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Chapter 4. Medical terminology in the Western world

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  • Maria-Cornelia Wermuth and Heidi Verplaetse
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Handbook of Terminology
This chapter is in the book Handbook of Terminology

Abstract

This chapter first describes the fundamentals of medical concept formation, the different types of medical concepts and the specific properties of medical terms. We provide an overview of the most important types of terminologies (controlled vocabularies) and databases and recent medical terminology standardization activities at the national and international levels (CEN/TC 251). We introduce the domain of medical linguistics as a field of study that is concerned with specific aspects of medical language to enable the computer-aided recording, storage, and retrieval of medical data. The following types of terminologies and databases will be described in greater detail: anatomical and nosological nomenclatures, coding systems (International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), indexing systems (Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)), thesauri and metathesauri (Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) and the bibliographic database Medline (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online). We conclude with a discussion of science popularization strategies for general health texts in terms of intralingual translation between Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) and Language for General Purposes (LGP), as well as implications for interlingual translation of medical terminology for lay readers.

Abstract

This chapter first describes the fundamentals of medical concept formation, the different types of medical concepts and the specific properties of medical terms. We provide an overview of the most important types of terminologies (controlled vocabularies) and databases and recent medical terminology standardization activities at the national and international levels (CEN/TC 251). We introduce the domain of medical linguistics as a field of study that is concerned with specific aspects of medical language to enable the computer-aided recording, storage, and retrieval of medical data. The following types of terminologies and databases will be described in greater detail: anatomical and nosological nomenclatures, coding systems (International Classification of Diseases (ICD), Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED), indexing systems (Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)), thesauri and metathesauri (Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) and the bibliographic database Medline (Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online). We conclude with a discussion of science popularization strategies for general health texts in terms of intralingual translation between Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) and Language for General Purposes (LGP), as well as implications for interlingual translation of medical terminology for lay readers.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 1. The history of Arabic lexicography and terminology 7
  5. Chapter 2. Terminology standardization in the Arab world 31
  6. Chapter 3. Terminology and translation in Arabic 59
  7. Chapter 4. Medical terminology in the Western world 83
  8. Chapter 5. Medical terminology in the Arab world 109
  9. Chapter 6. The dilemma of legal terminology in the Arab world 139
  10. Chapter 7. There is nothing like Him 155
  11. Chapter 8. Sufi terminology and aspects of interaction with symbols 181
  12. Chapter 9. Linguistic inferiority in software localization 217
  13. Chapter 10. Covering linguistic variability in Arabic 235
  14. List of contributors 255
  15. Index 259
https://doi.org/10.1075/hot.2.05wer

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Chapter 1. The history of Arabic lexicography and terminology 7
  5. Chapter 2. Terminology standardization in the Arab world 31
  6. Chapter 3. Terminology and translation in Arabic 59
  7. Chapter 4. Medical terminology in the Western world 83
  8. Chapter 5. Medical terminology in the Arab world 109
  9. Chapter 6. The dilemma of legal terminology in the Arab world 139
  10. Chapter 7. There is nothing like Him 155
  11. Chapter 8. Sufi terminology and aspects of interaction with symbols 181
  12. Chapter 9. Linguistic inferiority in software localization 217
  13. Chapter 10. Covering linguistic variability in Arabic 235
  14. List of contributors 255
  15. Index 259
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