Class this week was a little more complicated than last week's but nonetheless just as interesting!
White Coat Syndrome
This week's topic was speech events. Once Dr Deng gave the introduction, it immediately came to my mind that I have been involved in one particular speech event during the last 3 years in Pharmacy. This speech event is a patient counselling session, and we have been rehearsing to perfect this structure since we've started the course. It goes like this:
Pharmacist: Greeting
Patient: Responds to greeting
Pharmacist: Requests for confirmation of particulars and drug allergy
Patient: Responds with requested information
Pharmacist: Explains what the medication is used for, side effects, and how to take the medication correctly.
Patient: Acknowledges
Pharmacist: Asks if there are any other questions
Patient: yes/no
Pharmacist: Answers the patient if he has any questions. If not, pharmacist thanks the patient and wishes him a good day.
In fact, it does seem that the patient is generally complying with the pharmacist’s request because the pharmacist is in “power”. Especially, since we typically wear our white coat, this could be evoked by the “white coat syndrome” where a patient gets more nervous, his blood pressure goes up and fear starts to kick in when in the presence of a healthcare professional wearing a white coat.
Nagging
I read an article about nagging and I found it quite interesting. This paper described nagging as:
1. Request
2. Reminder (repeated request)
3. Repeated reminder = nagging.
4. It typically ends with a scolding or a threat depending on the relationship of the parties involved.
Some of the factors studied include gender, power/status and social distance.
A) Gender
In this study, 64/70 of the naggers were women. It could have been due to a result of culture, where many women are inclined to do what is asked of them and many men are inclined to resist even the slightest hint that anyone, especially a woman, is telling them what to do. A woman will be inclined to repeat a request that doesn’t get a response because she is convinced that she really wants him to do it. But a man who wants to avoid feeling that he is following orders may instinctively wait before doing what she asked, in order to imagine that he is doing it of his own free will.
B) Social Distance
Nagging is a speech event that is not typically encountered at the extreme end of the social distance continuum. One rarely hears of nagging among friends and acquaintances, as compared to those in the family setting. One reason given was because nagging could harm friendships and people generally want to keep their friendships healthy. This is taken for granted in a family.
C) Status/Power
In a household, one family member ends up being the "cleaning boss". And the individual in this role has inherent rights and obligations to assign chores. Since culturally, many women are seen as managing the housekeeping, it is no surprise that many of such "bosses" are women. However, it seems to me that some children are exempted from this strata. These children can have power despite lacking status, and it could be due to a situation where unconditional parental love reigns.
In the workplace, nagging is rare despite a clear heirachy being present. Here, rights, obligations and duties are strictly assigned and the consequences of not obeying are clear cut = you'll be fired.
(Diana Boxer, Nagging: The familial conflict arena, Journal of Pragmatics, Volume 34, Issue 1, January 2002, Pages 49-61. Retrieved 5 September 09 from Science Direct.)
Something just came to my mind. Some jokes can be a form of speech event too!
"Knock knock"
"Who's there?"
"Abby"
"Abby who?"
"Abby birthday to you!"
hahahaaha.
A Long Distance Relationship
Finally something I read on a friend's blog sort of resembles a speech event. Her boyfriend is overseas on a 6-month exchange program to France. She laments about their sms-ing routine:
But i'm tired the same thing everyday like:
Hi honey how are you how was your day i miss you i miss you too what are you doing now okay afk i go study ok afk i go work hi honey what you doing i'm doing DI damn sian why sian cuz i'm doing DI oh hugs yeah i miss you i miss you too you are fat no you are fatter no you are fattest tsk you very annoying honey what you doing now why never reply me honey can skype not no leh i going to wash clothes honey can skype not no i going for dinner honey can skype not no i have no intarwebzx honey can skype not no i have no electricity.
Oh wow wall of monotonous txt back and forth I NEED TO TALK TO YOU BEFORE I EXPLODE FROM ALL THE PENT UP EXPLETIVES ):
I’ve experienced this on a long distance relationship as well. Interestingly she does write of how talking on the phone could help to break this strata, and I can say it definitely helps, since spoken language has many more elements and helps so much more to connect emotionally as compared to a structured wall of text.
Thank you for taking time to read my entry. =) That’s all for now, cheers!
1 comments:
Good to know that you've already started reading literature on some speech events. Your description of pharmacist-client talks sounds familiar as one last semester's project was on this. A very interesting one.
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