TY - JOUR T1 - A concordance-based study of metaphoric expressions used by general practitioners and patients in consultation. JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 114 LP - 118 VL - 52 IS - 475 AU - John R Skelton AU - Andy M Wearn AU - F D Richard Hobbs Y1 - 2002/02/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/52/475/114.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND: All languages use metaphoric expressions; some deliberately chosen, some (for example, 'digesting information') not usually perceived as metaphoric. Increasingly, it is suggested metaphoric expressions constrain the way we conceptualise the world, as well as being a means of achieving stylistic effect. AIM: To study metaphoric expressions used by doctors and patients in general practice. DESIGN OF STUDY: Concordance-based language analysis of spoken data. METHOD: A database containing transcriptions of 373 consultations with 40 doctors in a UK general practice setting was scrutinised for metaphoric expressions, using 'concordancing' software. Concordancing enables identification of strings of text with similar lexical properties. Comparators (for example, 'like'), selected verb-types (for example, of feeling), and the verb 'to be' were used as starting points for systematically exploring the data. Quantitative and qualitative thematic methods were used in analysis. RESULTS: Doctors and patients use different metaphors. Doctors use mechanical metaphors to explain disease and speak of themselves as problem-solvers' and 'controllers of disease'. Patients employ a range of vivid metaphors, but fewer metaphors of machines and problem/solution. Patients use metaphors to describe symptoms and are more likely to use metaphoric language at the interface of physical and psychological symptoms ('tension, 'stress'). CONCLUSION: The different patterns of metaphoric expression suggest that doctors make limited attempts to enter the patients' conceptual world. This may not be a bad thing. One function of the consultation may be to reinterpret vivid and unique descriptions as accounts of the familiar and systemically comprehensible. Doctors may use different conceptual metaphors as a reassuring signal of expertise. ER -