The translation of English medical terms into Persian
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Date
2009
Authors
Zeinali, Ali Akbar
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Abstract
This study analyses and compares the medical terms in English (SL) and
Persian (TL) from the word formation processes (WFPs) and the translation
procedures (TPs) perspectives. The sample of the study involved a selection of
medical terms (diseases and procedures) from ICD-9-CM and the equivalents
provided in “Guide to ICD-9-CM in Persian”.
The SL and the TL terms were subjected to evaluation, followed by a
comparative analysis. These pairs provided the data which enabled the researcher to
perform the statistical descriptive and qualitative analysis. The collected data
included a population of 408 English medical terms from the source text and their
pairs from the target text.
The analysis indicated that Persian applies a variety of TPs in accordance
with the available WFPs. The most frequently applied TP is substitution. It
constitutes of about 62% of the terms, regardless of any other probable simultaneous
procedure. Moreover, with respect to WFPs, the most observable process in this
study is borrowing (60%), in which process—borrowing—the most applied language
is Arabic (40%). On the other hand, the findings of this study indicated that there is a
problem with combinational potentiality of Persian. The TL equivalents in this study
usually appeared as phrase syntax, while their SL pairs have single words. In conclusion, for the medical terms chosen in this study, this research can be
highlighted by some differences and similarities found between the SL and the TL
with respect to WFP, like “borrowing, compounding, derivation and eponym”.
Furthermore, the most frequently applied TPs for rendering the same terms are
“through translation, shift and substitution”. It indicates that there is no appropriate
Persian equivalent for medical terms in some cases.
Description
Master
Keywords
Humanities , Translation , Medical terms