Involvement of the Applied Translation Procedures in Compatibility of Persian Medical Terms With International Naming Criteria

Involvement of the Applied Translation Procedures in Compatibility of Persian Medical Terms With International Naming Criteria

Ali Akbar Zeinali
DOI: 10.4018/IJTIAL.2020010103
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Abstract

Medical language, as many technical languages, is rich with morphologically complex words. The increasing number of foreign words and specific terms incorporated into the native language are due to the ongoing development of technology and science. Many problems appear in medical translation when the Persian translators try to employ non-Persian or imported words in medical texts, in which multiple equivalents may be created for one particular word based on the individual preferences of authors and translators in the target language. According to this study, following the analysis of the data based on the applied translation procedures and word formation processes, the compatibility of the resulted characteristics has been investigated based on Sager's naming criteria and it is concluded that the main problem is due to the translation procedures of borrowing and substitution.
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Literature Review

Developments in medicine, science and technology are mounting alongside the growth of medical terminology, and The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that several thousand new terms are being created annually (Barkman, 1974, p. 28). Recent observations indicate the need for scientific research to combine morphemes, especially medical ones to produce new word formation in the Persian language. In order to maximize the potentialities within the complex Persian technical language, a text must be converted into a generative language, a language which is comprehensible and accessible to professionals (Mansouri, 1999, pp. 224-225). According to Mansouri combining morphemes is significant in European medical word formation and naming, so foreign dictionaries, especially medical ones, present combined morphemes as entries. He highlights it as medical terms in such languages are ever-increasing, developing neck and neck with broad developments in medicine. Most of the new terms can be formed mainly through the same combining components and settled word formation patterns. This means that medical language in European languages is generative for its professionals. He argues that the generative nature of medical language in Europe is not applicable to Persian readers or translators, so not only does the Persian language indicate null function in medicine but also something lower than base, as medical language in Persian has not shown any progress.

Mansouri (1999, pp. 224-226) explains that given those entries introducing a foreign combining morpheme (suffix or prefix), most of Persian medical dictionaries usually provide the reader with its information just by presenting the Latin combining component and providing its meaning through translation of its definition. He believes that it can never be helpful to the translator, unless he is fluent in medical terminology. The translator should analyze the term into its combining components when referring to a dictionary and should guess the meaning of the whole word regardless of anything written in front of the word in the dictionary. Mansouri explains different features for equivalents and combining morphemes. He believes that sometimes completely different equivalents have been observed for several foreign medical terms with the same combining morphemes, while there is one equivalent in Persian for several combining components. With regard to the lack of research in the area of word formation, which is based on a specific field, some suggestions are presented. However, it is left to the readers to find an intermediary and appropriate way to keep Persian active and progressive as the language of science, by paying attention to the used patterns in finding equivalents and their frequency (Naseri et al., 2011).

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