Abstract
This study investigates linguistic expressions featuring the patient in a medical textbook written in the 12th century in Persian. At this time, medical practice is noticed to be more scientific than those written years before or even many centuries after because, keeping a distance from superstitious views, the practice follows the scientific procedures of the day. The present study adopts a sociolinguistics perspective to examine the social status of the patient in the text. The textbook – “Khofi Alayee” – was chosen to be examined mainly because it was considered as a scientific book written for public use; also it was published as a kind of pocket book for people to use while on trip or, more importantly, when the doctors were in emergency situations. This text, like other medical texts, is expected to be written impartially, but this is not usually the case. The result of the study showed that the patient was primarily viewed as an object with no social status considered for revered citizen. On the other hand, in occasions when the patient was treated as a person, he represented a male belonging to the middle or higher classes of the society.
Highlights
Introduction and Review of Literature1.1 Linguistic BackgroundLanguage is the medium through which our outlook and ideology is formed
Since the ideology of the writer or producer of the text is integrated with the text, Fowler (1996) maintains that, the critical linguists should “uncover the ideology” hidden in the text
The term ‘ideology’ within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis ( CDA) is defined as: “... the basic system of principles that underlie the social representations of a group. Such ideologies consist of all propositions that are implied by all attitudes of a group...”
Summary
Introduction and Review of Literature1.1 Linguistic BackgroundLanguage is the medium through which our outlook and ideology is formed. It can affect the way(s) people in a community position themselves and relate themselves with other members of the community The attitude shaped this way, in turn, contributes to the formation of certain cultural and social issues, including status and gender differences which usually appear as something natural and common sense. This is where critical linguists have to play their role by attempting to “defamiliarise” these taken-for-granted notions (Fowler, 1996). Van Dijk (2000.) considers ideology as a system of beliefs which is socially shared among the members of a group, society, etc He further points out that “[I]n the same way that we do not speak of individual languages, we do not have individual ideologies. Such views on the significance and function of language, in different contexts, are sound enough to justify carrying out investigations, like the current study, in academic fields
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