Chapter Two
26
knowledge; see van Dijk 2003: 27) and presents the information in
Common Ground terms and by means of ordinary discourse (see also
Wermuth, forthcoming 2016). The following examples^9 illustrate some
typical features such as personalization addressing patients directly in the
second person, which is an important contextual feature (example 1);
omission of technical information on drugs or reformulation in non-
technical terms (example 2); everyday references by presenting the topic
in a reader-oriented situational context, which simplifies the transfer of
difficult content to patients (example 3); explication of cause-effect relations
(example 4); motivation of instructions and explicitation of implicit
knowledge (example 5):
(1) It is important that you take Telmisartan Teva Pharma every day until
your doctor tells you otherwise. Try to take the tablet at the same time
each day.
(2) Angiotensin II is a substance occurring in the body, which causes your
blood vessels to narrow, thus increasing your blood pressure.
(3) If you suffer from a condition called "orthostatic hypotension" (a drop
in blood pressure on standing up from a sitting or lying position
resulting in dizziness or faintness) your condition may worsen.
(4) High blood pressure, if not treated, can damage blood vessels in
several organs, which could lead sometimes to heart attacks, heart or
kidney failure, strokes or blindness.
(5) There are usually no symptoms of high blood pressure before damage
occurs. Thus it is important to regularly measure blood pressure to
verify if it is within the normal range.The following excerpt exemplifies some typical differences regarding
the technicality of vocabulary, syntactic patterns, and argumentation line
(the different types of construals will be described in greater detail in
Section 4). In the expert version (example 6) the interaction of Telmisartan
with the substance digoxin is described as follows:
(6) When Telmisartan was co-administered with digoxin, median increases
in digoxin peak plasma concentration (49%) and in trough
concentration (20%) were observed. When initiating, adjusting, and
discontinuing Telmisartan, monitor digoxin levels in order to maintain
levels within the therapeutic range.(^9) All examples are taken from the electronically available EPAR of Telmisartan
Teva Pharma available at the EMA website http://www.ema.europa.eu/docs/en_
GB/document_library/EPAR_Product_Information/human/002511/WC500116677
.pdf).