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Relieve pain, acute infarction, administer medication. These are just some examples of word combinations that might appear in medical writing. Of course, there are other word combinations that are not scientific in nature, but could also appear in medical texts: history of drug abuse, prospects for survival, abuse of alcohol … In fact, this is the essence of medical writing. It is never a composition of pure medical jargon, but a combination of both technical terms and common word combinations, following basic grammatical rules and specific norms.

These conventions and word combinations are the focus of the following work. What is the conventional structure of a medical case study?  What kinds of word combinations, or collocations, are typical in medical English? What types of verbs are used in medical writing? 

In addition to answering these questions, individual case studies will be analysed on several levels: overall text analysis, collocation content, medical terminology, and verb analysis.  The question of whether the target readership and text function play a role in the lexical make-up of the text will also be explored.  This study also aims at measuring the degree of specialism of the text samples using quantifiable factors such as terminology and collocation content.

This thesis intends to provide insight into medical texts from a linguistic perspective, offer practical tools for the purpose of medical English pedagogy and assist medical writers and translators in producing clear, fluent and accurate texts.

148 pp., 23 fig.

0 Introduction and Focus 4

1 Technical Language: Theoretical Background 6
1.1 Historical Context 6
1.2 Defining Technical Language 7
1.3 A Methodological Approach to Analysing Technical Texts 8
1.3.1 The Contextualization of the Technical Text 10
1.3.2 Macrostructure 10
1.3.3 Stylistic Components 11
1.3.4 Terminology and Nomenclature 12
1.3.4.1 Word Formation of Technical Terms 15
1.3.4.2 Multi-word Terms 16
1.4 Phraseology of Technical Language 18
1.4.1 Collocations 22
1.4.2 Metacommunicative Phrases 27
1.5 International Standards vs. National Styles 29

2 The Field of Medicine and Medical English 33
2.1 Short Overview of the Field of Medicine 33
2.2 English as Lingua Franca in Medicine 35
2.3 Medical English and Medical Text Genres 35
2.4 Terminology and Nomenclature 38
2.4.1 Etymology 38
2.4.2 Greek and Latin Morphemes 39
2.4.3 Standardization of Anatomical Nomenclature 42
2.4.4 Abbreviations 43
2.5 Verbs in Scientific and Medical Writing 45
2.5.1 Verb Frequency 47
2.5.2 Active and Passive Voice 49

3 Medical Case Studies . A Linguistic Analysis 51
3.1 Goal of the Study 51
3.2 Corpus . The Choice of Sample Texts 51
3.3 Methodology 52
3.4 Results and Discussion 54
3.4.1 Terminology and Medical Vocabulary 54
3.4.2 Collocations 71
3.4.3 Adjectives in Medical English 89
3.4.4 Verbs 90
3.4.5 Macroscopic Analysis 109

4 Teaching Medical Translation 114
4.1 Problem-Based Learning as a Constructivist Learning Method 116
4.2 Problem-Based Learning in Teaching Medical Translation: A Pilot Project 118
4.3 Teaching Medical Translation at the University of Heidelberg 120

5 Conclusion 124

6 Bibliography 127

7 Appendix 132
7.1 University of Indiana School of Medicine - Problem Based Learning Curriculum Case Studies 132
7.1.1 Example Case 0 . Cobal Amin.s Coma 132
7.1.2 Case 1 - Bobby Jackson.s Stomach Ache 133
7.1.3 Case 2 - Marvin Lukes. Blackout Spell 136
7.1.4 Case 3 - John Dorsey.s Severe Chest Pains 138
7.1.5 Case 4 - Isaac Lewinski.s Ear Problem 141
7.1.6 Case 5 - Mary Richards is Pale 144
7.1.7 Case 6 - Fred and Wilma.s Lucky Day 147