VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐỖ PHƯƠNG LINH CHI A STUDY ON METHODS TO TRANSLATE MEDICAL TERMS IN THE TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH IN MEDICINE” FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu phương pháp dịch thuật ngữ ngành y khoa giáo trình “English in Medicine” cho sinh viên năm thứ 3, trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  ĐỖ PHƯƠNG LINH CHI A STUDY ON METHODS TO TRANSLATE MEDICAL TERMS IN THE TEXTBOOK “ENGLISH IN MEDICINE” FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu phương pháp dịch thuật ngữ ngành y khoa giáo trình “English in Medicine” cho sinh viên năm thứ 3, trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Lê Hùng Tiến HANOI, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “A study on methods to translate medical terms in the textbook “English in Medicine” for third-year students at Haiphong Medical University” is the result of my research for the Degree of Master of Art at University of Foreign Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and the thesis has not been submitted for any degrees at any other university or tertiary institution Hanoi, July 2014 Student Đỗ Phương Linh Chi i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout the process of accomplishing the thesis, I have received the support and encouragement of teachers, family and friends First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor, Doctor Le Hung Tien who gave me benefits of his wisdom and his expert knowledge in translation as well as his constant encouragement from the beginning stage of working out the research proposal to the final stage of writing up the thesis Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this study could not be completed My special thanks go to all my lecturers in Faculty of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures during my M.A course I also take this opportunity to thank all of my colleagues at Faculty of English, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their various kinds of help and supports Last but not least, I would like to express my thankfulness to my family and friends for their endless love, significant help and encouragement ii ABSTRACT The thesis focuses on translation methods and procedures of English medical terms It is aimed at investigating the characteristics of medical terms in order to help the translators and learners have a clear understanding of the terms Attempts are also made to identify methods as well as procedures used in translating medical terms in the textbook “English in Medicine” Hopefully, the result of the study will be helpful to ESP teachers and learners who are interested in medical terms iii ABBREVIATIONS English for Specific Purposes ESP English for Medical Purposes EMP Target language TL Source language SL Target text TT iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Objectives of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review Translation theory 1.1 Definitions of Translation 1.2 Methods of Translation 1.2.1 Larson 1.2.2 Newmark 1.3 Translation Procedures 1.3.1 Vinay & Darbelnet 1.3.2 Newmark 1.4 Translation Equivalence 10 1.4.1 Jakobson 10 1.4.2 Baker 10 v 1.4.3 Nida 10 Terminology and Medical terminology 11 2.1 Terminology 11 2.2 Medical terms and Characteristics 12 Chapter 2: Translation methods and procedures of Medical terms 16 Translation of medical terms 16 1.1 Using Transference 16 1.1.1 Eponyms that derive from person 16 1.1.2 Eponyms that derive from objects 17 1.1.3 Medical acronyms 17 1.1.4 Terms referring to modern concepts that are not technically lexicalized in Vietnamese 18 1.1.5 Terms referring to modern concepts that are technically lexicalized in Vietnamese 19 1.2 Using Naturalization 20 1.3 Using Transposition 20 1.4 Using Through-Translation 22 1.5 Using the omission of the preposition „of‟ 23 1.6 Using Sino-Vietnamese elements 24 Problems in the translation of medical terms 25 Suggested solutions for the Translation of medical terms 26 PART C: CONCLUSION 28 Conclusion 28 Suggestions for teaching and translation of medical terms 29 Limitations 30 Suggestions for further studies 30 REFERENCE 31 APPENDIXES I vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study From the early 1960‟s, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching today ESP is now taught in every university and colleges with different purposes such as English for medical professionals, English for waiters, English for tourism, or English for Business, etc Among them, English for Medical Purposes (EMP) is also one of important parts of ESP As an English teacher at Haiphong Medical University, where EMP is taught, I have recognized the enormous necessity of EMP English for Medical Purposes (EMP) is an interesting subject for medical students or specialists As you know, English is considered as a bridge for cooperation and development, especially in Medical area To advance careers, doctors must write articles in English for international journals and take part in conferences held in English everywhere in the world However, it is also a challenge to them Translating medical terms in English medical textbooks or documents is one of the biggest problems Sometimes, there are many ways of translating for one word or learners not know how to translate these medical terms exactly This prevents them from studying or reading English medical documents To this, they need to have translation skills as well as knowledge of English medical terms In the hope of finding a proper solution to the problem of medical terms translation in the textbook “English in Medicine” for the students of Haiphong Medical University, I have decided to carry out “A study on methods to translate medical terms in the textbook “English in Medicine” for third-year students at Haiphong Medical University” In this study, some main characteristics of medical terms are given with methods as well as procedures applied to translate these terms in the textbook From that, the study will support translators and readers a lot of interesting materials for translation in EMP Objectives of the study The study consists of the following objectives: - Investigating medical terms with their characteristics - Identifying methods and procedures used in translating medical terms - Drawing out some problems and solutions for English medical terms translation as well as giving some suggestions for teaching and studying EMP Research questions The above objectives will be achieved through the following questions: - What are the characteristics of medical terms? - What are the methods and procedures applied for medical terms translation? - What causes difficulties for translators in translating medical terms? Scopes of the study The study is conducted on Medical terms in the textbook “English in Medicine” for third-year students at Haiphong Medical University Significance of the study This study will give readers general views about methods of translation In addition, it will also support EMP teachers and learners knowledge of medical terms with solutions for translating medical terms Methods of the study First of all, Descriptive method is used for describing characteristics of medical terms as well as methods and procedures applied in translating Table 15: Terms using the omission of the preposition „of‟ During translating these terms, if we translate „of‟ as „của‟, sometimes it is not correct Because of this reason, we should use the omission of the preposition „of‟ in the translation of these medical terms In fact, these terms appear very frequently in medical texts So, using this procedure is very useful in translation 1.6 Using Sino elements Before investigating the participation of Sino-Vietnamese in medical terms translation, it is very important to have a look at Sino-Vietnamese words As a result of a long history of language contacts between Vietnamese and Chinese, a lot of Chinese vocabulary was adopted into Vietnamese To enrich its lexicology, Vietnamese has systematically borrowed a great amount of Chinese words Sino-Vietnamese are the elements in the Vietnamese language derived from Chinese Talking about it, Dinh Trong Lac (2001) defines „SinoVietnamese are Vietnamese words borrowed from Chinese language and pronounced in Vietnamese way.‟ Using Sino-Vietnamese in Translation of medical terms is easily realized It is also because of its features Normally, pure Vietnamese are less formal than Sino-Vietnamese Moreover, Sino-Vietnamese are usually short and very appropriate with using in written documents So, using Sino-Vietnamese is very popular in medical terms translation The following terms are typical examples of using this method English Vietnamese Sino-Vietnamese vision Pure-Vietnamese thị lực khả nhìn 24 hemorrhage xuất huyết chảy máu oliguria thiểu niệu lượng nước tiểu specific biệt dược thuốc đặc biệt lưu lượng tim lượng máu medicine stroke volume nhát bóp tim parasite ký sinh trùng sinh vật sống ký sinh thể tiết excrete thải Table 16: Terms using Sino-elements Besides these terms, there are a lot of other terms using this method in translation In fact, they are very formal and have style of science and technology Sometimes, the use of this method is very closely to using related words To sum up, these are some major methods and procedures that can be applied in translation of medical terms in the textbook Each method has been given with specific terms as examples to compare Problems in Translation of medical terms After the process of researching, it is very necessary to find out some major problems that translators may get while translating The following problems are given and discussed based on characteristics of medical terms and the methods as well as procedures applied for medical translation 25 As we know, the more medicine develops, the more medical terms change This occurs frequently, especially in the fields of science Practitioner, specialists and translators believe that there are an increasing number of medical terms and scientific ideas every year Because of this, translating terms relating medicine or science has obviously become more complex Through this paper, we can realize that abbreviation and acronyms also appears much in medical texts This is one of the most difficulties in medical translation because there are also a lot of meanings for each For examples, the phrase „NVD‟ may stand for „nausea, vomiting and diarrhea But it also means normal vaginal delivery It can be dangerous to make mistakes in translation Another problem that we can find out from this study is eponyms It is a big problem in medical translation because they often have synonyms for other terms The term „Scurvy‟ is an example for this It has some synonyms such as „Barlow‟s syndrome‟, „Barlow‟s disease‟ or „Vitamin C deficiency syndrome‟ In translation, the reader is also an important element Sometimes, the readers understand or misunderstand the information in the same text For instance, the phrase „stroke volume‟ is translated into Vietnamese „lưu lượng tim‟ Understanding these terms depends on each kind of readers So, it is also a challenge for translators Suggested solutions to Translation Teaching and Translation of medical terms Finding out solutions to the problems of medical terms translation is also the aim of this study First of all, translators need to have professional knowledge and proficiency in language It is very 26 important to improve their knowledge of medicine as well as knowledge of that field For the abbreviations or acronyms, translators have to put these terms into certain situations or contexts If translators concern about the contexts, the meaning will be more exact In addition, eponyms are also another problem in medical terms translation Thinking about target language may be the best way Choosing between an eponym and another term would depend on which is more common in the target culture because the purpose of translation is translating into target language Lastly, translators need to pay attention on their readers In each situation, translators will decide on how to translate the terms The responsibility of translators plays a big role in translation So, it requires providing an accurate translation because of the benefits of the patients It is easily to realize that translators need to have a lot of knowledge before doing translation work It includes good knowledge of that field, translation skills, knowledge of language both source language and target language In addition, translator‟s attitude is also important 27 PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusion In this paper, we have completed the study on translation methods of medical terms in the textbook „English in Medicine‟ First of all, some major features of medical terms are drawn out in the thesis It plays an important role during translating Through researching, we can see that there are a lot of terms made up of the affixes So, it is very useful to get the meaning of these affixes in translation of medical terms From the features of medical terms, some useful methods as well as procedures which can be applied for translation of medical terms in the textbook „English in Medicine‟ have been studied and found out Now, we will summarize the groups of medical terms with translation methods and procedures used to translate them  Group 1: Eponyms that derive from person Method: Proper names are transferred while the common nouns are translated  Group 2: Eponyms that derive from objects Method: Transference coupled with a classifier  Group 3: Medical acronyms Method: Transference  Group 4: Terms referring to modern concepts that are not technically lexicalized in Vietnamese Method: Transference, which can be coupled with functional-descriptive equivalent if necessary  Group 5: Terms referring to modern concepts that are technically lexicalized in Vietnamese Method: Transference 28  Group 6: Terms translated by Naturalisation Method: Naturalisation  Group 7: Nominal groups Method: Transposition which involves the change of word order from SL to TL  Group 8: Terms translated by Through-Translation Method: Through-Translation  Group 9: Terms consists of Noun + of + Noun Method: Translated by the omission of the pronunciation „of‟  Group 10: Terms translated by using Sino elements Method: Using Sino-Vietnamese words From the above groups, it is easily realized that some translation procedures such as Transference, Transposition are used very frequently Besides, Sino elements also play an important part in making medical terms more formal It is hoped that this thesis will be useful for translators in general and medical students, specialists or teachers who are teaching English in medicine in particular Suggestions for teaching and translation of medical terms Translation of terminology is one of the main parts in teaching as well as learning ESP But to make it more effective, both learners and teachers should have a strategy or good knowledge about it Firstly, it is very necessary to have language competence or language skills before studying ESP Secondly, both teachers and learners need to have some basic skills of translation During translation, teachers not only give the meaning of medical terms, but also explain the way of translation for each group of terms Besides, it is very important to understand and get exact meaning of medical terms in Vietnamese 29 Another suggestion is that getting the meaning of affixes is good for translation of medical terms because a lot of terms are composed of affixes From this feature, we will easily guess the meaning of the terms Limitations Within the framework of a minor thesis, this thesis only pays attention to researching medical terms in the textbook „English in Medicine‟ In addition, the thesis has just applied translation methods as well as procedures of Newmark in this paper as the models So, the scope of the thesis is still limited Suggestion for further studies Since medicine is one of the large fields in ESP, there will be many interesting things to research Besides basic medical terms, there are other kinds of medical terms such as traditional medical terms, terms of pharmacy or anatomy, etc So, in the further study, it is possible to expand the scope of the study In addition, we can apply translation methods or procedures of other authors in the study to find out a lot of interesting findings 30 REFERENCE English: Bell, R T (1998), Psychological/cognitive approaches, In M Baker (Ed), Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies London & New York: Routledge Baker, M (2000), In Other Words: A Course book on Translation, Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press Catford, J.C (1915), A Linguistic Theory of Translation, Oxford: OUP Jakobson, R (1967), „On linguistic aspects of translation‟, in On Translation, ed R.A Brower Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press Larson, M L (1991), Translation: theory and practice, tension and interdependence, American Translators Association scholarly monographs, Binghampton, NY: State University of New York Larson, M L (1998), Meaning-based translation: A guide to crosslanguage equivalence, Lanham, MD: University Press of America and Summer Institute of Linguistics Munday, J (2001) Introducing Translation Studies, Theories and Applications, London and New York: Routledge, p.36 Newmark, P (1981), Approaches to Translation, Oxford and New York: Pergamon, p 39 Newmark, P (1998), A textbook of Translation, London and New York: Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd, p 49 10 Nida, E A (1964), Towards a science of translation, with special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating, Leiden: Brill 31 11 Nida, E A (1975), The Componential Analysis of Meaning, The Hague, Mouton 12 Nida, E A (1975), Exploring Semantic Structures, Munich: Fink 13 Nida, E A and C R Taber (2004), The Theory and Practice of Translation, Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, p12 Vietnamese: Đỗ Hữu Châu (1981), Từ vựng Ngữ nghĩa Tiếng Việt, NXBGD Đỗ Hữu Châu (1999), Các bình diện từ từ Tiếng Việt, (In lầ thứ 3), NXB ĐHQGHN Nguyễn Thiện Giáp (1998), Từ vựng học Tiếng Việt, Hà Nội: NXB Đại học Trung học Chuyên nghiệp Lê Văn Lang (1997), Về vấn đề xây dựng thuật ngữ khoa học, Hà Nội: NXB Lao động Xã hội Hoàng Văn Vân (1998), Một số vấn đề có lien quan đến việc dịch cụm danh từ Tiếng Anh sang Tiếng Việt, Nội san Ngoại ngữ số 5-1998, Trường ĐHNN, ĐHQGHN 32 APPENDIXES Table 1: Internationalism of medical terms English Vietnamese French Germany stress áp lực stress erpruch shock choáng chock erschock virus vi rút virus asvirus protein chất đạm protein dasprotein vitamin vitamin vitamine vitamin amoeba amip amibe amode Table 2: Systematic of medical terms medical terms medical normal meaning meaning nervous thuộc thần kinh hồi hộp, lo lắng tissue mô giấy mềm spread di lan Table 3: Popularity of medical terms English terms Vietnamese shock sốc stress áp lực, căng thẳng cancer ung thư syringe si-ranh vaccine vắc-xin/ thuốc phòng vitamin vitamin I virus virut aspirin thuốc giảm đau Table 4: Characteristic of structure of medical terms medical term root prefixes suffixes pericarditis cardi peri- -itis (viêm bao tim) (heart) (around) (inflammation) lymphopenia lympho -penia (giảm limpho (lymphoc (lack, bào) yte) decrease) antibody body anti- (kháng thể) (body) (against) Table 5: Eponyms that derive from person English Vietnamese Parkinsonism Hội chứng Parkinson Bowman‟s capsule bao Bowman Table 6: Eponyms that derive from objects English Vietnamese lymphocyte tế bào lim phô collagen fibre sợi collagen protein metabolism chuyển hóa protêin Table 7: Medical acronyms II English Vietnamese B.P (Blood Pressure) B.P (huyết áp) TB (Tuberculosis) TB (bệnh lao phổi) Ca (Cancer) Ca (Ung thư) DPT DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, (Bạch hầu, Ho gà, Uốn ván) tetanus) CVA CVA (cerebro vescular accident) (tai biến mạch máu não) Table 8: Terms referring to modern concepts that are not technically lexicalized in Vietnamese English Vietnamese virus virut amino acid axit amin protein protêin folic acid axit folic carbon dioxide carbon dioxit abscess áp xe Table 9: Terms referring to modern concepts that are technically lexicalized in Vietnamese English Vietnamese Loan word vaccine Vietnamese term văc-xin thuốc phòng III shock sốc choáng glucose glucoza đường stress stret áp lực 10 Table 10: Terms using Naturalisation English Vietnamese sigmoid xích ma (đại tràng xích ma) ameba a-míp calcium canxi iodine iốt forceps fooc-xép hormone hoocmôn 11 Table 11: Terms including two nouns English Vietnamese sweat gland tuyến mồ hôi bile duct túi mật thyroid gland tuyến giáp skin layer lớp da kidney stone sỏi thận brain tumor khối u não 12 Table 12: Terms including an adjective and a noun English Vietnamese systolic pressure huyết áp tâm thu painful convulsion co giật đau đớn IV vertebral column cột sống hot-compress gạc ấm serious injury chấn thương nghiêm trọng 13 Table 13: Terms including V-ing and a noun English Vietnamese whooping cough ho gà stabbing pain đau nhói throbbing pain đau giần giật 14 Table 14: Terms using Through-Translation English Vietnamese bacteriology vi khuẩn học microbiology vi sinh học nasopharynx mũi hầu lockjaw cứng hàm 15 Table15: Terms using the omission of the preposition „of‟ English terms Vietnamese equivalents cancer of the lungs bệnh ung thư phổi a state of shock trạng thái sốc knots of capillaries cuộn mao mạch supply of blood việc cung cấp máu feeling of motion sickness cảm giác say tàu xe the amount of urine lượng nước tiểu V 16 Table 16: Terms using Sino-elements English Vietnamese Sino- Pure-Vietnamese Vietnamese vision thị lực khả nhìn hemorrhage xuất huyết chảy máu oliguria thiểu niệu lượng nước tiểu specific biệt dược thuốc đặc biệt lưu lượng tim lượng máu medicine stroke volume nhát bóp tim parasite sinh vật sống ký ký sinh trùng sinh thể excrete tiết thải VI ... IN MEDICINE? ?? FOR THE THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAIPHONG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Nghiên cứu phương pháp dịch thuật ngữ ngành y khoa giáo trình ? ?English in Medicine? ?? cho sinh viên năm thứ 3, trường Đại học. .. be applied in the next parts of the thesis Terminology and medical terminology 2.1 Terminology In this part, some main knowledge of terminology in general and medical terminology in particular... terminology Medical terminology is one of the main parts of terminology “Medical terminology is the professional language of those who are directly or indirectly engaged in the art of healing