Explikationen als Mittel der Verstehens-sicherung in Arzt-Patienten-Gesprächen in der Onkologie

So far, much research has been done on practices of explaining and their functions both in informal and institutional settings. Explanations are used to ensure shared understanding and to provide for intersubjectivity. While explanations are typically larger structures, there also exists a small form, the explication, which is mainly used to clarify items on a word level. Originating in philosophy, where explications are the format used to give an exact meaning of a technical term, they are also used regularly in everyday settings. Here, they work in both directions, as explications in everyday terms of a technical expression or as explications of an everyday expression in terms of a technical one. On the basis of German and Russian oncological doctor-patient-interactions, all instances of explications are extracted and classified into different formal and functional groups.