caa a22 4500 386349088 CHVBK 20180307111822.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198912 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0047404500013877 doi S0047404500013877 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0047404500013877 Cats, dogs, and sweets in the clinical negotiation of reality: On politeness and coherence in pediatric discourse [Elektronische Daten] Doctor-parent-child interaction is analyzed in terms of Brown and Levinson's (1978) theory on facework and politeness. The determinism of the Brown and Levinson (B & L) model is discussed in terms of the present data, which show how discourse is a matter of continuous negotiation between participants. For instance, it is shown how the on record/off record distinction is best understood sequentially. When doctors seem to sense that respectful indirectness does not work, they tend to phrase their requests in an increasingly direct fashion. Hence, the full meaning of doctors' directives is revealed only via the outcome of social interaction, regulated by both parties (doctor and patient/spokesperson). This means that utterances must be analyzed sequentially (and not in a mechanistic, static fashion). Moreover, discourse cannot be understood in terms of any unidirectional social determinism. It is also shown here how doctors can talk to parents through children, as it were. Within a joking relationship format with the child, it is possible for a doctor to convey potentially offensive information to the child's parent. Doctors' moves can thus be seen as direct or indirect depending on type of addressee perspective (parent as participant or as side-participant). The pediatric multiparty setting thus highlights the impossibility of a more formalistic application of the B & L model. (Politeness, facework, negotiations, medical discourse, child discourse) Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989 Aronsson Karin Department of Communication Studies, Linköping University, Sweden Rundström Bengt Department of Communication Studies, Linköping University, Sweden Language in Society Cambridge University Press 18/4(1989-12), 483-504 0047-4045 18:4<483 1989 18 LSY https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500013877 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500013877 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Aronsson Karin Department of Communication Studies, Linköping University, Sweden NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Rundström Bengt Department of Communication Studies, Linköping University, Sweden NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Language in Society Cambridge University Press 18/4(1989-12), 483-504 0047-4045 18:4<483 1989 18 LSY CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge