On Principles and Application of Membership Categorization Device(MCD):Flagging"Oldness"in Doctor-patient Interaction
Conversation analysis(CA)as the foundation of interactional linguistics(IL)is already a well-known discipline in China.However,the communicative apparatus known as membership categorization device(MCD),which is also based in ethnomethodology,is still unfamiliar to most.In this article,we describe how MCD works as a common interpretive mechanism in interactional practice,which is key to constructing the intersubjectivity of interlocutors.We begin by introducing and explicating the MCD concept using a classic analysis by Sacks(1972).A key understanding of how membership categories work in interaction is that they are"inference-rich",as such social categories are also imbued with category-bound attributes and relevant category-bound activities.Hence,categorization in talk does not simply ascribe certain identity unto others,but can also be an interpretive mechanism used by speakers to understand how others are and/or how they should behave.This is what ethnomethodologists term as"documentary method of interpretation"for instinctively establishing characteristics or attributes to members of a category.Another key understanding is that a category(such as"baby")can belong to more than one"category sets"(i.e."baby"can belong to either the category set of"family"or that of"stages of life").Therefore,inferences of a category based on them being a member of one category set(eg.babies are cared for by their mothers)can differ from another(eg.babies have fewer health issues than the elderly).To illustrate how MCD works,we focus on the category of"oldness",and analyze its usage within the settingof medical consultations.The data were curated from 152 video-recordings of authentic first-visit consultations in urology clinics within a Singapore hospital.Our findings show that"oldness"as an MCD can not only be used by doctors as justification for medical recommendations,but also be used by elderly Chinese patients as a rationale to reject doctors'recommendations.While such interpretations of what"oldness"should mean to members of this category may seem contradictory,it in fact instantiates an important principle in the operational apparatus of MCD as a linguistic device.That is,the same MCD can facilitate different but equally valid trajectories of"common-sense reasoning"as an interpretive mechanism.Through detailed conversation analysis of the"oldness"MCD in medical interactions,we highlight the value of MCD(or categories in talk)as an important resource for accomplishing interactional objectives,as opposed to being static markers of identities.