Крыжак О.Ю. Onyms in medicine

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Филологические науки/3.

Актуальные проблемы перевода

Крыжак О.Ю.

Национальный технический университет Украины «Киевский политехнический інститут им. И.Сикорского»

Onyms in medicine

Eponyms – the name of a person after whom smth such as a discovery, invention, institution etc. is named usually to commemorate the importance of his\her contribution.

In English, there are a number of ways of forming eponyms in medicine.

First of all, the most common way is to add an apostrophe ‘s’ to the name of a person: e.g. Hodgkin’s disease, a form of lymphoma characterized by the Reed – Stemberg cell. Thomas Hodgkin was an English pathologist. In grammar, this way called a synthetic genitive, possessive type.

Another way of forming eponyms is to use a proper noun without apostrophe ‘s’, that is the use of the proper noun as an adjective: e.g. Bell palsy (idiopathic facial paralysis), named after the Scottish surgeon Sir Charles Bell. Other examples: Dressler Syndrome, Charcot disease, Down syndrome.

A third way to form a medical eponym is to use the analytic genitive with the word ‘of’, as in “the Circle of Willis” (Вілізієве коло – міжсистемний анастомоз в основі головного мозку у вигляді кола, яке утворене 4 парними і однією непарною артеріями). This is named after Thomas Willis, an English physician who was considered during his time to be one of the world’s, if not the world’s, greatest anatomist.

A forth way to form an eponym is to use a truncated form of the proper noun, for example as in “a positive Babinski”, am abnormal reflex elicited when the sole of the foot is firmly stroked causing the big toe to extend and the other toes to fan out (рефлекс Бабінського, симптом розгинання великого пальця ноги, він викликається інтенсивним роздратуванням зовнішньої частини стопи малюка у напрямку знизу вгору).

Some eponyms are not truly eponyms, because the noun used is not actually the name of a person: e.g. Caisson disease (Кесонна хвороба – стан, що виникає в організмі людини при швидкому переході з середовища з підвищеним атмосферним тиском повітря у середовище з нижчим тиском) – is not named after someone called Caisson, but after “the caisson” – a watertight, pressurized structure which is used to work in, under water (for example, during the building of the foundation of a dam). Construction workers working in caissons brought up too quickly would develop decompression sickness (like divers who surface too quickly). Plantar warts (бородавка на підошві) refer to warts on the sole of the foot, and should not be spelt as Plantar’s warts.

Another problem is that some eponyms do not refer to the same person. Thus the Pick cell (foam cell «піниста клітина»), Pick’s disease (a neuro – degenerative disorder – хвороба Піка, захворювання, що виникає в літньому віці, пов’язане з процесами атрофії окремих ділянок головного мозку) and Pick’s pericarditis (синдром Піка, перикардитичний псевдо цироз печінки) were named after, respectively – Ludwig Pick, a German pathologist; Arnold Pick, a Czech psychiatrist; Friedel Pick, a Czech – Austrian physician.

In medical terminology we can point to many cases of synonymous pairs as a result of using both adopted (from classical languages: Latin, Greek) and domestic expressions (semantic synonyms). Adopted expressions of these pairs are more often used in specialized texts, domestic words are used in non – specialized texts: syncope (adopted) – swoon (domestic) «непритомність».

Stylistic synonyms have the same meanings, but belong to different functional styles, denoting colloquial names of medical notions as opposed to scientific ones: shooting\lightning pain «простріл» (medical term – lumbago «гострий попереково – крижовий радикуліт\ поперековий простріл\ простріл в спині»).

Etymological synonyms – obsolete words denoting medical notions as opposed to their modern equivalents: baritimia (outdated) – depression (modern usage); pain relief (obsolete) – anesthesia (modern usage).

Structural synonyms are represented by graphic synonyms – words having different initial morphemes (usually formed using Greek or Latin word – elements) and common root morphemes: e.g. angiography (Greek) and vasography (Latin) – ангіографія (рентгенографія кровоносних судин)\ рентгеноангіографія\ вазографія; galactotherapy (Greek) and lactotherapy (Latin) – лактотерапія, метод лікування захворювань стерилізованим молоком, що вводиться в організм людини або тварин, минаючи шлунково – кишковий тракт).

Morphological and syntactic synonyms are the subtype of structural synonyms. They represent of full (several lexemes) and short (one lexeme) variants of one and the same term: e.g. delirious syndrome – delirium – маячня, гарячковий стан хворої людини, що звичайно супроводжується незв’язною, невиразною, беззмістовною мовою; asthetic syndrome – asthenia – астенія.

Professional medical translators also conduct terminology research to validate equivalents in the target language, particularly when translating into a language with several regional variations, and/or to understand a term in context.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Аполова М.А. Specific English//грамматические трудности перевода. – М.: Международные отношения, 2001.

2. Рябцева Н.К. Научная речь на английском языке. Руководство по научному изложению. Словарь оборотов и сочетаемости общенаучной лексики: Новый словарь-справочник активного типа (на английском языке). - М.: Флинта. - Наука, 2000