Chapter 10. Establishing common ground to achieve therapeutic goals

Abstract

Healthcare professionals can normally assume that their patients are rational people and approach verbal interaction with the patient as they would with any fellow human being. Common ground is context shared between S (speaker, writer, signer) and H (audience) where S utters U (utterance), evoking context C1 (the ‘world and time spoken of’) so as to bring about in C3 (the ‘situation of interpretation’ from H’s point of view) H’s understanding U in terms of the relevant beliefs that S holds or purports to hold uttering U, i.e. speaking of C1 in C2 (the ‘world and time spoken in’ or situation of utterance from S’s point of view).