Medical terminology in the Western world: Current situation
Maria-CorneliaWermuth & HeidiVerplaetse
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.
Like any other scientific domain, the field of medicine is characterized by its own language and vocabulary, which are the result of a centuries-old development. In fact, the specific features of modern medical language can only be understood against the historical background and context in which it gradually evolved. We therefore start with a brief overview of the milestones in the development of medical language from its very beginning until today (the data are taken from Eckart 2015;
Institut für Geschichte der Medizin 2008; Montalt and Gonzalez-Davies 2007; Van Hoof 1998, and Wulff 2004).
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