Patterns of linguistic and interactional behavior by people at the very end of their lives are not well described, partly because data is difficult to obtain. This paper analyzes descriptions of 486 deaths gathered from 1900 to 1904 in the first-ever clinical study of dying by noted Canadian physician, Sir William Osler. Only 16 patients were noted speaking, and only four canonical last words were reported. The most frequent observation by medical staff was that the deaths were quiet (n = 30), though range of other behaviors were noted (e.g., moaning, delirium, seeming intention to speak). Osler's problematic study left behind data whose analysis is a small step toward empirically characterizing the linguistic and interactional details of a previously under-described phenomena as well as the importance of the social context in which they occur.

人们在生命的最后阶段的语言和互动行为模式没有得到很好的描述，部分原因是数据难以获得。本文分析了 1900 年至 1904 年间收集的 486 例死亡病例的描述，这些病例是加拿大著名医生威廉·奥斯勒爵士 (Sir William Osler) 首次对死亡进行的临床研究。只有 16 名患者被记录下来，并且只报告了四个规范的临终遗言。医务人员最常观察到的是死亡是安静的（n = 30)，但注意到其他行为的范围（例如，呻吟、精神错乱、似乎想说话）。奥斯勒有问题的研究留下了数据，这些数据的分析是朝着从经验上描述先前描述不足的现象的语言和交互细节以及它们发生的社会背景的重要性迈出的一小步。