Illocutionary acts in antenatal health talks: A case study of a hospital in southwestern Nigeria.

Abstract

studies have been carried out from discourse analytic, pragmatic and sociolinguistic approaches and have centered on doctor-patient interactions (Drew et. al., 2001; Robinson, 2001; Ohtaki et al., 2001; Eggly, 2002; Manning, 2002; Gulich, 2003; Campion and Langdon, 2004; and Heritage and Robinson, 2006). In Nigeria, existing literature on medical discourse include Odebunmi (2006, 2008, 2011 and 2012), Faleke (2005) and Adegbite and Odebunmi (2006), Taiwo and Salami (2007). Language studies in antenatal discourse have looked at the communicative skills of health professionals and pregnant women e.g. Myerscough (1992) and Rowe et al. (2002). In Nigeria, studies have focused on communication between doctors and pregnant women e.g. Salami (2007) and Unuabonah (2008, 2010 and 2011). This study examines the illocutionary acts used in an antenatal health class, which is a sub-genre of antenatal discourse and health literacy discourse. It identifies the illocutionary acts in antenatal health talks and the pragmatic function they perform in antenatal communication.