%0 Journal Article %A Cordelia, Marisa %T Medical discourse in a hispanic environment: Power and simpatia under examination %D 1999 %J Australian Review of Applied Linguistics %V 22 %N 2 %P 35-50 %@ 0155-0640 %R https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.22.2.03cor %I John Benjamins %X This paper gives a preliminary insight into Hispanic medical discourse. It explores how a physician exercises power and simpatía in conversations with patients and it includes patients’ perception about good medical practice. The focus is on the analysis of a conversation tape-recorded between the most popular and likeable doctor in the clinic and a female patient. This interaction is compared with the results obtained from a semi-structured interview aiming to discover if this medical exchange represents what patients have identified as positive medical behaviour. The Hispanic data demonstrate that the doctor uses a variety of strategies in the exchange in order to show both his medical knowledge and his linguistic competence in expressing simpatía in discourse. The latter helps to create a pleasant atmosphere in an interaction in which the doctor’s use of the language is paramount. %U https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/aral.22.2.03cor