Ethnomethodology research has systematically investigated discursive practices of categorisation, looking at the various ways by which social actors ascribe both themselves and others to identity categories to accomplish various kinds of social actions. Drawing on a data corpus of oncological visits collected in an Italian hospital, involving both native and non-native patients, the present work analyses how participants in these intercultural medical encounters invoke and make relevant social identity categories by the marking of collective pronouns in their talk. Our results showed that whilst institutional identities (e.g. those of the doctors, the local hospital or the Tumour Board) prevailed, categorial formulations related to cultural or linguistic identities were rarely displayed in interactions with non-native patients. Conversational participants made very little of their linguistical or cultural background and when they did so, their cultural and linguistic identities were deployed for rhetorical and pragmatical aims, such as testing and negotiating common knowledge and epistemic authority.

This study shows how even speakers’ minimal lexical choices, such as marked pronouns, impact the negotiation of meanings and activities in life-saving sites such as oncological visits.

民族方法学研究系统地研究了分类的话语实践，着眼于社会行动者将自己和他人归于身份类别以完成各种社会行动的各种方式。利用在意大利医院收集的肿瘤就诊数据语料库，涉及本地和非本地患者，本工作分析了这些跨文化医疗遭遇的参与者如何通过在谈话中标记集体代词来调用和制定相关的社会身份类别. 我们的结果表明，虽然机构身份（例如医生、当地医院或肿瘤委员会的身份）盛行，但与文化或语言身份相关的分类表述很少在与非本地患者的互动中展示。

这项研究表明，即使是说话者的最小词汇选择，例如标记代词，也会影响救生网站（例如肿瘤就诊）中意义和活动的协商。