Meaning Expression of Writing Plaint and Plea on Medical Cases.

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the meaning expression of plaintiffs’ plaint writings and defendants’ pleas on medical cases, following the Appraisal Theory. The data used in this research were collected from Kwanchai Chotiphan’s (2015) medical case book, and all the sample cases previously settled by the administrative court were selected for the study. The researcher chose to investigate only the plaintiffs’ plaint writings and the defendants’ pleas in the same cases, all of which are solely consumer cases administered in the court. Fictional names instead of real names were used for the people involved in each case to avoid possible consequences for their reputation. The researcher has collected plaints from five cases with 20 pages and five pleas with 22 pages; the entire data comprises 42 pages.

         The study results show that the meaning of the plaintiffs’ plaint writings and the defendants’ pleas on medical cases can be divided into three main meanings: the meaning of attitudes, the meaning of levels, and the meaning of engagement. The results showed that the plaintiffs and the defendants use both positive and negative attitudes in writing plaints and pleas on medical cases for the meaning of attitudes. Regarding the meaning of levels, there are two components; i.e., parts that help increase the level of meaning in the context of the plaintiffs’ plaint writings and the defendants’ pleas and parts that help reduce the level of the meaning. Concerning the meaning of engagement, word uses to refer to the sources of information that indicate the meanings of word contraction and word expansion.