An Introduction to Applied Linguistics

partially literate, the transcript could be altered later.
Once again for the applied linguist the language problem involves a context which
needs to be taken full account of: the police and the accused are locked into a com -
municating system which means that what is said is less important than what is
expected. An applied linguistic analysis of the encounter will take account of more
than the verbal exchanges. It may suggest that on the basis of the transcript there are
different interpretations of what was actually said and also that one side’s interpret -
ation of what was meant is not the only interpretation (see the discussion of forensic
linguistics later in this chapter).
Doctor–patient communication has a similar tendency to error. The extreme case
is where the doctor and the patient (or the patient’s relative) interact in different
languages (although this gap may be bridged by an interpreter). But in the case where
both appear to share the same language we have resonances both of the code dis -
junction between middle and working classes mentioned earlier and of the specialist
register of medicine, which may well be alien to many patients whatever their social
class. The problem for the doctor (as with the police investigator) is that one part of
examining a patient is done by talking. The room for misunderstanding between a
figure of authority and a client is considerable, as is the room for wrong diagnosis,
based on a misunderstanding or an inadequacy of what is said and a conviction that
the doctor ‘knows’ what is wrong.
What the applied linguist can do here is to underline the importance of paying
more attention to what the patient says (recommending interpreter services where
necessary) and explaining to those involved in medical training that there is typically
a disjunction between what is said by the patient and what is meant. In the case of
medical language what this means is that it is possible (and probably necessary) for
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doctors to put their meanings into simpler language. It also indicates that medical
meanings and content can be put over in different ways according to the audience.
In the case of specialist scientists, such as the chemical engineer or information
scientist, problems frequently arise in graduate studies where the student has only