Author name:Nguyen Thi Hoai
Thesis title:Research on disease terminology in English and how to translate it into Vietnamese.
Dissertation field:Linguistics
Specialized: Comparative linguisticsCode:62 22 02 41
Name of Postgraduate training unit:University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
1. Purpose and research objects of the thesis
Research on disease terminology in English aims to find out the structural and identifying characteristics of this group of terms, find out the similarities and differences compared to disease terminology in Vietnamese. From there, research on how to translate disease terminology from English to Vietnamese, and at the same time propose solutions to edit and standardize a part of disease terminology in Vietnamese. The research contributes to improving the quality of teaching, learning and researching medical English, and at the same time helps researchers use words more accurately in the process of translating and compiling medical documents.
The research and survey objects of the thesis 1949 are the English disease terminology units and their Vietnamese equivalents extracted from the dictionary "English - French - Russian - Latin - Japanese - Vietnamese Medicine" by IA Socolop and Truong Cam Bao (2001).
2. Research methods used
- Direct structural element analysis method.
- Semantic analysis method.
- Descriptive and comparative method.
- Translation method.
3. Main results and conclusions
3.1. Main results
In terms of structure, medical terminology consists of two types: words and phrases. However, due to the difference in language types, the ratio of terms that are words and phrases is significantly different between English and Vietnamese. Of the 1949 terminological units surveyed, the results obtained in English showed that 1341 (68.80%) terminological units were words and 608 (31.20%) terminological units were phrases, while in Vietnamese there were only 115 (5.90%) terminological units that were words and 1089 (94.10%) terminological units were phrases.
Regarding the structural model, through the survey and analysis of 1949 terminological units, the thesis obtained 8 structural models in English and 11 structural models in Vietnamese. In both languages, disease terms have the common characteristic of being short, in which two-component terms account for the largest proportion, and gradually decrease for 3-, 4-component terms.
In terms of identifying characteristics, the basic disease term is divided into two semantic content categories, which are disease characteristics and human body characteristics. In which, disease characteristics include 5 semantic fields: disease state, color disorder, quantity, time and location. Human body characteristics are divided into 18 semantic fields based on anatomical characteristics of the human body.
Regarding the translation issue, in terms of structure, the English disease term "word" and "phrase" when translated into Vietnamese also result in "word" and "phrase", however the ratio between them is very different.
Regarding the level of equivalence in translation, the thesis obtained 4 levels of equivalence. That is, an English disease term can have from 1 to 4 equivalents in Vietnamese. Of which, 1:1 equivalence accounts for the majority (85.12%).
For disease terms that are English abbreviations, they are translated into Vietnamese mainly by keeping the original form or copying.
3.2. Conclusion
In English, medical terminology in general and disease terminology in particular, is a special vocabulary, with a different structure from ordinary words, they are mainly of Greek and Latin origin. When studying this vocabulary, we have to learn them as a new language, and that is a challenge for those who teach, learn and research medical English. However, when going deeper into the research, the thesis has found the specific structure rules and ways of identifying the group of disease terminology, from which to find a way to translate from English to Vietnamese to make the best choice of equivalent terms to contribute to standardizing the Vietnamese disease terminology.
SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS
Author's name: NGUYEN THI HOAI
Thesis title:Pathodological terminology in English and the translation into Vietnamese
Scientific branch of thesis:Linguistics
Major:Contrastive - comparative LinguisticsCode:62 22 02 41
Name of post graduate training institution:University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi National University
1. Thesis purpose and objectives
1.1. Research purposes
This thesis on English pathology terminology aims at finding out the characteristics of formation and nomination of this terminology and similarities and differences from the Vietnamese pathology terminology. From there, the thesis has studied the translation of the English-Vietnamese pathology terminology and introduced solutions to correct and standardize the Vietnamese pathology terminology. This research contributes to improving the quality of English language teaching, learning and research, and also helps researchers to use words more accurately in the translation and compilation of medical materials.
1.2. Research objectives
The objects of the thesis are 1949 units of English pathological terminology and Vietnamese equivalents from the “English-French-Russian-Latin-Japanese-Vietnamese Medical Dictionary” by IA Sokolov and Truong Cam Bao (2001).
2. Research methods
- Analysis of directly constructing elements
- Semantic analysis
- Comparison and description
- Translation
3. Msome resultsand
3.1. Major results
Structurally, the terminology of the disease consists only of two types, words and phrases, but due to differences in the type of language, there is a big difference in the term (being word or phrase) ratio between English and Vietnamese. Of the 1949 survey terms, the results were 1341 units (68.80%) being words and 608 (31.20%) units being phrases in English, while in Vietnamese only 115 units (5.90%) are words and 1089 are phrases (94.10%).
On the structural model, through the survey and analysis of 1949 terms, the thesis concludes 8 structural models in English and 11 in Vietnamese. In both languages, the disease-related terms all share the same tendency to be short, in which the two-component terms occupy the greatest proportion, and gradually decrease for three and four-component terms.
In terms of identifying nomination characteristics, the terminology is basically divided into two categories of semantic content, characteristics of diseases and of the human body. The characteristics of diseases is divided into five subcategories, including disease status and disorder in color, quantity, time and location. Human body characteristics are divided into 18 subcategories based on the anatomical characteristics of the human body.
In translation, in terms of structure, when translated into Vietnamese, English pathological terms as words and phrases result in words and phrases, but the ratio between them is very different.
In terms of equivalence in translation, there are four levels of equivalence, which means that an English pathological term can have up 1 to 4 equivalents in Vietnamese and 1:1 holds the majority (85.12%).
For acronyms, acronyms in English are translated into Vietnamese mainly by simulating or copying.
3.2. Conclusions
In English, medical terminology in general and pathological terminology in particular, are special vocabulary that is distinct from common language, mainly derived from Greek and Latin. When studying this vocabulary, we have to learn it as a new language, a challenge for people teaching, learning and researching medical English. However, while reseaching in depth, the thesis found out specific rules of composition and identity of pathological terminology. From this finding, we will find better ways to translate pathological terms from English into Vietnamese, contributing to the standardization of Vietnamese pathological terminology.
Author:ussh
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