions -- 5. On the scope and force of the questioning -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- 18. Self-repairs and certainty in Romanian academic meetings -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Data and methodology -- 3. Findings and discussion -- 4. Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- References -- About the authors -- Index
• 2. Akio Kamio: The theory of territories of information -- 3. John Heritage: The epistemic management of conversational interactions -- 4. The epistemic management of conversational interactions: Our perspective -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- II. Medical and supportive interactions -- 7. Requesting help with null or limited knowledge: Entitlements and responsibility in emergency call -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Emergency calls -- 3. Analysis -- 4. Conclusions -- Acknowledgments -- References -- 8. The journey to advice: Balancing certainty and uncertainty in doctor delivery of expert opinion -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The meaning of evidences in medical practice: The EBM -- 3. Advice giving in doctor-patient interactions -- 4. Data and methodology -- 5. Discussion and conclusion -- References -- Appendix -- 9. Diagnostic news delivery: A microanalysis of the use of shields -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Breaking bad news: The SPIKES protocol -- 3. Diagnostic news delivery: The use of shields -- 4. The study: Aim, corpus and method -- 5. Findings: Sample cases -- 6. Conclusions -- References -- 10. Epistemic struggles in addiction therapeutic community meetings -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Therapeutic Community Monday meetings -- 3. Data -- 4. Method -- 5. Pursuing information on a client's experience -- 6. Client's withholding of information -- 7. Educators' pursuit of information -- 8. Discussion -- References -- 11. Embodying epistemicity: Negotiating (un)certainty through semiotic objects -- 1. Introduction: Objects and epistemicity in face-to-face interaction -- 2. Focus and aims of the study: Documents in bureaucratic-institutional interaction -- 3. Description of the corpus -- 4. Data analysis -- 5. Conclusions -- Transcription conventions -- References -- III. Scientific writing and academic communication