Discourse of Drug Information for Experts and Patients
43(21) Some people [Agent+] feel dizzy.
(22) If you [Agent+] get any side effect [Patient-]
(23) Telmisartan [Agent-] belongs to a class of medicines [Patient-]
(24) High blood pressure [Agent-] can damage blood vessels [Patient-]The (animate or inanimate) patient^14 is the ‘tail’ of the action chain and
represents the syntactic object or Ground as illustrated in examples (20,
22, 23 and 24).
Interestingly, both documents show a different distribution of
prominence in the linguistic realization of action chains. This is illustrated
by the following examples:
(25) You can take Telmisartan Teva Pharma with or without food. The
tablets should be swallowed with some water or other non-alcoholic
drink.
(26) Telmisartan tablets [...] should be taken with liquid, with or without
food.In both examples we have clauses with the verb to take referring to the
same action chain: The receiving person is the agent (i.e. the medical
patient for whom the drug is prescribed), the object is the tablet to be
swallowed. If we compare the Figure/Ground segregation in both take-
clauses we see that in the patient version (example 25) the syntactic figure
or subject is linguistically realized as pronoun you referring to an animate
agent (i.e. the medical patient who fulfills at the same time an Experiencer
role, be it to a lesser degree); the direct object Telmisartan Teva Pharma
(in the role of semantic patient) takes the part of the syntactic ground.
Example (26) has a completely different pattern.
Here, the action chain is realized by means of the passive. This implies
a change in terms of syntactic roles: the drug (Telmisartan tablets) is
realized as the syntactic figure, whereas the agent (i.e. the medical patient)
remains unexpressed. Semantically, however, the role distribution remains
unchanged: the drug still fulfills the role of transferred object, and the
medical patient still is the volitional agent, but the roles are viewed from a
different perspective. From an expert’s perspective the transferred object
(tablets) and the action per se are more salient than the agent (medical
patient), and therefore foregrounded. The instrument role is in both clauses
expressed in a similar way by the prepositional phrases with or without
food and with some water or other non-alcoholic drink and with liquid
respectively.
(^14) The ‘+’ indicates an animate Agent/Patient, the ‘-’an inanimate Agent/Patient.