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Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 171:1 (2020) ► pp.34–61

Vocabulary in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Insights from corpora

| Zhejiang University of Technology
| Victoria University of Wellington
This article reports on a corpus-based study of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) vocabulary. It first provides a vocabulary profile of English-medium Traditional Chinese Medicine textbooks and journal articles using Nation’s (2012) British National Corpus/Corpus of Contemporary American English (BNC/COCA 25,000) frequency word lists and supplementary word lists of proper nouns, abbreviations, and compounds. Then, it categorizes items outside Nation’s BNC/COCA into Chinese loan words (e.g., qi, yang) and medical lexis (e.g., cinnamomi, rehmanniae), which cover 5.93% of the TCM Corpora in total. The next analysis focuses on Schmitt and Schmitt’s (2014) high, mid, low-frequency vocabulary framework and how it differs from Western medicine. Finally, a vocabulary load analysis shows that to reach 98%, 13,000 word families plus four supplementary lists and two TCM-specific lists are needed. Together, these analyses provide us with a rounded picture of TCM vocabulary. Implications for pedagogy and suggestions for future research follow.
Keywords: loan words, lexical profile, vocabulary loads, English for Chinese medical purposes, technical vocabulary
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Vocabulary in specialized disciplines
    • 2.1Features of TCM vocabulary
    • 2.2Previous vocabulary research in TCM
    • 2.3Overview of lexical profile analysis in specialized texts
    • 2.4Research questions
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Corpus building
    • 3.2Data analysis
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Research question 1: What is the lexical profile of TCM textbooks and journal articles, based on Nation’s (2012) BNC/COCA base word lists?
    • 4.2Research question 2: Beyond Nation’s (2012) BNC/COCA base word lists, what vocabulary remains given its cultural and linguistic roots and how can it be classified?
    • 4.3Research question 3: What is the vocabulary load of the English-medium TCM texts?
    • 4.4Research question 4: What is the coverage of high, mid, and low-frequency vocabulary in the TCM Corpora? How does it differ from that of the Western Medicine?
      • 4.4.1Coverage of high, mid, and low-frequency vocabulary in the TCM Corpora
      • 4.4.2Comparison of high, mid, and low-frequency vocabulary in TCM and WM
  • 5.Pedagogical implications
  • 6.Limitations and future research
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 2 April 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.18020.lu
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