linguistic features of english terminologies on ear, nose, throat and their vietnamese equivalents

ABSTRACT This study was carried out to investigate English terminologies on Ear, Nose, Throat in the textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlai

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH TERMINOLOGIES ON EAR, NOSE, THROAT AND

THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của thuật ngữ tiếng Anh về Tai, Mũi,

Họng và tiếng Việt tương đương)

NGUYEN THU HIEN

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

M.A THESIS

LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF ENGLISH

TERMINOLOGIES ON EAR, NOSE, THROAT AND

THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

(Đặc điểm ngôn ngữ của thuật ngữ tiếng Anh về Tai, Mũi,

Họng và tiếng Việt tương đương)

NGUYEN THU HIEN

Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que

Hanoi - 2020

Hanoi, 2020

Nguyen Thu Hien

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Assoc Prof Dr Phan Van Que

Date: ………

my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to lecturers and teaching staffs from Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University, to my colleagues at Haiphong University of Medicine and Pharmacy and my classmates, without whose support and encouragement it would have never been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

This thesis cannot avoid limitation, so I wish to receive comments and opinions to make it better

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to investigate English terminologies on Ear,

Nose, Throat in the textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination

by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and their Vietnamese equivalents The analysis was based on 90 terminologies on ear, nose, throat collected in chapter 13 of the textbook The Vietnamese version was translated by a group of doctors and students at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy The collected terminologies were divided and analyzed in terms of morphological, lexical, and syntactic features Two research approaches of quantitative and qualitative are employed in this study After the data are collected and processed, the features of terminologies in terms of morphological, lexical, and syntactic features are quantitatively described by means of statistic tables and figures to show their distribution and percentage The results are then discussed and interpreted qualitatively to determine some notable features Next, contrastive analysis is used to discover the similarity and difference between the English terms and their Vietnamese translation This study looked at how some of the most commonly used ENT terms are constructed and how this may facilitate the building of a wider medical vocabulary for medical students In addition, this study also examined the specific features of medical English in an effort to clearly delineate medical English for curricular and instructional purposes Specifically, the linguistic features that characterize medical English are explored This exploration relies on corpus linguistic data collected from this study in order to examine specific morphological, lexical and syntactic features of medical English The findings suggest that medical English can be characterized as a legitimate register of English with the linguistic features of proportional specialized medical vocabulary

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

disease

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Methods of the study 3

1.5 Scope of the study 3

1.6 Significance of the study 4

1.7 Structure of the study 4

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies 5

2.2 Terminology 6

2.2.1 General theory of terminology 6

2.2.2 Types of terminology 8

2.3 Terminology in Medicine 12

2.3.1 Overview of medical terminology 12

2.3.2 Linguistic features of medical English 14

2.3.2.1 Morphology 14

2.3.2.2 Lexicology 16

2.3.2.3 Syntax 18

2.5 Summary 25

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research approach 27

3.2 Methods of the study 28

3.3 Data collection and data analysis 29

3.3.1 Data collection 29

3.3.2 Data analysis 29

Chapter 4 COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLISH TERMINOLOGIES

ON ENT AND THEIR VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

in terms of morphology

in terms of lexicology

in terms of syntax

Chapter 5 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1. Rationale

English may not be the most spoken language in the world, but it is the official language of 53 countries and spoken by around 400 million people across the globe. As a medium of international communication in several spheres, including science and technology, English has largely replaced-on a global scale.

Being able to speak English is not just about being able to communicate with native English speakers; it is the most common second language in the world. The English language may become very important when it comes to communicating with co-workers, bosses, and patients in a hospital or other medical setting. In the last century, the number of scientific papers written in English has started to outweigh the number of papers written in the native language of the researcher. In the Netherlands, for example, the ratio is a surprising 40 to 1. For this reason, having knowledge of English is incredibly important to those working in the scientific field.

Furthermore, being fluent in English while living in a country where it is the primary language could help medical staff save a life in the medical profession. It is never known when a certain symptom can help medical staff better diagnose someone with an unknown and complicated disease. With a good grasp of English, medical staff will understand when a patient is in pain and what type of pain they may have. Medical staff will also understand what they may need at any particular moment. This way, the English language will help medical staff improve a patient‘s treatment and care for their patients in better ways.

This study focuses on the English used in one of the important medical specialties, Otolaryngology which is focused on the ears, nose, and throat (ENT). It

is also called otolaryngology-head and neck surgery because specialists are trained

in both medicine and surgery. This medical specialty dates back to the 19th century, when doctors recognized that the head and neck contained a series of interconnected systems. Doctors developed techniques and tools for examining and

treating problems of the head and neck, eventually forming a medical specialty.

According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, it is the oldest medical specialty in the United States.

In the process of studying English and working as a lecturer at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy, from the awareness of the importance of English study in Medicine in general and Otorhinolaryngology in particular, I determine to choose this field as the Master Thesis to study more on linguistic features in English specific purposes and to improve knowledge in otorhinolaryngology.

1.2. Aims and objectives

This study aims to analyze and compare the linguistic features of English

terminologies on ENT in chapter 13 of the textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric

Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and

their Vietnamese equivalents. In order to obtain this particular aim, the author highlights the specific objectives of this study as below:

i to investigate which ENT terms are used in chapter 13 of the textbook

Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha,

Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and their Vietnamese equivalents;

ii to identify how these ENT terms are used in chapter 13 of the

textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa

Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and this chapter‘s Vietnamese translation;

iii to determine the similarities and differences in the English linguistic features of English terminologies on ENT in chapter 13 of the

textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa

Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and their Vietnamese equivalents.

1.3. Research questions

Based on the above aim and objectives, this study attempts to address the following research questions:

i Which ENT terms are used in chapter 13 of the textbook Pocket Tutor

Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and

Ed Abrahamson and their Vietnamese equivalents?

ii How these ENT terms are used in chapter 13 of the textbook Pocket

Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais

and Ed Abrahamson and this chapter‘s Vietnamese translation

iii What are the differences and similarities between the features of English

ENT terminologies in chapter 13 of the English textbook Pocket Tutor

Paediatric Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and

Ed Abrahamson and their Vietnamese equivalents?

1.4. Methods of the study

In order to identify, describe, and analyze the data, the current study uses qualitative research approach. The corpus consists of ninety ENT terms collected in

chapter 13 of the English textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination

by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson. These terms were then listed

by the author to find out their Vietnamese equivalents in the translated version edited and published by a group of doctors and students in Paediatric club of Hai Phong university of Medicine and Pharmacy. The terms were sorted, and then classified in terms of lexicology, morphology and syntax. In the next step, the author employed description and contrastive technique to highlight main features in using ENT terms in English origin and Vietnamese translation; from which the similarities and significant differences in using the ENT terms in two versions were drawn. Last but not least, the obtained results are compared with already known results to generalize the conclusions and implications in teaching and learning.

1.5. Scope of the study

Due to the limitation of the knowledge, in this study, only ENT

terminologies in chapter 13 of the English textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric

Clinical Examination by Rossa Brugha, Matko Marlais and Ed Abrahamson and its

Vietnamese translation are studied. The Vietnamese version was translated by a group of doctors and students at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy.

The book was published in 2018 and for internal circulation only. These terminologies are analyzed based on important features of English linguistics which are morphology, lexicology and syntax. In terms of morphology, the study concerns how a medical term is made up of prefix, root and suffix. Meanwhile, only pairs of

synonyms are studied in terms of lexicology. Lastly, in terms of syntax, the author pays attention on word formation, how noun phrases are built.

1.6. Significance of the study

There are some reasons that urge this study to be conducted. Firstly, in Vietnam, there has been little research and very few articles discussing the linguistic features of English terminologies. Especially, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first study in Vietnam that analyzes English terminologies on ENT in the

textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination and their Vietnamese

1.7. Structure of the study

This thesis consists of five chapters as below:

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Previous Studies

Medical terminology resources are widely available for personal use, academic studies and career development. Medical terminology resources may be helpful for patients, caregivers or other individuals interested in learning more about certain medical terms, along with students pursuing health-related degrees and those employed in medical-related settings. Therefore, there are a great number of studies related in medical English in general and medical English terminologies in particular. A few notable studies may be named such as A study on the Effect of

Terminology on L2 reading Comprehension, should specialist terms in medical texts be avoided? by R.E. Lankamp in 1988 which partly helped learners save time

on reading medical documents. From the perspective of lexicology, some available

researches are Metaphors in Medical English Prose: A Comparative Study with

French and Spanish by Françoise Salager-Meyer in 1990 or A Semantic Lexicon for Medical Language Processing by Stephen B. Johnson, PhD in 1999. This study discussed the construction of a resource that provides semantic information about words and phrases to facilitate the computer processing of medical narrative.

From other perspectives of terminology, the study Medical terminology in

online patient–patient communication: evidence of high health literacy? by

Antoinette M. Fage‐Butler, PhD, Associate Professor and Matilde Nisbeth Jensen, PhD, Assistant Professor corresponding in 2016 gave possible discrepancies between preconceptions about the kind of language that patients can understand and the terms they may actually know and use. The purpose of this paper was to investigate medical terminology used by patients in online patient forums.

Otherwise, the study The Impact of Medical Terminology in Self-Triage

Decision-Making by Maria C. D‘Angelo, Karin R. Humphreys, Timmie L and Meredith E.

Young in 2017 examined whether medical terminology impacts self-triage decisions (deciding if and when to seek medical treatment) compared to lay terminology.

In Vietnam, there has been little research and very few articles discussing the linguistic features of English terminologies. Especially, to the best of my

knowledge, this is the first study in Vietnam that analyzes English terminologies on

ENT in the textbook Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination and their

Vietnamese equivalents.

2.2. Terminology

2.2.1. General theory of terminology

The general theory of terminology is based on the significance of concepts and their delineation from each other. The nature of concepts, conceptual relations, the relationship between terms and concepts and the designation of terms to concepts are of prime importance. The sphere of concepts is seen as independent from the sphere of terms. As concept is given natural predominance over terms, terminology work always starts with the concepts and is working its way from concepts to terms. This focus on moving from concepts to terms distinguishes the methods used in terminology from those used in lexicography. Lexicographers start with the word and explain the meaning of it, whereas the aim of terminographers is

to assign names to already existing concepts.

Wolfgang Nedobity specialized languages are the tools for subject communication by which modern society conveys its achievements and experience from generation to generation and from people to people. The specialized languages are characterized by using clearly defined concepts to which preferably unambiguous terms are assigned. The concepts form systems of concepts in the individual subject fields. Together with their assigned terms they constitute the respective terminology, which reflects the state of human knowledge about the subject field in question. Terminologies have an influence on scientific, technical, and economic progress. Deficient terminologies endanger the information flow not only between people but from people to machine and machine to machine as well.

Therefore the terminological problem has to be solved at the right time before it causes an impairment of information flow.

At the beginning of the century, Eugen Wüster realized that unified standards and guidelines are necessary for the solution of the terminological problem. In order

to provide a theoretical basis for such guidelines for terminology work, he

developed the General Theory of Terminology. He suggested that vocabularies should be presented in a systematic or classified way. This is only possible if a concept-oriented approach is chosen which outlines the relationships between the elements of the vocabulary. Thus research in the field of conceptology is a prerequisite for work in systematic terminology.

In special languages meanings are formulated by means of concepts and conveyed to others by means of terms. Concepts refer to objects of the inner or outer world. Individual objects can be as concrete as a stable or as abstract as the pain one perceives. Concepts can refer not only to things and events but also to properties and relations. A concept, however, is only a mental construction derived from objects. In order to communicate that mental construction, a symbol is assigned to the concept that represents it, usually a term in technical communication. What is found to be common in a set of individual objects is summarized or abstracted mentally and expressed by a concept. In this way the concept is an element of thinking which comprises the characteristics common to a number of objects. The aggregate of characteristics of a concept is called its intension. Every concept is a member of a class of concepts and can itself form a class of concepts which are encompassed by it. The aggregate of all subordinate concepts (species) on the same level of abstraction or of all individual objects which belong to the concept in question is called extension. The aggregate of all individual objects is also called class. The characteristics of concepts help us classify concepts and construct systems of concepts. Concepts are formed, not simply inductively, that is, Wolfgang Nedobity through observation of environmental regularities, nor simply deductively, through the application of already formed cognitive structures

to events and objects, but through the reciprocal interaction of cognitive structures and environmental events.

In order to make subject terminologies accessible to the users, they are published either as terminological standards or simply as dictionaries. In these publications the entries consisting of terms and their definitions are arranged

following the meaning of terms (systematic order) or in alphabetical order of the terms.

2.2.2. Types of terminology

Various types of terminologies can be distinguished, depending on the criteria used. For example, Christer Laurén (1983) has examined differences and similarities between the Swedish terminologies of electrotechnology, computer science, accounting, and law on the basis of such criteria as term frequency and term length. Having defined four terminological areas, he uses formal criteria to show how they can be grouped in various ways.

In the present paper some semantic criteria will be used in assigning terminological areas to certain types. These criteria are those used by Eugenio Coseriu when he attempts to distinguish terminology from ordinary language. In describing his model of lexical fields, Coseriu insists that everything belonging to terminology should be eliminated at the outset in structural lexicology. His argument is that it is essential to make a distinction between what belongs to linguistic meaning and what belongs to knowledge of extralinguistic reality:

The matter of technical vocabulary, of terminology, belongs in this framework. Technical vocabulary is simply a nomenclature and as such not structured on the basis of language but rather on the basis of extralinguistic reality,

on the basis of the objects of the discipline in question. Terminology thus presents

an objective classification constructed on logical distinctions. Linguistic oppositions, on the other hand, are very often inclusive.

Since in technical usage the words are really the representatives of the

‗objects‘, signification and designation coincide in this case whereas in the domain

of the ‗natural‘ language they must necessarily be separated.

Inclusive distinctions of the type where day can include night, as in "I stayed

three days in London" are usually called instances of distributional markedness

since a particular form can be used both in a specific ―marked‖ sense and in a more general ―unmarked‖ sense. Moreover, Coseriu's dichotomy into ―signification‖ and

―designation‖ corresponds, to the distinction between ―sense‖ and ―reference‖ made. Reference deals with the relationship between linguistic elements and the

extralinguistic world, while sense is concerned with the internal relations of these linguistic elements, their distinctive features. From the point of view of sense, green contrasts with such lexemes as red, blue, etc. However, when the word greenroom

is used, the reference does not have to be to a green room, but can be to one that is painted red or blue; we then have a discrepancy between sense and reference.

If we look at how often instances of markedness or discrepancy between sense and reference occur in some terminologies examined, the following types can

be distinguished:

(a) academic or vocational terminologies for which it is normal to reach agreement on standardization to avoid misunderstanding and achieve the maximum amount of one-to-one correspondence between terms and extralinguistic reality;

(b) academic or vocational terminologies where the influence of the individual user on term development is greater than in (a);

(c) terminologies which occur in popular movements and there-fore often tend to develop like ordinary language in spite of certain attempts at regularization.

Terminologies of type (a) are common in science and technology. A regularizing institution in these fields is the International Standardization Organization according to whose rules standards should be revised every five years.

This allows for change both on the expression and the content side of the terminology, i.e. terms can be created to cover new contents and already existing terms can be redefined. Another institution is INFOTERM, the International Information Centre for Terminology, which acts as a clearing-house, referential agency and analysis center for the theory, utilization, and documentation of terminology. There are also organizations working within specific terminological areas. For example, the commissions of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry have recommended rules systematizing the use of chemical terms, and the LONGMAN DICTIONARY OF SCIENTIFIC USAGE devotes an appendix to these rules.

In spite of the attempts made at one-to-one correspondence between terms and extralinguistic reality, certain instances of markedness and discrepancy between sense and reference can be found in type (a).

In statistics average is usually synonymous with arithmetic mean but is some- times used to cover also mode and median. In medicine cortex has an unmarked sense where it refers to the outer layer of any organ and a marked sense where it refers only to the outer layer of grey matter of the brain.

Instances of discrepancy between sense and reference are not very common

in type (a). An example from mineralogy is black opal, which includes all opals of dark taint, even the fine Australian black opal, which is actually blue. Alternatively, black can here be regarded as an unmarked lexeme covering all dark colors (cf.

Palmer 1981:72). Similarly, in meteorology what is called black frost is seldom really black since it is simply an air frost with no deposit of hoar frost.

Proceeding now to type (b), it is interesting to note that Rosemarie Glaser (1984) believes that "the absence of standardization in the terminology of the social sciences has resulted in an unrestrained growth of new terms in a number of fields".

She concentrates on scrutinizing the designations of certain categories in linguistics and suggests a revision of present terminology. It is not surprising, then, that we find more instances of markedness in the social sciences and linguistics than in the natural sciences and technology, and this also applies to such areas as political science, psychology, philosophy, literary criticism, geography, and commerce.

Linguists tend to regard themselves as ―masters‖ of their language and therefore free to adapt it to their own purposes. For example, the British linguist John Lyons explicitly creates a case of markedness when he says ―henceforth I will use

bilingualism to cover multilingualism as well‖. However, he finds it difficult to give

a straightforward account of oppositeness of sense because of the varying coverage

of the key term antonymy.

Another term with varying coverage is syntax. For example, Trampe and Viberg (1972) include morphology within syntax, but nevertheless speak of syntax and morphology as different levels of description. The term lexical field means by

definition a ―field of lexemes‖. Since terms are a special type of lexemes, terminological field is then, a hyponym of lexical field. However, there is no term that covers lexemes that are not terms, i.e. we have here a lexical gap. Either the term lexical field must then be used in a marked sense or be supplied with I temporary modifier like other or ordinary. The first course is followed by Coseriu, who recognizes that terminological fields could be set up but excludes them in his own lexicology. The other course has to be followed in cases where it is necessary

to avoid co-occurrence of the marked and unmarked senses, as in *There are two types of lexical field: lexical field and terminological field. Here it is natural to say instead, for example, there are two types of lexical field: terminological field and ordinary lexical field. The expression ordinary lexical field is here not a term, since

it would not occur as a lexical entry. It is interesting to note in this connection that Juan Sager (1984) uses lexical unit in a marked sense when he says,

―Terminological units of a particular special subject field have to be differentiated from lexical units of the general language‖.

In sociology polygamy can be either a superordinate term covering polygyny and polyandry or a synonym of polygyny, i.e. we have the same situation as in the case of electron. Sometimes various authorities disagree. Thus exhibitionism is given only the sense ―sexual exposure‖, whereas other sources stated that it is also used in a more general sense about any kind of extravagant behavior to attract attention.

Sometimes opinions vary as to whether two terms are synonyms or hyponyms differing in sense. For example, ice-cap is, according to the OXFORD DICTIONARY, regarded by some geographers as synonymous with ice sheet, while others apply it only to smaller masses of ice and snow. In commerce we have, the term searcher, which must refer to someone who ―examines carefully‖. But we have to go to its synonym landing officer to find a more adequate description of this person‘s occupation. This kind of synonymous set is, of course, not only found in type (b). For example, in physics the terms E-layer and Heaviside layer refer to the

co-same region of the ionosphere, but the first describes it as having electromotive force, while the second names one of its discoverers.

The third type of terminology distinguished above, (c), occurs in popular movements like the Salvation Army and the Scout and Guide organizations. Here certain attempts are made at regularization in the form of word-lists with definitions. Many terms of type (c) exhibit a discrepancy between sense and reference and thus are likely to confuse an outsider.

It is also apparent that terminology is not a uniform entity, but that certain types can be discerned that exhibit these features in varying degrees. The types discussed in the present paper are not separated by hard and fast lines, but rather form a continuum between what Juan Sager (1984) describes as ―hardness‖ and

―softness‖ in terminological definitions. Moreover, the number of various terminological areas is so large that it has naturally been possible to include only a selection of them in the present study.

The observations made can therefore only be claimed to display tendencies to which exceptions can certainly be found. It was also claimed that terminological diversity in the form of synonymy and polysemy as opposed to one-to-one correspondence between terms and concepts is not altogether a bad thing, since it can serve to make a terminology more natural and attractive than it would be with the monotony that insistence on uniformity brings about. Unambiguous and uniform terms are essential whenever misinterpretation is likely to have grave consequences, as in the case of many scientific and technical areas.

2.3. Terminology in Medicine

2.3.1. Overview of medical terminology

In the last century, clinical medicine developed into many new branches.

Internal medicine for example started to specialize in cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, hematology, infectology, nephrology, oncology, pulmonology, rheumatology etc. All this could happen thanks to the great development of science and technology. New diagnostic devices and methods were invented, e.g. computer tomography, sonograph, mammograph, laparoscope, endoscope, colonoscope, magnetic resonance image (MRI), etc. New diseases appeared such as AIDS, BSE

(Bovine spongiform encephalopathy or so-called mad cow disease), Asian flu (virus H5N1), swine flu (virus H1N1), etc. All these new things and phenomena had to be named, documented and propagated among scientists as well as common people.

New words –medical terms – had to be formed.

Medical terminology, therefore, was born to be used in the field of medicine.

The language has been used to precisely describe the human body including its components, processes, conditions affecting it, and procedures performed upon it.

Medical terminology allows all medical professionals to understand each other and communicate effectively. When everyone understands what a condition, medicine, or procedure is, they are able to fulfill their roles accordingly, whether that is delivering medicine or billing for a medicine.

Understanding medical terminology also allows all employees to fully understand staff communications and training. These trainings are vital to create a safe environment for both patients and employees.

Quality communication among all members of a healthcare team improves patient safety by reducing the number of mistakes. For instance, if a physician knows the patient‘s full medical history, including procedures or prior conditions, it helps that physician prescribe a safe, effective treatment for that patient. If someone confuses the terminology, putting the wrong condition or procedure into the chart, this can make a huge difference in the care the patient receives. Treatment may be less effective, or in some cases, dangerous.

When all members of a team know medical terminology, they can also help the patient learn what those terms mean. Patient education helps patients become a more active part of their care team, leading to improved satisfaction. Knowing medical terminology can also help you avoid making coding or billing mistakes that

a patient may have to call to correct.

Healthcare professionals may see dozens of patients every day. To provide more efficient care, physicians or nurses may write quickly and scribble common abbreviations. All members of the care team should be able to understand these abbreviations and terms to provide the best care.

2.3.2. Linguistic features of English

Since a highly specialized language, as is medical language, is often criticized for its cryptic and obscure nature, the following section will focus on the linguistic characteristics of medical English in order to provide a way to became closer to the language of the medical community Due to the limitation of this study, only some linguistics features were researched including word forming in terms of morphology, synonyms and metaphors in terms of lexicology and word forming in terms of syntax

2.3.2.1. Morphology

Medical terminology has quite regular morphology, the same prefixes and suffixes are used to add meanings to different roots. The root of a term often refers

to an organ, tissue, or condition. For example, in the disorder hypertension, the

prefix hyper- means ―high‖ or ―over‖, and the root word ―tension‖ refers to

pressure, so the word ―hypertension‖ refers to abnormally high blood pressure. The roots, prefixes and suffixes are often derived from Greek or Latin, and often quite dissimilar from their English-language variants. This regular morphology means that once a reasonable number of morphemes are learnt it becomes easy to understand very precise terms assembled from these morphemes. A lot of medical language is anatomical terminology, concerning itself with the names of various parts of the body.

In forming or understanding a word root, one needs a basic comprehension

of the terms and the source language. The study of the origin of words is called etymology. For example, if a word was to be formed to indicate a condition of kidneys, there are two primary roots – one from Greek and one from Latin. Renal failure would be a condition of kidneys, and nephritis is also a condition, or inflammation, of the kidneys. The suffix -itis means inflammation, and the entire

word conveys the meaning inflammation of the kidney. To continue using these terms, other combinations will be presented for the purpose of examples: The term

supra-renal is a combination of the prefix supra- (meaning "above"), and the word

root for kidney, and the entire word means "situated above the kidneys". The word

―nephrologist‖ combines the root word for kidney to the suffix -ologist with the

resultant meaning of ―one who studies the kidneys‖.

The formation of plurals should usually be done using the rules of forming the proper plural form in the source language. Greek and Latin each have differing rules to be applied when forming the plural form of the word root. Often such details can be found using a medical dictionary.

Medical terminology often uses words created using prefixes and suffixes in Latin and Ancient Greek. In medicine, their meanings, and their etymology, are informed by the language of origin. Prefixes and suffixes, primarily in Greek—but

also in Latin, have a droppable -o-. Medical roots generally go together according to language: Greek prefixes go with Greek suffixes and Latin prefixes with Latin suffixes. Although it is technically considered acceptable to create hybrid words, it

is strongly preferred not to mix different lingual roots. Examples of well-accepted medical words that do mix lingual roots are neonatology and quadriplegia.

Prefixes do not normally require further modification to be added to a word root because the prefix normally ends in a vowel or vowel sound, although in some

cases they may assimilate slightly and an in- may change to im- or syn- to sym-.

Suffixes are attached to the end of a word root to add meaning such as condition, disease process, or procedure.

In the process of creating medical terminology, certain rules of language apply. These rules are part of language mechanics called linguistics. The word root

is developed to include a vowel sound following the term to add a smoothing action

to the sound of the word when applying a suffix. The result is the formation of a new term with a vowel attached (word root + vowel) called a combining form. In English, the most common vowel used in the formation of the combining form is

the letter -o-, added to the word root. For example, if there is an inflammation of the

stomach and intestines, this would be written as gastro- and enter- plus -itis,

gastroenteritis.

Suffixes are categorized as either needing the combining form, or not needing the combining form since they start with a vowel

2.3.2.2. Lexicology

According to Romich (2001:23), ―studying medical terminology is like learning a new language‖. In fact, at first sight, words look different and complicated. However, by understanding some important guidelines that govern medical language, people may become interested in and aware of how medical terminology works. Beyond the origins of its terms, medical terminology shows some relevant characteristics that distinguish it from ordinary English.

Among linguistic features, lexicology is considered as a wide field including

a variety of different aspects. Due to the limit of the study, the author only pays

attention on one aspect of lexicology, synonyms.

Medical English vocabulary is characterized by what Maglie (2009:24) calls

semantic univocity. This feature implies that, in medical language, there is only one term that designs a specific meaning or concept. Consequently, medical terms cannot be appropriately replaced by synonyms but, rather, by periphrasis. As an

example, the term hepatitis can be explained through the periphrasis ―an

inflammation of the liver, caused by infectious or toxic agents‖. Although monoreferentiality is the ideal characteristic for specialized languages, occurrences

of synonyms can always be found. For instance, several technical expressions refer

to megacolon, which is known as Hirschprung’s disease by the Danes, whereas by the Dutch it is called Ruysch’s disease (Maglie, 2009:24). Another example of synonymy among technical terms can be seen in the three specialized terms which refer to ―a tumor that is malignant and tends to spread to other parts of the body: malignant tumor, malignant neoplasm and metastatic tumor.‖

A different example of synonymy is shown by the terms varicella and

chickenpox. In this case, varicella is the technical name for chickenpox, thus synonymy is obtained by relating two terms which belong to different registers.

The medical term denotes one precise meaning. To provide an example, when the word brain is used in the medical domain, it refers to the part of the

central nervous system contained within the cranium (her sister died of a brain

tumor/ Her brain was damaged in the accident), whereas in standard English it can

acquire a connotative value (e.g. use your brain to find a solution!).

Despite the presence of technical terms, medical language contains a wide range of words and phrases that belong to general English. Below, some figures of speech are taken as an example (Maglie, 2009:25):

 Catachresis: it expands a word beyond the limits of its own meaning.

The medical term neck of uterus means the corpus/body of uterus: the meaning of the general English word neck has been expanded.

 Eponym: it is a person, whether real or fictitious, after whom a particular place, era, discovery, disease, or other item is named, for instance, the expressions Parkinson‘s disease and Alzheimer‘s disease.

 Toponym: it is a name of a physical or mental disorder derived from a place or a region, e.g. Rio Bravo fever.

In medical language, several concepts are expressed in the most concise lexical and syntactic form. To provide an example, we can consider the term

urinalysis -the physical, chemical, and microscopic examination of urine - which

derives from the fusion of the two words urino and analysis; and the term

contraception, which is the result of the union of the two words contra and conception (Etymology: Latin, contra + concipere, to take in).

Another linguistic device physicians use to express a concept in a concise

manner is represented by acronyms, such as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), HCV (hepatitis C virus), and many

others. In addition, other concepts are expressed through abbreviations, such as CV (cardiovascular), Fld (fluid), and stacked noun phrases, such as body mass index

(BMI) (Maglie 2009:29).

Physicians use a variety of abbreviated forms and acronyms in order to quickly record and refer to patients‘ information. Moreover, these expressions are comprehensible, ―economical‖ and accepted within the medical community, thus allowing physicians to communicate effectively. However, since these shortened

forms are also used for prescriptions, understanding these terms may help patients

to decipher their medical records.

Since each term can be directly referred to its meaning, monoreferentiality leads to the phenomena of precision and transparency of medial language. Words can be structurally analyzed dividing them into their basic components: prefix, root and suffix. For instance, the term hyperglycaemia can be divided as follows: the prefix hyper-, the root –glyc- and the suffix –aemia. After dividing the word into its components, the meaning can be gleaned by examining the suffix, followed by the prefix and then the root. In hyperglycaemia, the suffix –aemia means blood condition, the prefix hyper- means excessive and the root –glyc- means sugar. By assembling the components‘ meanings, we obtain the final meaning: a blood condition of excessive sugar (Maglie 2009:28). The same process can be showed

using the term choledocholithotomy which is a surgical operation to remove

(-otomy) a stone (-litho-) that originated in the gall bladder (chole-) but is currently

located in the common bile duct (-docho-) (Fallon 2002:1).

However, even in medical language there are cases of imprecision, as is

demonstrated by the suffix –oma in the terms carcinoma, lymphoma and glaucoma.

In fact, while in the formers, the suffix –oma designates a very life-threatening tumor (Etymology: Gk, karkinos + oma, tumor and L, lympha + Gk, oma, tumor), in the term glaucoma, the suffix –oma does not denotes an eye cancer but ―an

abnormal condition of elevated pressure within the eye because of obstruction of the outflow of aqueous humor‖.

2.3.2.3. Syntax

Medical English shows not only morphological peculiarities but also particular syntactic characteristics. The main phenomena are introduced and explained in the following text through several examples taken from medical journal articles and patient information leaflets.

a. Noun phrases (NPs)

Scientific medical writing is characterized by a high presence of long and complex noun phrases. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that medical formal writing needs a syntactic device16 which allows the expert to convey the

meaning of a complex medical concept in a highly precise and concise manner.

Medical concepts are usually complicated to express and the expert need to include

a various number of information in the explanation. Additional elements which define a given concept could seem unnecessary for non-experts, but in medical contexts, the specialist has to be as precise as possible to avoid ambiguities and misunderstandings. Therefore, the use of compound noun phrases helps the writer

to avoid long and detailed descriptions which would create difficult syntactical constructions. In fact, according to Varantola (1984:209), noun phrases are a powerful syntactical tool which allows users to incorporate a great deal of information in a compact and synthesized form. Obviously, their structure can vary from very simple forms to extremely complicated constructions according to the genre of the text, its assumed addressees and the author‘s communicative aims.

Considering two different genres of written medical discourse, patient information leaflets and specialized journal articles17, it has been observed that noun phrases are usually created through the elimination of post-modifier clauses.

For instance, prepositional phrases with of, in, for are generally replaced by pre- modifier elements of the head noun. Some examples are quoted below:

Root nodule bacteria (bacteria to be found in root nodules)

The operating room (the room for carrying out operation)

Fibroblasts activation (activation of fibroblasts)

Aortic pulse wave velocity measurement (measurement of the velocity of the wave of the aortic pulse)

In this way, different elements are put together without the use of grammatical words which would just complicate the syntax and increase the length of the sentence. In specialized discourse, the omissions of all those words which do not carry any lexical meaning allow experts to communicate most rapidly. Therefore, highly specialized texts are generally lexically dense: the number of content words

is higher than that of grammatical words. The so-called function words, such as articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs and pronouns, do not convey the meaning of an utterance; they just show the syntactic and grammatical relationships which link the different elements of a sentence. In fact, according to Maglie (2009:35), the omission of phrasal elements does not prejudice the understanding of

the text, because they do not convey any lexical meaning and their grammatical value can be easily re-established by the specialist.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, complex noun phrases expressing detailed and precise information about the head noun may cause some problems of decoding for non-specialist people, who may not be able to establish the exact semantic relationship which links all the lexical elements of the nominal group. To provide

an example of this problem, we can consider the nominal clause ―a cumarinic

anticoagulant-based therapy (warfarin, dicumarol,…) (Moment medication‘s

leaflet)‖. In this nominal clause, we can immediately understand that the therapy is based on treatment with anticoagulants. However, if the reader does not know what

cumarinic is, s/he would find it difficult to understand the connection between the

word cumarinic and the other elements in the nominal group. One may think that cumarine is a kind of anticoagulant drugs, instead of understanding that cumarine is actually an enzyme that is present in anticoagulant drugs. Therefore, the reader would not be able to decode the exact meaning which is being conveyed. To support this statement, we can notice that the patient information leaflet of Moment tends to clarify and give an idea of what cumarinic anticoagulants are, by providing some examples within parenthesis, i.e. warfarin, dicumarol.

Similarly to prepositional phrases, in specialized medical texts relative clauses are often avoided for the sake of economy and simplicity. They are often replaced by other elements within the nominal clause or shortened by omitting some elements.

For the same reason of concision and shortness, negative relative clauses are usually expressed by the prefix un- before a past participle in adjectival position, as

in the following examples:

Unwanted/ unexpected/ undesirable effects;

b. Sentence complexity

Despite this search for concision in medical terminology and in the structure

of clauses, medical texts present a high degree of sentence complexity. In fact, both kinds of text - patient information leaflets and specialized journal articles - show that medical sentences are longer than those of everyday language. Although the length of the sentence is another factor which complicates the comprehension of medical texts, it is very difficult to reduce sentences‘ length because the omission of certain necessary elements could create information gaps or ambiguities. In addition, according to Maglie (2009:36), the complexity of medical sentences derives from the use of a great number of non-finite verb forms, which occur with double the frequency in medical specialized texts in comparison with standard English.

Considering an example taken from the patient information leaflet of Moment medication, we can observe how and why medical sentences are long and complicated:

“In some patients with impaired renal function (such as dehydrated patients

or elderly patients with impaired renal function), the co-administration of an ACE-inhibitor or an Angiotensin II Antagonist and agents inhibiting the cyclo-oxigenenase system can lead to further impairment of the renal function, including a possible, usually reversible, acute kidney insufficiency.” (Moment)

Patients: dehydrated patients, elderly patients with impaired renal function

Kinds of inhibitors: ACE-inhibitors, Angiotensin II Antagonist, inhibitors of the

Therefore, although specialist writers tend to be as concise as possible, we may state

that exhaustiveness and precision are the key terms of medical English and assume

a more relevant role in comparison with concision.

to the text, but also an impersonal style.

Another characteristic that is worth highlighting is the use of passive voice.

The frequent use of passive forms satisfies the need for depersonalization of medical discourse: specialists are more interested in focusing on the effects, conditions and results of an action than in stressing who the author of an action is.

In fact, in medical writing the agent is seldom expressed. The elimination of the agent can be explained by the fact that, usually, medical articles are not written by doctors themselves or because the articles are co-authored; the writer‘s primary aim

is to describe something that has been done, focusing in methods and results. In addition, it is quite obvious that implicit agents are physicians and researchers; therefore, it would be useless and redundant to explicit the agent.

Authors, editors, and publishers have a choice about the role of the passive voice in their publications, and there is considerable debate about what that role should be. On the one hand, there is the argument that medical writers should minimize the use of passive voice because it is less clear, less forceful, and more verbose than active voice alternatives. Of this opinion is Sheen (2010:98), who defines passive voice as:

the bane of medical writing; it pervades medical literature with the haze and heaviness of stagnant air. Writers sometimes use passive voice in an attempt

to make their work sound scholarly and scientific, when actually they are

perpetuating a writing tradition that is fraught with ponderous and obscure language.

The opposing argument asserts that passive structure should be the predominant style of most types of medical writing because it reflects the objectivity of the scientific method, it avoids using a first-person pronoun in a way that would be impolite, and it conforms to the style with which medical peers are most familiar. Therefore, the use of passive voice confers not only an impersonal style to the text but also a higher degree of formality, which, together with objectiveness, is one of the major aims of medical texts.

In Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination, Rossa Brugha, Matko

Marlais and Ed Abrahamson expertly guide one through dealing with these problems As well as a brief general introduction to history and examination in children, for each system, common presentations and examination are described This is followed by a couple of case scenarios which demonstrate how they relate to clinical practice This information is succinctly condensed into a highly readable, pocket-sized book and is an invaluable guide to the clinical examination of children The authors have admirably succeeded in their aim to provide a structured approach

to examining children that is both stimulating and fun

To sum up, Pocket Tutor Paediatric Clinical Examination is an

indispensable guide to the examination of children – one of the most intimidating aspects of clinical practice for medical students and junior doctors, as it involves dealing with children from birth through to adolescence (teenagers may themselves

be the parents) and requires different communication skills and knowledge

2.4.2 Vietnamese translation

Historically translation and medicine have gone hand in hand A brief look at history reveals that medical translation has existed since the oldest forms of cuneiform writing on clay tablets in Ancient Mesopotamia Archeologists have

found a dictionary in Sumerian, Ugaritic, Akkadian and Hurrian dating from around

1300 BCE containing medical information in its pre-scientific form Translators played a key role as active agents in reshaping and recontextualising knowledge and texts

In subsequent centuries, medicine gradually turned into a scientific discipline and made huge progress, generating an ever-increasing amount of information as well as compelling needs for knowledge transference, international communication and translation In recent decades, medical translation and interpreting have become important niches for professional translators and interpreters National and international health authorities – such as the WHO or the EMA –, pharmaceutical companies selling medicines in the global market, medical publishers providing books for the future professionals in myriad languages, medical devices manufacturers for all medical specialties, public and private hospitals and other health centres, biomedical research teams – in need to publish their results in international journals in English –, and NGOs dealing with complex public health issues – such as those encountered in humanitarian crises – are among the many organizations in need of translators and interpreters Thus, the scope of medical translation is rich and varied in genres – ranging from research articles to biomedical patents to fact sheets for patients –, terminologies, registers, styles, formats, modes as well as in health cultures and ethical restrictions and dilemmas

This rich scenario for medical translation is further enhanced by three emerging forces that are driving healthcare and biomedical research into new territories It is brought to the fore the importance of information transfers, recontextualisation and communication, and therefore offer potential niches for translators and interpreters (Montalt, forthcoming) Specialized training in medical translation is starting to respond to the fast-growing needs of the marketplace with specific programs covering the particulars of this professional activity and focusing

on domain specialization, specific resources and the tools of the trade In a globalized world and in the case of a highly internationalized profession such as translation and interpreting, specialized training requires efforts of coordination and harmonization among countries

However, as far as research in medical translation is concerned, it is still at

an incipient stage Widespread systematic research in medical translation and interpreting only started at the beginning of the 21st century and has focused

primarily on professional aspects, quality, pedagogy, documentation, tools and history Much of the research done before then had a predominantly prescriptive orientation, and focused mainly on the terminological issues related to highly specialized texts More recently medical translation has been redefined to encompass not only a great variety of specialties and medical concepts, but also of resources, texts, communicative situations, organizations, contexts, and participants This open perspective on medical translation includes not only highly specialized texts about biomedical research, but also the education of health professionals, patients‘ education, popularization, and the media

Therefore, the department of pediatrics and pediatric club at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy realized the need of medical translation books for medical students as reference documents The Vietnamese version was translated by a group of doctors and students at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy. After two years of working on the original book and a number of medical materials, the book was successful published in 2018 and for internal circulation only This Vietnamese translation is warmly welcome by all the teachers and students of Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy It is also an invitation to explore how the traditional topics of medical translation – such as terminological issues – have evolved and how new interests have emerged in recent years, including expert-to-lay translation, the professional profiles of medical translators, the training of medical translators, or the improvement of clinical communication through translation and mediation

2.5. Summary

Medical language is made up of a vast of words and terms, labeled ―medical terminology‖, that have been made specifically for doctors to use in their work and especially for doctor-to-doctor communication. It consists of so many new words and terms that medical students often have difficult time learning and understanding them. Medical students in particular are required to spend many years studying and remembering medical terminology and medical language as they progress through

to graduation as doctors. Indeed, it has been estimated that students need to learn approximately 13,000 new words in their first year of medical study. This is not an easy task, with an ever-expanding number of medical names and terms used to

describe the human body and its various parts, symptoms, diseases, health problems, procedures, research and the development of new medical terms.

Many ENT terms (e.g. lymphadenopathy, mastoiditis, aetiology) are

incomprehensible or barely so for many laypeople as these terms are outside their regular daily vocabulary, depending on their socio-economic background and life experience. Some medical vocabulary is used specifically to describe medical purposes and practices, and some add precision or solemnity to descriptions of patient‘s condition. And although these terms are often beyond the comprehension

of everyday people about whom these terms are used, medical terminology is indispensable to the study of medicine and so should be undertaken with both seriousness and due diligence.

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research approach

In this study, research approach is a plan and procedure that consists of the steps of broad assumptions to detailed method of data collection and analysis. It is

therefore, based on the nature of the research problem being addressed, “linguistic

features of English terminologies on ENT”. Two research approaches of quantitative and qualitative will be employed in this study.

Firstly, quantitative research often translates into the use of statistical analysis to make the connection between what is known and what can be learned by research. Consequently, analyzing a group of ENT terminologies with quantitative strategies requires an understanding of the relationships among variables by either descriptive or inferential statistics.

Additionally, it appears that choosing one research approach over another severely limits the scope of the study. As Creswell & Clark (2011) observed, one approach alone cannot answer all the questions that might emerge in the course of researching a topic. In order to facilitate a more comprehensive study, researchers should have access to all available research tools. The dichotomy therefore should

be reconsidered and researchers should become proficient in both types of approaches. While selecting the research approach aim and research problem should

be taken into consideration.

For this reason, the results will then be discussed and interpreted qualitatively to determine the linguistic features. Qualitative research is the approach usually associated with the social constructivist paradigm which emphasizes the socially constructed nature of reality. It is about analyzing and attempting to uncover the deeper meaning and significance of linguistics in general and medical English in particular.

The approach adopted by qualitative researchers tends to be inductive which means that they develop a theory or look for a pattern of meaning on the basis of the