LATIN LANGUAGE TEACHING PECULIARITIES AT HIGHER MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENTS

Rozhenko Inna

Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy

Poltava

The teaching of the Latin language at medical faculties of various universities is a long-standing and stable tradition. However, the very name of the academic discipline ("Latin language" or "Latin language and the basics of medical terminology") requires a definite comment. First of all, we should pay attention to two fundamentally different directions in the study of the Latin language. On the one hand, the teaching of the Latin language, considered as a general education discipline, involves acquaintance with the language in general and its grammatical system, while taking into account, of course, its specific characteristic as a "dead" language. Further, the study of language is combined with an exposition of historical and cultural points that allow students to create an idea about the significant role of the ancient heritage in the formation of modern European and world cultural systems. This direction is relevant for humanitarian faculties, first of all, philological, where the main goal is to expand the general cultural and linguistic outlook of students, and also to promote their scientific and analytical approach to modern "living" languages. On the other hand, the Latin language can and should be regarded as a kind of profiling discipline or, at least, an integral part of other specialized disciplines that make up the curriculum at medical faculties. Obviously, in this case, it is no longer a matter of studying a foreign language in the usual sense of this process: it is important to clarify that the study of professional medical terminology becomes a fundamental task. It seems expedient, therefore, to make adjustments to the very name of the discipline - after all, the subject of study is precisely "Latin-language" terminology, and not Latin. However, the practice, in some cases, of the adjusted (updated) names of courses or teaching aids - "Latin language and the basics of medical terminology", is not entirely successful for several reasons. First, this name puts the task of acquaintance with the language (in the literal sense - in the first place), which, as noted above, can not be recognized as the right direction for medical faculties. Obviously, a simple rearrangement practically does not change anything, because, secondly, in this formulation of the name of the discipline is initially present (and, in the case of a permutation of words, it certainly remains) the reflection of a certain parallel coexistence of two directions: on the one hand, language training (the name "Latin Language "is a general direction) and, on the other hand, the teaching of terminology ("the basis of medical terminology"is a profiling direction). Moreover, within the same faculty this coexistence acquires even the character of opposition: for directions are different and in this case it is not clear what emphasis is placed on the teaching of language or terminology. In addition, the general educational trend assumes a kind of cultural branch (primarily Latin winged expressions, proverbs), which should be considered either optional or as a separate direction: it has nothing to do with terminology. Further, when teaching "the Latin language and the basics of medical terminology", the traditional goal is to lay the foundations for the preparation of a terminologically competent doctor, to contribute to the formation (at the initial stage) of his professional language culture. To accomplish this goal, it is envisaged to teach students basic elements of the grammar of the Latin language, which is not particularly difficult because of the almost complete identity of the grammatical minimum of the two languages (Latin and Ukrainian). Therefore, special attention should be paid to the nomination - the ability to be denoted by lexical means of the Latin language (in combination with "terminological elements" and "frequency segments" of Greek origin) special concepts in various disciplines of biomedical and Medical nature. In this regard, the students are provided with the necessary (taking into account the specialization of groups) lexical minimum with the expectation of its further consolidation and expansion within the profile disciplines. However, this approach (the presentation of grammatical elements in combination with the terminological minimum), although it reflects the specifics of the application of language in medical faculties (studying not so much the language as the terminology), nevertheless does not take into account, as a rule, the specificity of the terminology itself as a separate independent directions. To take into account such specificity is necessary, since it sometimes forces to neglect the formal aspect of the Latin grammar in favor of greater practicality, ordering within the terminological structures themselves. After all, the terminology is only initially based on the basic grammatical structures of the language, and then begins to live its life, developing (and, as a rule, spontaneously) according to its own laws. Hence the need to revise some of the usual grammatical moments of the Latin language in relation to the traditionally established professional Latin medical terminology, and in some cases it is appropriate to speak even of the need for a kind of adaptation of the grammar to terminology. Of course, the vocabulary undergoes changes: after all, any professional terminology (including medical vocabulary) is only a reflection of the lexical component of the language. When studying the anatomical terminology, the theme of "adjectives of adjectives" is sometimes (in some teaching aids) not even considered. Obviously this is because in "ordinary" Latin, as in Ukrainian, these prefixes perform their standard function - as a rule, they clarify the meaning of the original adjective. However, even the basic terminological minimum of anatomical terms makes it necessary to devote a separate lesson to this topic. Two consoles with the same value "under" (infra and sub). First of all, it is interesting to note that the first arising question - about the demarcation in use (when infra, when sub) - has no answer: there are no rules or any patterns in use (a typical case and an illustrative example of the "spontaneous" development of terminology). Further, however, given the established practice of using anatomical terms-adjectives with prefixes, it is possible to note, at least, six notes (terminological comments). As examples, we give three of them. First, the use in the anatomical terminology of adjectives such as "pancreas" or "popliteal" (to them, with a certain reservation, you can add adjectives "chin" and "iliac"). In the corresponding Latin terms ("pancreaticus" and "popliteus"), the prefix is generally not needed, since these adjectives are formed from noun terms that are translated into Ukrainian by the phrase, which already has adjectives with the corresponding meaning: pancreas - "pancreas" and poples - "popliteal cavity". It is also superfluous to note here that the nouns "iron" and "hollow" that form part of these phrases are not used when forming adjectives (the analogous situation with the term thorax "thorax" → thoracicus "thoracic", but compare: colon " Colon »→ colicus« colon-intestinal », maxilla« upper jaw »→ maxillaris« maxillary ».) Secondly, an adjective with the meaning "subcutaneous". The most regular option is with a sub (should be just remembered) subcutaneus. Next, an adjective with the same meaning, but of Greek origin (note the rather rare case of "bilingual terminology" - the term is simultaneously represented both in Latin and Greek) - saphenus: it is used only in certain contexts (word combinations) - vena, nervus. In addition, from the course of myology, you should pay attention to the phrase "subcutaneous neck muscle" - in the Latin terminology it is a single word of Greek origin "platysma", with the implied or sometimes used word musculus. Finally, in the course of angiology, two word combinations "lateral / medial subcutaneous vein of the hand" are noteworthy - the Latin version is twice shorter: vena cephalica and vena basilica, respectively. Thirdly, an adjective with a value of "subclavian". Here the addition of the prefix sub has affected the morphological structure (the diminutive suffix of the nouns -cul- and the derivational suffix of the adjectives -ar-) of the original adjective has changed, and its grammatical characteristic has changed (instead of the third declension, the first group is adjective It is interesting to note that the standard situation (without any structural or grammatical changes) is the attachment of the infra. Prefix to the original adjective clavicularis - it should be treated exactly as an exception, since the subclavius contexts are more than three times.