Translation of medical terms into Chinese

Fen Ven' ORCID: 0000-0002-5206-9822 Postgraduate student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 15k1, sq. 80a 1042228133@pfur.ru Other publications by this author     Perfiliev Aleksei Kirillovich PhD student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia named after Patrice Lumumba 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 15k, 1142221165@pfur.ru

Khu Peipei PhD in Philology Senior Lecturer, Shenzhen Technology University, Office 15, Liuxian str., 2190, Shenzhen, 518055, China hupp1217@163.com

Borrowings are a common phenomenon in language development, so they are increasingly becoming the object of analysis in linguistics ^{[4, p. 17]}. China actively cooperates with other countries in various fields, which directly leads to a change in lexical composition, the appearance of borrowings, which are primarily due to the import of relevant products, equipment and new technologies.

According to the established scientific tradition, many medical terms are borrowings from Greek and Latin. Medical terminology includes vocabulary related not only to infectious, respiratory and other diseases, but also to related fields such as pharmacology, immunology, biochemistry and so on ^{[6, p. 271]}. Due to the rapid development of science, the dictionary of medical vocabulary is constantly being updated and updated, often due to borrowing lexemes from other languages.

The translation of medical terms is fraught with certain difficulties due to both the peculiarities of the medical discourse itself and the constantly growing number of terms. The main purpose of translation is not only to achieve authenticity and adequacy of the original text, but also to comply with the norms of the translation language.

Let's consider the existing methods of translating medical terms into Chinese. In the Chinese language, the frequency ways of mastering borrowed words are the following: graphic, phonetic, semantic, semi-scale and abbreviation ^{[5, p. 38]}.

Phonetic way of borrowing medical terms

During the analysis of the material, it was revealed that two methods are more often used to translate borrowings into Chinese: purely phonetic and phonetic-semantic. The phonetic method consists in the fact that when translating the names of medicines and medical equipment, Chinese characters are used, the pronunciation of which fully or partially coincides with the sound of the borrowed unit, Chinese characters convey only a sound similarity, losing their original meaning. Here are some examples (see table 1).

Table 1. Phonetic translation of medical terms into Chinese

Let's analyze the words from the above examples:

The drug is [amoxilin], which is used to treat bacterial infections. The name of the drug is a translation of the Latin name amoxicillin in a phonetic way, the meanings of the hieroglyphs do not carry a semantic load: ? 'exclamation particle; ? 'no'; ? 'western'; ? 'forest'.

asipili is a medicinal product that has analgesic, antipyretic, and anti–inflammatory effects. The name is also an audio transmission of the Latin name of the drug aspirin. Let's consider the meaning of each hieroglyph: ? 'exclamation particle'; ? 'company'; ? 'counting word'; ? 'forest'.

The analysis of translated medical terms borrowed into Chinese using the phonetic method showed that hieroglyphs convey sound, their meaning does not carry a special semantic load. Note, however, the frequent use of the hieroglyph "forest" in the names of tablets, apparently, is implied by the association with the number of tablets in the package. See the examples:

A mixed way of borrowing medical terms

When translating medical terms into Chinese, a mixed method is also widely used, which is a combination of phonetic and semantic methods. When translating a medical term into Chinese using a phonetic-semantic method, Chinese characters not only convey the pronunciation of the borrowed word, but also express the meaning. Here are some examples (see table 2).

Table 2. Translation of medical terms into Chinese in a mixed way

Let's analyze the words from the above examples:

[purexitong] from Latin paracetamol is a drug, analgesic and antipyretic, has an antipyretic effect from the group of anilides. Let's consider the meaning of each hieroglyph: ? 'to beat, to hit, to rush'; ? 'heat'; ? 'to calm down, to calm down'; ? 'pain'. The name of this drug, translated into Chinese, literally means lowering the temperature and relieving pain.

[baiyoujie] from the French prozac is an antidepressant. Let's analyze the meaning of each hieroglyph: one hundred'; ? 'sadness, sadness, longing, depression'. In Chinese, this name literally means relief from depression.

Thus, based on the analyzed examples, it can be concluded that medical terms translated into Chinese in a phonetic and semantic way not only preserve the sound features of the original word, but also indicate the features of the product, the degree of its effectiveness, due to which a pragmatic function is performed. Let's look at the examples (see Table 3).

Table 3. Translation of medical terms into Chinese in a phonetic and semantic way

Let's analyze the words from the above examples:

[kelameisu] 'clarithromycin'. The borrowed medical term consists of two parts. The first part consists of four hieroglyphs: ? [ke] 'gram', ? [la] 'pull', ? [mei] 'mold', ? [su] 'element', the combination of which conveys the pronunciation of a part of the medical name, and the second part 'capsules' is a translation of an English lexical unit capsules.

The semantic way of borrowing medical terms

Along with the phonetic and phonetic-semantic method, the semantic method is also widely used in translating medical terms into Chinese. Words borrowed in this way allow you to convey the meaning of the original word.

Let's look at the examples (see table 4).

Table 4. Translation of medical terms into Chinese in a sematical way

Let's analyze the words from the above examples:

The medical term [xinxingguanzhuangbingdu] is a translation of the English word coronavirus and consists of the root morpheme corona from the Latin word crown, wreath and the root morpheme virus - from the Latin word poison. The term was first used in an article in the journal Nature in November 1968 and was included in the Large English-Chinese Dictionary in 1991: "Coronavirus [k?r?n?'vair?s] n. [?]," 'microorganisms coronavirus, coronovirus' ^[10]. In 2013, the Wiktionary added the abbreviated form CoV from Coronavirus, but this abbreviation was included in traditional dictionaries only in 2020 ^{[6, p. 269]}.

The semantic translation method is often used when translating medical terms borrowed from the English language. It allows you to convey the principle of its action in the name of a drug or medical device.

Graphic method (letter words) of borrowing medical terms

Perfilieva N.V. and Hu Peipei in their work "Methods of assimilation of English loanwords into Chinese" write that "the Chinese language actively uses a method in which a hieroglyphic word is a synthesis of hieroglyphic signs, digital symbols, symbols and English graphemes" ^{[1, p. 287]}. In the Chinese language, there is a whole group of hieroglyphic signs, which include English graphemes: X-ray machine, X-ray machine, X-ray machine, Mobile DR, mobile digital radiography, etc. According to Hu Peipei, these data represent a special type of words, which "undoubtedly is part of the lexical fund of the Chinese language" ^{[1, p. 296]}.

Chinese linguist Liu Yongquan in the article "Opinion on alphabetic words" (1994) writes that alphabetic words are "words whose structure involves inclusions of Chinese characters and letters of foreign alphabets (mainly Latin), or words consisting entirely of letters of foreign alphabets" ^{[7, p. 7]}. Later, Liu Yongquan supplemented his concept of alphabetic words in the Chinese language, determining that "alphabetic words refer to words composed of the Latin alphabet (including the Chinese alphabet with the Pinyin notation system), the Greek alphabet or their combination with symbols, numbers or Chinese characters" ^{[8, p. 85]}. In modern Chinese, it is customary to distinguish two types of alphabetic words: full letter words and partial letter words ^{[9, p. 26]}.

Table 5. Graphical translation of medical terms into Chinese

Let's analyze the above examples:

ECMO extracorporeal membrane oxygenation is an improved means of life support and therapy, in which artificial blood circulation replaces or partially replaces cardiopulmonary function, saving lives ^{[2, c. 1966]}. This abbreviation has been translated into Chinese using the semantic method: [tiwaifeimoyanghe] – extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. However, if the abbreviation has been translated by using the phonetic method, it would be a , which literally can be translated as ? 'this'; ? 'West'; ? 'love'; ?'tree'; ? 'Europe'. Currently, native Chinese speakers are becoming more and more susceptible to alphabetic words, in addition, the graphical method simplifies the process of translating the names of medical products and complies with the principles of conciseness and clarity of advertising.

Thus, it can be concluded that when translating borrowings from Latin into Chinese, preference is given to the phonetic method, while when translating English medical terms, phonetic-semantic, semantic and graphical methods are mainly used. The semantic method allows you to convey the meaning of borrowed words most fully, as well as create a pragmatic effect. The frequency of using the graphical translation method is significantly lower, since English and Chinese have different types of writing, which also introduces limitations for the transmission and interpretation of information.