Research on the forms and functions of language in medical practice and training has expanded rapidly during the past two decades, a development marked by diversity in theoretical perspectives and methods brought to bear on a variety of problems. Although we label the area as “language and medicine,” it includes other health professionals and nonclinical settings. Our discussion is organized under four headings that we believe represent primary topics and domains of interest among investigators as well as the variability within the field: speaking to patients, speaking with patients, speaking about patients, and speaking by patients. A few exemplar studies will be cited in each section and the contributions and limitations of approaches in each topic area will be noted.