Levels of abstraction in the registerial adaption of specialized medical information for lay readerships
An SFL-based inquiry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54337/ojs.globe.v20i1.11645Resumé
Situated within LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) linguistics and knowledge communication research, the present article investigates three cases of intergeneric rewriting, all of them within the field of healthcare. In each of these cases, an expert-oriented text containing specialized medical and/or pharmaceutical information is rewritten into a (shorter) text aimed at a lay target audience, providing those items of information that are relevant for the lay reader in the role of, e.g., patient or clinical trial participant. The rewriting, in other words, involves registerial adaptation in terms of field specialization and tenor. The three pairs of genres investigated were: 1) A specialized clinical trial protocol as ‘source’ text and the Participant Information Sheet as ‘target’ text, 2) A pharmaceutical Summary of Product Characteristics (concerned with a specific medicinal product) as ‘source’ and the Patient Information Leaflet as ‘target’, and 3) a scientific review of clinical literature (concerned with two specific types of medical intervention) as ‘source’ and a lay summary of the review as ‘target’. The investigation, which is theoretically based on SFL register theory, focuses on a particular semantic aspect of the rewriting, namely shifts between the texts as a whole in terms of their level of abstraction/concreteness. The investigation proceeded from the assumption that the rewriting for lay target readerships would be accompanied by a semantic ‘move’ towards greater concreteness. The actual findings, however, revealed considerably more nuance, with only one of the lay-oriented genres (the Patient Information Leaflet) actually representing greater concreteness in meanings in comparison with the specialized ‘source’ text. In one other case (the Information Sheet for clinical trial participants), the semantic profile more or less matched that of the ‘source’ text, and in the final pair the ‘target’ text (the lay summary of the scientific review) turned out to represent an increase in the level of abstraction.
Referencer
Primary sources:
Eidos (2023a). An Open-Label Extension and Safety Monitoring Study of Acoramidis (AG10) in Participants with Symptomatic Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy Who Completed the Phase 3 ATTRibute-CM Trial (AG10-301). https://euclinicaltrials.eu/search-for-clinical-trials/?lang=en&EUCT=2024-515092-36-00. Accessed 17-07-2025.
Eidos (2023b). An Open-Label Extension and Safety Monitoring Study of Acoramidis (AG10) in Participants with Symptomatic Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy Who Completed the Phase 3 ATTRibute-CM Trial (AG10-301) – Main Participant Information Sheet. https://euclinicaltrials.eu/search-for-clinical-trials/?lang=en&EUCT=2024-515092-36-00. Accessed 17-07-2025.
European Medicines Agency (EMA) (2023). Dapagliflozin Viatris : EPAR – product information. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/product-information/dapagliflozin-viatris-epar-product-information_en.pdf. Accessed 17-07-2025.
Kukendrarajah, Kishore, M. Ahmad, M. Carrington, A. Ioannou, J. Taylor, Y. Razvi, N. Papageorgiou, GE Mead, IF Nevis, F. D'Ascenzo, SB Wilton, PD Lambiase, CA Morillo, JSW Kwong & R. Providencia (2024). ‘External electrical and pharmacological cardioversion for atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter or atrial tachycardias: a network meta‐analysis’. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD013255.pub2/full. Accessed 17-07-2025.
Secondary sources:
Carman, Kristin L., Pam Dardess, Maureen Maurer, Shoshanna Sofaer, Karen Adams, Christine Bechtel & Jennifer Sweeney (2013). ‘Patient and family engagement: A framework for understanding the elements and developing interventions and policies’. Health Affairs 32(2): 223– 231. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1133.
Cloran, Carmel (2010). ‘Rhetorical unit analysis and Bakhtin's chronotope’. Functions of Language, 17(1): 29–70. https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.17.1.02clo.
Coulter, Angela & Jo Ellins (2007). ‘Effectiveness of strategies for informing, educating, and involving patients’. BMJ 335(7609): 24–27. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39246.581169.80.
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (2021). Good lay summary practice. https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/8a42b8f5-4ec3-4667-969c-3dd89ea8b270_en?filename=glsp_en.pdf. Accessed 08-05-2025.
Eggins, Suzanne (2004). An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Continuum.
Epstein, Ronald M., & Richard L. Street Jr. (2008). Patient-centered care for the 21st century: Physicians’ roles, health systems and patients’ preferences. Philadelphia: ABIM Foundation.
Fairclough, Norman (2001). Language and Power (2nd ed.). Harlow, Eng.: Longman.
Halliday, Michael A. K. (1973). Explorations in the Functions of Language. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, Michael A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen (1999). Construing Experience through Meaning: A Language-based Approach to Cognition. London: Cassell.
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen (2014). Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar. London: Routledge.
Halliday, Michael. A. K. & Ruqaiya Hasan. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman.
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Ruqaiya Hasan. (1989). Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hasan, Ruqaiya (1995). ‘The conception of context in text’. In Fries, Peter H. & Michael Gregory (eds.), Discourse in Society: Systemic Functional Perspectives. Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishing Corporation. 183–284.
Hasan, Ruqaiya (1999). ‘Speaking with reference to context’. In Ghadessy, Mohsen (ed.), Text and Context in Functional Linguistics. Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 219–328.
Hasan, Ruqaiya (2014). ‘Towards a paradigmatic description of context: Systems, metafunctions, and semantics’. Functional Linguistics 1(9): 1–54. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40554-014-0009-y.
Hasan, Ruqaiya, Carmel Cloran, Geoffrey Williams & Annabelle Lukin (2007). ‘Semantic networks: The description of linguistic meaning in SFL’. In Hasan, Ruqaiya, Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen & Jonathan Webster (eds.), Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective. London/Oakville: Equinox. 697–738.
Hill-Madsen, Aage (2015a). ‘Lexical Strategies in Intralingual Translation between Registers’. HERMES – Journal of Language and Communication in Business, 27(54): 85–105. https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v27i54.22949.
Hill-Madsen, Aage (2015b). ‘The 'Unpacking' of Grammatical Metaphor as an Intralingual Translation Strategy: From De-Metaphorization to Clausal Paraphrase’. In Maksymski, Karin, Silke Gutermuth & Silvia Hansen-Schirra (eds.), Translation and Comprehensibility. Berlin: Frank & Timme. 195–226.
Hill-Madsen, Aage (2022a). ‘Semantic Density and Gravity in Lay-Oriented Medical Knowledge Communication: The Case of the EPAR Summary for the Public’. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 21(2): 195–225. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.781.
Hill-Madsen, Aage (2022b). ‘Transformational Strategies in Diaphasic Translation: Three Case Studies’. Perspectives – Studies in Translation Theory and Practice, 30(4): 643–661. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2021.1953085.
Hill-Madsen, Aage (2025). ‘Semantic Density and Gravity in Lay-Oriented Medical Knowledge Communication II: The Case of Patient Information Leaflets’. Nordic Journal of English Studies, 24(1): 41–74. https://doi.org/10.35360/njes.v24i1.41116.
Hill-Madsen, Aage & Morten Pilegaard (2019). ‘Variable Scope for Popularization of Specialized Terminology: The Case of Medico-Pharmaceutical Terms’. Fachsprache – Journal of Professional and Scientific Communication, 41(1-2): 22–40. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v41i1-2.1623.
Kastberg, Peter (2011). ‘Knowledge asymmetries – Beyond "to have and have not"’. Fachsprache – Journal of Professional and Scientific Communication, 33(3-4): 137–151. https://doi.org/10.24989/fs.v33i3-4.1369.
Martin, James R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Martin, James R. & David Rose (2008). Genre Relations: Mapping Culture. London: Equinox.
Patton, Michael Quinn (2002). Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks/London: SAGE.
Maton, Karl (2013). ‘Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building’. Linguistics and Education, 24(1): 8–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2012.11.005.
Maton, Karl (2014). Knowledge and Knowers: Towards a Realist Sociology of Knowledge. London/New York: Routledge.
Maton, Karl & Yaegan J. Doran (2017). ‘Semantic density: A translation device for revealing complexity of knowledge practices in discourse, Part 1 – clausing and sequencing’. Onomázein – Journal of Linguistics, Philology and Translation, Special issue II: 77–10. https://doi.org/10.7764/onomazein.ne2.04.
Pilnick, Alison (1998). ‘’Why didn’t you say just that?’ Dealing with issues of asymmetry, knowledge and competence in the pharmacist/client encounter’. Sociology of Health and Illness, 20(1): 29–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.00079.
US General Services Administration (2011). Federal Plain Language Guidelines. https://www.plainlanguage.gov/media/FederalPLGuidelines.pdf. Accessed 16-07-2025.
Downloads
Publiceret
Nummer
Sektion
Licens
Articles published in Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and Communication are following the license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License: Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivs (by-nc-nd). Further information about Creative Commons
