Grammatical Means of Expressing Modality in the Texts of Informed Consent for Dental Treatment

© The Editorial Council and Editorial Board of Linguistic Studies

Linguistic Studies
Volume 40(2), 2020, pp. 57-71

Grammatical Means of Expressing Modality in the Texts of Informed Consent for Dental Treatment

Кostenko Viktoriia, Bieliaieva Olena, Solohor Iryna

Article first published online: December 01, 2020 


Additional information
 Author Information: 

Кostenko Viktoriia, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. Correspondence: viktoriakost20@gmail.com

Bieliaieva Olena, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. Correspondence: elenablanch69@gmail.com

Solohor Iryna, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. Correspondence: plantagoalpina@gmai.com

Citation: 
Кostenko, V., Bieliaieva, O., Solohor, I. Grammatical Means of Expressing Modality in the Texts of Informed Consent for Dental Treatment [Text] // Linhvistychni Studiyi / Linguistic Studies : collection of scientific papers / Vasyl' Stus Donetsk National University; Ed. by Anatoliy Zahnitko. Vinnytsia : Vasyl' Stus DonNU, 2020. Vol. 40(2). Pp. 57-71. ISBN 966-7277-88-7

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.31558/1815-3070.2020.40.2.6

Publication History:

Volume first published online: December 01, 2020
Article received: July 01, 2020, accepted: August 01, 2020 and first published online: December 01, 2020

Annotation.

Розглянуто граматичні засоби вираження модальності у текстах форм поінформова-ної згоди на стоматологічне лікування. Жанрова специфіка таких документів визначає дійс-ний спосіб, теперішній та майбутній граматичні часи основними виразниками реальних та потенційно реальних модальних значень. Відношення висловлювання до дійсності збігається з відношенням суб’єкта мовлення до змісту висловлювання, тому актуалізація модальності об’єктивної реальності не потребує експліцитних засобів вираження. У межах одного ви-словлювання також можуть нашаровуватися різні типи модальності, що зумовлено полі-аспектністю референтної ситуації отримання поінформованої згоди.

Keywords: genre, informed consent for dental treatment, category of modality, grammatical category, mood, aspect, tense.



Abstract.

GRAMMATICAL DEVICES FOR EXPRESSING MODALITY IN TEMPLATES OF INFORMED CONSENT FOR DENTAL TREATMENT

Viktoriia Kostenko

Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology, Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine.

Olena Bieliaieva

Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology, Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine.

Iryna Solohor

Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology, Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine.

Abstract

Background: There have been few reports clarifying the selection of the language devices and paraverbal means in order to facilitate patients’ complete and unhindered comprehension of the information in informed consent template for dental treatment and to influence them in making right decision. Modality, being one of the main linguistic universals, an anthropocentric category, plays an important role in text generation: derived from the judgment on based on conceiving or imagining a situation, it is then expressed though the language, and reflects intellectual, emotional, and volitional evaluation whether the he premises are justified.

Purpose: to study grammatical devices for modality expression in the informed consent
templates and to analyze their communicative role. 60 original templates used as research material were retrieved from the sites of the USA healthcare settings authorized to provide oral and dental services.

Results: The modality of the texts studied is considerably predetermined by the number of extralinguistic factors, including the discourse type, genre nature, complexity of the reference situation, the relationship between the addressor and addressee, and communicative purposes of the text. Informing is the key communication strategy of the texts that implies the selection of addressor’s speech actions aimed to provider the addressees with sufficient and objective information thus influencing their world view and enabling them to make a decision. To realize this intention, the addressor selects language tools that may not directly explicate the modalities in the structures of the text. The indicative mood has been found out as the most typical grammatical means to express epistemic objective modality in the texts studies. Tense and aspect can also be used to express modal meaning of epistemic objective modality, and Present Simple, Present Perfect and Future Simple are the most extensively exploited tense forms. Since informed consent for dental treatment is future-oriented, the Past Simple is rarely used. Zero Conditionals express regularities, frequent found as quite frequent are used to denote recurrent events becoming the rules of clinical practice. The actual or potentially probable situation in the future, which is most often related to the treatment procedure or the occurrence of foreseeable / unforeseen complications, is expressed by First Conditionals.

Discussion: The study has demonstrated that different types of modality can overlap within one statement that is due to the multidimensional nature of the reference situation and the complexity of special medical information. Studying the modality of the informed consent templates from the position of the addressee seems to be promising because of the scanty reports on the interpretive potential of the modality markers.

Keywords: genre, informed consent for dental treatment, category of modality, grammatical category, mood, aspect, tense.

Vitae. Viktoriia Kostenko is a Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. Her areas of research interests include professional communication, professional discourse (dentistry), medical terminology, issues on academic literacy and academic writing, ESP teaching.

Correspondence: viktoriakost20@gmail.com

Vitae. Olena Bieliaieva is a Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. Her areas of research interests include pedagogy of higher education, theory of communication, quality of medical educational system, linguodidactics, terminology studies, history of medicine.

Correspondence: elenablanch69@gmail.com

Vitae. Iryna Solohor is a Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor, Associate Professor of Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology at Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy. The scope of her research interests includes professional discourse (German language), linguistics of the text, terminology studies, linguodidactics, teaching Latin for Special Purposes (medicine).

Correspondence: plantagoalpina@gmai.com

Article.

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