Elaine Espindola

Communication in Hong Kong Accident and Emergency Departments The Clinicians’ Perspectives

In this article, we report findings from the first qualitatively driven study of patient–clinician communication in Hong Kong Accident and Emergency Departments (AEDs). In light of the Hong Kong Hospital Authority’s policy emphasis on patient-centered care and communication in the public hospitals it oversees, we analyze clinicians’ perceptions of the role and relevance of patient-centered communication strategies in emergency care. Although aware of the importance of effective communication in emergency care, participants discussed how this was frequently jeopardized by chronic understaffing, patient loads, and time pressures. This was raised in relation to the absence of spoken interdisciplinary handovers, the tendency to downgrade interpersonal communication with patients, and the decline in staff attendance at communication training courses. Participants’ frequent descriptions of patient-centered communication as dispensable from, and time-burdensome in, AEDs highlight a discrepancy between the stated Hong Kong Hospital Authority policy of patient-centered care and the reality of contemporary Hong Kong emergency practice.

Systemic functional linguistics and audiovisual translation studies: a conceptual basis for the study of the language of subtitles

The present article contemplates two complementary dimensions, namely: (i) Audiovisual Translation Studies; and (ii) Linguistic studies giving direct attention to the language of subtitling to put forward a theoretical basis for studies focusing on The Language of Subtitles. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) provides theoretical tools to allow for a language-based understanding of the meaning making resources of subtitling on the basis of text analysis. It is argued that this complementarity allows for fruitful comparison and contrast of texts in a translational relationship in that it provides categories for describing similarities and differences emerging from investigations of the choices made in spoken texts translated into written language in subtitles. Investigations carried out along these lines may lead to insights in terms of the construals existent in source and target texts in order to understand the choices made in the realization of the texts.

Lingüística sistêmico-funcional e estudos de tradução áudio visual: uma base conceitual do estudo da linguagem de legendas

O presente artigo contempla duas abordagens complementares: (i) Estudos da Traducao Audiovisual; e (ii) Estudos linguisticos que dao atencao direta a linguagem das legendas para propor uma base teorica para estudos com enfoque na Linguagem de Legendas. A Linguistica Sistemico-Funcional (LSF) contribui com ferramentas teoricas para possibilitar o entendimento baseado em linguagem dos recursos para construcao de significados nas legendas com base em analise textual. Discute-se que esta complementariedade permite a comparacao e o contraste de textos em relacao tradutoria sendo que tal teoria fornece categorias para a descricao das semelhancas e diferencas emergentes a partir de investigacoes das escolhas feitas nos textos falados e escritos. Investigacoes conduzidas nessas linhas podem levar a percepcoes em termos das construcoes existentes nos textos de partida e textos de chegada a fim de entender a motivacao das escolhas linguisticas feitas nos textos.