PALMIRA ZEMLEVIČIŪTĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-8679-3253 Research areas: Lithuanian terminology, history of Lithuanian medical terminology. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all84-04

MEDICINOS TERMINAI GROŽINIAME TEKSTE

Medical Terms in a Fictional Text

A B S T R A C T I O N

The article discusses medical terms in a selected work of fiction (Noah Gordon’s novel The Physician. A Student of Avicenna, 2020), as well as their characteristics and purpose. Medical terms are used extensively, most often to describe various situations related to treatment. Two of the most distinctly emerging groups of terms are examined—genuine (scientific) medical terms and non-genuine medical terms, or pseudoterms; the functions performed by medical terms are also described, as is the significance of their contextual partners (adjectives, participles, and verbs) in realizing a stylistic function, and the issue of determinologization is touched upon.

In discussing the functioning of medical terms in a work of fiction, the article also presents insights by other researchers into the characteristics of term usage in literary texts and proposed classifications of terms in such texts.

K E Y W O R D S: medical term, literary style, work of fiction, context, contextual partners, function, determinologization.

A N N O T A T I O N

The article addresses medical terms in a selected fictional text (Noah Gordon’s novel The Physician, 2020), their features and functions. The text abounds in medical terms. They are usually used to describe various medical treatment related situations. The article focuses on two most prominent groups of terms: proper (scientific) medical terms and improper medical terms or pseudo-terms. It also describes the functions played by medical terms, the meaning of their contextual partners (adjectives, participles, verbs) in performing the stylistic function and addresses the topic of determinologization.

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When discussing the functioning of medical terms in the fictional text, the article also presents the insights of other scholars concerning the peculiarities of the use of terms in a given text and the proposed classifications of terms in the text.

KEYWORDS: medical term, fiction style, fictional text, context, contextual partners, function, terminologization.

INTRODUCTION

Characteristics of the Functioning of Terms in a Work of Fiction^¹. The inherent and natural setting for the functioning of a term is a scientific text, in which a term performs its function—briefly, precisely, and unambiguously to name a scientific concept; in other words, to condense a certain amount of information—and in which the term can be decoded precisely and unambiguously (see Лобанов 2008: 77; Самохина 2011: 210; Тамбиева, Текеева 2019: 236).

Functional styles do not constitute closed systems; they are language varieties that influence one another (Župerka 1983: 115). Terms, being attributes of scientific texts, often extend beyond the boundaries of their customary specialized domain of use and actively penetrate non-specialized areas of use (see Самохина 2011: 169; Пономаренко, Уварова 2016: 95; Синелева 2020: 193). One such area is fiction—a domain in which the literary style is used (Pikčilingis 1971: 286; Župerka 1983: 113). This style, in the words of Juozas Pikčilingis, is a broad river that absorbs various streams and rivulets and is fed by them. It readily makes use of various other styles and their elements. The writer’s search for means of expression encompasses the entire language. The writer needs both stylistically neutral and stylistically marked resources, both literary and official-business resources and resources of spoken language. However, once elements of other styles enter fiction, they are actualized (Pikčilingis 1971: 302; Župerka 1983: 115, 116).

A work of fiction is distinctive in that, as mentioned, expressive means from all styles may be used in it (including terms) (thus, by its nature, a work of fiction is multistylistic), but here the functional role of those means changes: they perform a different function from that in the styles in which the use of the means in question is customary (Pikčilingis 1971: 304; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251; Синелева 2020: 193). In a work of fiction, terms are no longer terms in the usual

^¹Russian authors have examined this topic more extensively and comprehensively (see the bibliography). Lithuanian authors have written little about the functioning of terms in their atypical environment. Only a few studies deserve mention. Kazimieras Župerka has examined the use of linguistics terms in journalistic writing (Župerka 2000: 75–182), while Asta Mitkevičienė has written about the use of terms from various fields in online media (Mitkevičienė 2020: 108–127).

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in the sense of this word: they not only name specific objects and phenomena of objective reality, but also acquire an emotional coloring and lend the text a certain local flavor (Глазкова 2008); thus, the scientific precision of terms is weakened because the text in colloquial style extends beyond the boundaries of the terminological field (Суперанская, Подольская, Васильева 1989: 135). In a non-typical context, terms change their semantic structure, i.e., undergo transformations of various kinds, and as a result may acquire another meaning or additional connotations, and even become components of phraseological units (Прокопова 2013: 169; Понамаренко, Уварова 2016: 95, 96).

Although the terms used in a literary text are the same as those used in a scientific text, as already mentioned, the functions of the same terms in texts of different styles are different. A literary work, despite the fact that terms are used in it, is first and foremost associated with the sphere of emotions and feelings. In such a work, terms may perform functions that are entirely uncharacteristic of them (Шамсеева 2018: 116). Thus, in a literary text, in addition to its inherent, nominative² function, a term also performs cognitive, informational, descriptive (characterizing), emotional-expressive, aesthetic, evaluative, and figurative³ functions, whereas in scientific discourse terms perform only a nominative function (see Жилкова 2007: 85–88; Жилкова 2008: 5–23; Лобанов 2008: 77, 82; Самохина 2011: 207; Смирнова 2012: 158; Ланьянь 2013: 179–180; Мухамеджанова 2015: 168; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251–252; Ремпель 2015: 34; Эфендиева, Джасежeва, Жутова 2015: 222–223; Бобырева 2016: 123; Воскресенская 2016: 353–354, 365; Понамаренко, Уварова 2016: 96; Воскресенская 2017: 261; Рахимова 2017: 66–68; Сергеева 2018: 292; Шамсеева 2018: 147; Якунина 2018: 577–579; Маджаева 2020: 37; Синелева 2020: 194–198 and others). On the other hand, terms in a literary text may also be used solely in their direct, terminological meaning, denote the same concepts as in a specialized text, and have no additional shades of meaning (see Попова, Гамов 2019: 97). Nevertheless, any word that finds itself in an unusual context slightly changes its meaning.

The nature of the term in a literary text is dual. Here, terms (both in the author’s and the characters’ speech; see Немыка, Пешков 2015: 250) are used in their direct, specialized meaning, as in a scientific text, i.e., they convey information; however, unlike in the latter, in a literary text they are accompanied by various epithets that are impossible in a specialized text and that impart emotional and evaluative meaning. Here, terms perform a representational and emotional-impact function, i.e., they become special expressive means: they are reinterpreted, metaphorized, and acquire one or another expressive character (Рикелингис 1971: 304; Самохина 2011: 170; Смирнова

² It is also called the nominative-descriptive function (Немыка, Пешков 2015: 252). This is considered the essential function of a term.

³ It is also called the artistic-figurative function (Немыка, Пешков 2015: 252).

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2012: 159; Ланьлань 2013: 179–180; Бобырева 2016: 124, 125). In a literary text, terms lose the features characteristic of specialized vocabulary and acquire the properties characteristic of words of the general lexicon (see Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251–252; Тамбиева, Текеева 2019: 238).

By nature, a term has no emotional–expressive coloring^⁴, i.e., it is stylistically neutral; however, in a literary text, a term loses its stylistic neutrality and acquires emotional–expressive coloring (Самохина 2011: 206; Бобырева 2016: 123; Синелева 2020: 197). It becomes a means of figurative thinking, which is the basis of literary style (Ланьлань 2013: 179–180; Синелева 2020: 198).

The addressees of scientific and literary texts are different. It is believed that, unlike the reader of a scientific text, the reader of a literary text inevitably understands the same term in a simplified way (Самохина 2011: 170, 171). For the reader, a term in a literary text may be unfamiliar; in that case, deciphering it helps provide new information. In this case, the term performs a cognitive function (see Лобанов 2008: 77; Самохина 2011: 207; Смирнова 2012: 158; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251; Бобырева 2016: 123; Воскресенская 2016: 355; Рахимова 2017: 66, 68; Шамсеева 2018: 117).

When a term enters a literary text, it not only changes itself but often changes that text as well (Александровна, Халифовна, Руслановна 2015: 218). What, then, is the purpose of using terms in a literary text? It is argued that terms are used to create a scientific background (Жидкова 2007: 88; Матвеева 2012: 150; Шамсеева 2018: 117). In Anastasija Sineleva’s view, this is the main function of a term in a literary text (Синелева 2020: 194). Writers use terms in their works deliberately—often seeking to describe as precisely as possible certain features of the objects, actions, or phenomena they discuss, or the profession and field of activity of the characters (such characters’ speech contains much specialized vocabulary). In addition,

^⁴ At the end of the 20th century, it was believed that emotional–expressive connotation was altogether uncharacteristic of the language of science and terminology. Later, however, the idea began to emerge that the language of science is not entirely stylistically neutral and that it contains distinctive features of emotional–expressive connotation. Such connotation is necessary for the effectiveness of scientific language—the scholar cannot merely state facts but must also evaluate them. In terminology, figurativeness is generally not avoided when the aim is to highlight the distinctive (distinctive) function of terms, when the distinguishing feature is the impression made on the researcher by the plant or animal being named, or subjectively evaluated characteristics of a plant or animal (e.g.: skiauterinis papartis (Dryopteris cristata), šalmuotoji gegužraibė (Orchis militaris), puošnusis gausdikas (Dianthus superbus), lieknasis švylis (Eriophorum gracile)). Such terms are figurative, and their figurativeness is deliberately created in the language of science. In other cases, figurativeness is transferred into the language of science from folk language (by terminologizing expressive names), e.g.: perkūnropė (Sempervivum), kiškio ašarėlės (Briza media)). Thus, some terms acquire emotional–expressive connotation together with terminologization, while others do not lose it through terminologization, because only their lexical meaning changes, acquiring terminological semes (Gaivenis 2002: 44–46).

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therefore, writers also use terms so that readers can better understand and imagine the place and time of the events and circumstances, and evaluate and experience the events being described. For a writer, this is also an excellent opportunity to demonstrate erudition and knowledge of the field, and to show how deeply they know what they are writing about (Самохина 2011: 173; Тамбиева, Текеева 2019: 238). In general, in many cases, the appearance of terms in the text of a work of fiction is determined primarily by the fact that the subject and plot of the work are in some way related to a scientific or technical sphere of human activity (Самохина 2011: 171; Самохина 2011: 209; Бобырева 2016: 123; Якунина 2018: 579).

The use of terms in fiction is stylistically justified because terms help reveal the idea of a work (Жидкова 2007: 86; Глазкова 2008; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251). They are a means of solving the author’s artistic tasks (Бобырева 2016: 123). Terms supplement the arsenal of figurative linguistic devices in a work of fiction (Мухамеджанова 2015: 174; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251). As figurative and expressive elements of the language of a work of fiction, they help create the linguistic and portrait characterization of the characters and their surroundings, produce a comic effect, and lend expressiveness and originality to the narrative (Жидкова 2007: 88; Мухамеджанова 2015: 175; Немыка 2015: 180–181; Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251). Terms also reinforce the cognitive significance of a work because they enable the writer to accurately recreate the characters’ professional lives in words and characterize them as professionals in their field (Немыка, Пешков 2015: 251; Сергеева 2018: 293; cf. also Якунина 2018: 577), while also lending realism to the events described (Воскресенская 2012: 137; 2015: 45).

When discussing the functioning of a term in a literary text, the phenomenon of determinologization cannot be overlooked. Does a term, once it enters general usage, remain a term? Does it not lose its most important features when it begins to be used in the standard language? In Valeriya Danilenko’s view, this is by no means an indisputable question (Даниленко 1977: 5–6).

Determinologization is associated with qualitative changes in a term. It is understood as a gradual, slow, lengthy process in which a term moves beyond the boundaries of the terminological system, loses its connection with the concept (the concept becomes simplified and comprehensible to non-specialists), its univocity and precision, relinquishes its special meaning, and acquires new features (Суперанская, Подольская, Васильева 1989: 133, 135–136; Собянина 2011: 22).

⁵ Kazimieras Gaivenis used the term determin izacija to designate this phenomenon (Gaivenis 1997: 6), while Regina Kvašytė used determin izavimas (Kvašytė 2005: 29). For more on determinologization, see Татаринов 2006: 47; Сер едюк 2013: 150–155; Salamakhа 2017: 70–71; Mincu 2018: 32–33; Humbert-Droz, Piction, Candamin es 2019: 2–5; Константинова 2019: 83–88). In this article, the author uses the term determinologizacija.

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Terminologization can occur in two stages. At the first stage, a term is introduced into the standard language in the form of a word bearing a terminological meaning. At the second stage, already in the standard language, the meaning of that word is transferred and an ordinary word, often a metaphor, emerges. A term that moves beyond the boundaries of its sphere of functioning does not necessarily pass through both stages. The first stage, in which a term crosses beyond the aforementioned sphere without changing its meaning, may be the only one (Синелева 2020: 198).

Valentina Sobianina distinguishes two main directions of terminologization. In the first case, a term names a special denotatum, but the sphere of its use expands: it is found in the language of non-specialists and used in spoken language, journalism, fiction, and elsewhere; thus, the semantic structure of the term is simplified (partial determinologization⁶). In the second case, the special denotatum is replaced by a non-special one, and a new, figurative meaning is created through associations and analogies (Бычкова 2011: 45; Собянина 2011: 24). Determinologization⁷ is based on the metaphorical rethinking of a term; however, the latter, in itself, does not always indicate that the term acquires a figurative meaning that in turn leads to determinologization, since the term may be used with the aforementioned meaning only accidentally (authorial occasionalism) (Бычкова 2011: 461).

Classifications of terms in a literary text. Four classifications of terms in a literary text could be distinguished. In the first classification, terms are divided into two groups according to the meanings in which they are used in the text, namely, terms used in their literal meanings and terms used in their figurative meanings (Маджаева 2020: 37).

In the second classification, three groups of terms are distinguished; that is, terms are classified according to the scope of their use: widely used terms, special terms, and highly specialized terms (Жидкова 2007: 84; Жидкова 2008: 4).

The third and fourth classifications are very similar. Here, terms are classified according to whether they may be understood by the reader and whether the author explains them. Thus, the third classification distinguishes four groups of terms:

1. Unexplained terms whose meaning is clear to the reader. 2. Terms whose meaning is unclear to the reader and unexplained by the author. 3. Terms that are incomprehensible to the reader and that the author explains. 4. Terms that are clear to the reader but whose meaning the author explains (Эфендиева, Джаcекева, Хутова 2015: 220–222).

The fourth classification also distinguishes four groups of terms: 1. Transparent unexplained terms—terms that are incomprehensible to the reader and unexplained by the author.

6 Olga Byčkova calls partial determinologization despecializacija (Бычкова 2011: 460).

7 A term can undergo determinologization only after its despecialization, that is, after the term’s transition into other styles (Бычкова 2011: 459).

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2. Opaque unexplained terms – terms that are incomprehensible to the reader and unexplained by the author.

3. Opaque explained terms – terms that are incomprehensible to the reader and explained by the author.

4. Transparent explained terms – terms that are comprehensible to the reader but explained by the author (Самохина 2011: 174).

It should be said that the article does not aim to classify medical terms; however, these classifications were used to clarify the characteristics of the functioning of medical terms in a literary text.

The object of the article is medical terms used in a literary text. The selected source is Noah Gordon’s novel Gydytojas. Avicenos mokinys. This is a work by an American writer, translated from English into Lithuanian by Leonas Judelevičius and published by the Alma littera publishing house in 2020. The book takes the reader back to the 11th century. It tells the story of a boy, Robert Cole, who feels a calling to heal people at an early age, sets himself the goal of becoming a physician, and pursues it persistently. From the world of England ruled by medieval darkness and superstition, R. Cole embarks on journeys with the barber-surgeon who took him in and learns the rudiments of medicine. Having heard about the Persian physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna), who performs miracles, he sets out on a long journey to a land where Muslims are experiencing a golden age of science and culture. The novel not only engagingly recounts the story and adventures of the main character’s becoming a physician and vividly describes countries and cities, the daily life of the poor and the luxury of rulers, but also provides a wealth of knowledge about the history and practice of medicine, skillfully woven into the novel’s plot (Riaubaitė 2016).

The aim of the article is to clarify the characteristics of the functioning of medical terms in their atypical environment^⁸ – a literary text. To achieve this aim, the following objectives were set: to select sentences in which medical terms are used, paying attention to the novel’s microcontexts^⁹ in which medical terms occur and to their lexical surroundings; to identify the thematic groups of medical terms and the frequency of use of the terms comprising them; to determine what functions medical terms perform when incorporated into a literary text. The article employs descriptive-analytical, contextual-interpretive analysis, and calculation methods. Numerous sentences from the novel illustrating the claims are provided. Each sentence

^⁸ The typical functional environment of a medical term is a scientific text, characterized by such stylistic features as logicality (consistency, coherence), precision, definiteness, objectivity, conciseness, and clarity (see Pikčilingis 1971: 314–323; Župerka 1983: 102–103).

^⁹ Here, a microcontext refers to various situations related to medicine described in the novel, such as examining a patient, diagnosing a disease, describing and treating it, and so on.

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(usually) written on a new line; at the end of the sentence, the page of the novel is indicated in parentheses. In the sentences, the terms are set in italics (and underlined where necessary) by the author of the article.

MEDICAL TERMS IN NOAH GORDON’S THE PHYSICIAN. AVICENNA’S STUDENT

A total of 1,556 sentences containing medical terms were manually selected from the novel; that is, they were examined in a broader context. It should be noted that the latter context is not necessary for defining and understanding the meaning of terms in a scholarly text, since a term is used there in such a way as to evoke no unnecessary associations and not to be understood differently; in a literary text, however, context plays an important role. For it is only in context that the various semantic nuances and additional connotations of words (including terms) become apparent (see Pikčilingis 1971: 315; Župerka 1983: 103).

The need for terms in a literary text is determined by the work’s subject matter. For example, Liubov Voskresenskaya, analyzing the definitions of terms used as titles of literary works and determining the role of those terms in revealing the subject of the works, states that a work’s title may be regarded as its condensed context (Воскресенская 2012: 141).

The title of the selected novel itself—The Physician. Avicenna’s Student—signals its subject. It is medicine. And this implies the necessity of medical terms. Without them, the narrative could not be imagined, for how could one write about medicine without the terms of this field? In the novel, medical terms are most often used to describe various medical situations, that is, primarily in the author’s (narrator’s) discourse, although, of course, they also occur to some extent in the characters’ (direct) speech. Several principal microcontexts in which medical terms are used may be distinguished.

First of all, they are indispensable when describing the daily work of people who provide treatment (in the novel, barber-surgeons, physicians, and medical students), that is, when examining patients and describing their physical condition, for example:

The barber touched the sooty wrists and fingers, and with a blunt finger poked the swollen elbow (88);

Looking at the extended index finger of the left hand, already severely affected by gangrene, Rob could barely restrain himself from sighing (139);

<...> examined the breast; its skin was bluish, and the muscles were hard and stiff (402);

He vomited and had diarrhea; alternately, he was shaken by chills and scorched by fever (459);

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He was plagued by fever and such an abundance of pus in his chest that a large, soft lump appeared on his back (612).

Medical terms are often used to describe people's illnesses, pathological conditions, and their symptoms, for example:

Plague begins with a mild fever, the head begins to ache, sometimes severely. When the fever rises particularly high, swellings appear in the groin, the armpits, or behind the ears; they are commonly called buboes (408);

The fever had begun long ago—the father began vomiting, and he was tormented by terrible pain on the right side of his abdomen (458);

The first clear sign of the disease is sudden abdominal pain. The pain is usually severe, though sometimes milder. Occasionally there are chills, while nausea and vomiting occur more often. Then the fever rises; this is the second characteristic sign (630).

Medical terms are undoubtedly needed to describe operations and other medical procedures and interventions, for example:

The barber-surgeon scraped dead tissue from the wound, then examined it carefully, gently and precisely pulling out splinters and the smallest burrs with iron forceps (90);

Having cut the skin in a circle around the finger, he paused, wiped the blood with a cloth, then cut into the healthy part of the finger from both sides and carefully folded the skin back toward the knuckle, leaving two flaps (140);

The other patients came one after another in rapid succession: Rob had to put the dislocated ankle back in place and bandage the deep wound made by a sickle in the child's hand (140–141);

He seized the injured leg by the ankle and shin, and the doctor began twisting the crooked leg with effort, trying to straighten it (178);

Then run the tip of the needle toward the outer corner of the eye, slightly higher but parallel to the pupil. Then the cataract will descend beneath it. If you are operating on the right eye, hold the needle in your left hand, and vice versa (363).

Medical terms are essential for conveying knowledge of human anatomy to medical students, for example:

– Pay attention to the femur, said Jalal; it is the largest and strongest bone in the body (425);

Can you see how the seven upper pairs of ribs are attached by flexible cartilage to the sternum? The next three are held together by connective tissue, <...> (425).

The medical microcontexts reviewed show how, by drawing on the core arsenal of medical terminology, the writer creates a compelling professional portrait of the everyday life of a medical specialist.

Since the novel is set in the Middle Ages, it necessarily includes historical medical terms denoting people who practiced medicine at that time and others associated with medicine, for example: barber-surgeon, midwife, quack, wet nurse, for example:

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“Woman, it will hurt you even more,” said the midwife a moment later, applying ointment to her arms up to the elbows (15).

The common folk had to make do with barber-surgeons, who would let blood or otherwise undertake treatment in a dubious manner, <...> (25);

She knew where to find the midwife and carried the baby away (18);

<...> almost everywhere in Europe, people in our profession are merely wretched quacks and swindlers (182).

Historisms may also be considered such medical terms used in the novel as iščios, bubonas, kastracija, kastratas, maras. Thus, medical terms reflect not only the period being narrated but also the state of health and medical affairs.

Two groups of medicine-related terms clearly stand out in the novel. First, there are genuine (scientific) medical terms, mostly denoting anatomical and clinical concepts, and non-genuine medical terms, or quasi-terms (cf. околомедицинская лексика, see Жидкова 2008: 7), pseudoterms that do not precisely name medical concepts but merely indicate them approximately, e.g.:

Lemongrass and dill were suitable for urinary problems, <...> (99);

“Well, a flesh-eating disease has set in; if left unchecked, it will destroy the hand, then the entire arm (139);

<...> she is afflicted by advanced chest trouble <...> (176);

<...> bone disease continued to torment the old woman mercilessly (429);

“This is a disease of the large intestine. Sometimes it is called side disease. Poisoning that began in the intestines has spread throughout the body (459);

“Why are people afflicted by abdominal trouble? (586);

“He had already become an apprentice, but last year he died of a disease in the chest (656);

“I will speak about ailments of the side of the abdomen (669).

A case was found in which such a term is defined, for example:

The barber-surgeon explained to them that Visuotinis ypatingasis is an Eastern medicine made from an infusion of dried and ground flowers, <...> (65).

However, there are not many such, spurious, medical terms. Various names of folk remedies, most often medicinal herbs, plants, and parts of plants, which occur when describing the craft of barber-surgeons, could also be assigned to this group. Such names likewise provide information about the medicine of the age depicted in the novel, when, in the absence of medically trained physicians or the inability to seek their help, people treated themselves with all kinds of herbs, plants, and their infusions, as well as with other objects used in everyday life, e.g.:

Lemongrass and dill helped with urinary problems, sweet flag improved memory deteriorating from dampness and cold fluids, steam from boiled juniper berries cleared congested nasal passages, hot scalded lupins had to be placed on sores, while myrtle and houseleek soothed the itch of rashes (99);

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A feverish lady was given purslane infusion, a child suffering from abdominal pain was given chamomile (108); He tied the boy’s arm to a board, turning the hand palm upward (140); Tearing up several rags, he made a bandage and wrapped Osbern’s foot and ankle (179); He cleansed the intestines with enemas of chamomile tea and milk, and gave him rhubarb and salts (459); <...> An extract of purslane steeped in rose water was suitable for gargling a feverish throat, an infusion of dried pansies relieved headaches and fever, while a mixture of pine resin and honey to suck eased coughing and reduced mucus in the respiratory tract (669).

The discussion then turns to genuine (scientific) medical terms. They are used most extensively in the novel, especially in those parts of the novel that recount R. Koul’s medical studies in the Persian city of Isfahan and richly depict situations in medical science and practice.

First of all, medical terms perform a nominative function in the novel—they name the most important medical concepts:

parts of the human body, organs, and their parts¹⁰: Adam’s apple, eye, cecum, appendix, elbow, foreskin, tissue, ear, mouth, tooth, forearm, head, throat, cervix, uterine wall, palate, skeleton, kidneys, anus, connective tissue, waist, neck, scrotum, bone, knee, liver, groin, hip, leg, blood vessel, blood, cartilage, knuckle, chest, thoracic cavity, rib cage, sternum, ankle, respiratory tract, lens, tongue, lip, thumb, nose, back, armpit, shoulders, peritoneum, abdomen, abdominal cavity, abdominal wall, finger, hand, lungs, muscle, wrist, joint, tendon, testicle, stomach, cheekbone, index finger, nape, large intestine, loins, heart, urinary bladder, femur, rib, trachea, face, vein, pupil, jaw, intestine, upper arm, humerus, etc., e.g.:

The rib hurt badly every time he inhaled for a long while (157); He took the injured leg by the ankle and calf, and the physician, bracing himself, began twisting the crooked leg, attempting to straighten it (178); The tongue was clearly turning black, and the palate had become whitish gray (322); <...> after drinking, he bruised his back, but soon the pain radiated into the left testicle and right thigh (358); Taking out a curved scalpel with a long sharp tip, he cut the skin, opening the abdomen from the groin to the sternum (621); The chest was crushed, the trachea compressed, the slave suffocated, his face already darkened and swollen with blood (658); The lecture concerned fractures of the upper arm, forearm, and ribs, as well as a dislocated jaw, shoulder, and elbow (674); A furrier’s knife slipped deeply into Ostrik’s forearm and severed an artery (695);

¹⁰ Medical terminology groups are presented according to their frequency.

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diseases, pathological conditions, symptoms: tumor, bubo, stitch, tremor, ague, shortness of breath, consumption, European fever, gangrene, jaundice, lump, hemorrhoidal nodes, wart, fever, heat, febrile illness, cataract, cough, hemorrhage, contusion, plague, cramp, neoplasm, scabies, itching, paralysis, marsh fever, cold, thrush, nausea, gout, suppuration, purulent angina, purulent inflammation of the throat, abscess, smallpox, rheumatism, pain, scurvy, runny nose, boil, measles, fistula, vomiting, cancer, wound and so on, for example:

<...>, treats deafness and watering eyes, cough and consumption, stomach pains and jaundice, fever and ague. Overcomes all diseases! (55);

Headache-afflicted widow he sold three bottles of medicine, and to a man with gout—another half-dozen (141);

<...> usually cataracts begin with a tiny spot on the lens that hardly impairs vision, <...> (363);

Day after day Rob amputated limbs, treated various wounds, incised or punctured the abdomen to reduce the pressure of fluid accumulated in its cavity, removed hemorrhoidal nodes, and treated varicose veins (504);

<...> obsessed with thoughts of the disease that had taken her father’s life, he knew perfectly well that the first symptom was vomiting (587);

Hudas complained of symptoms of thrush, but no blisters could be seen in his mouth, he had no fever, his throat was not red, and in general he looked remarkably vigorous for a patient (669);

He told them about herbs—those that reduce headaches, and those that relieve stitches, those to be used to suppress fever or a runny nose, stop blood flowing from the nose or rescue frostbitten skin, those with which to treat purulent inflammation of the throat or aching bones (697);

medicines, medicinal substances, and dressings: therapeutic plaster, medicinal herbs, calomel, camphor, camphor ointment, hot compress, fever-reducing herbs, hemostatic medicines, laxatives, opium, rose water, sagapenum, painkillers, pain-relieving antilpas, pain-relieving mixture, cold compress, ointment, drawing ointment, bandage, medicine, and so on, for example:

<...> left a bottle of pain-relieving antilpas (177); <...> it sets out all the treatments according to Alexander of Tralles and explains how to prepare ointments, hot compresses and therapeutic plasters (193); Then he warmed rose water, soaked cloths in it, and applied compresses, continually replacing the cooled ones with new ones (415); Then he instructed Rob to prepare hemostatic medicines and give the soldier more sour food until it became clear that inflammation and contusions had been avoided (441); <...> nevertheless, sometimes those painkillers enabled surgeons to operate calmly, because the patient did not twitch convulsively or scream (502); He cleansed her bowels and applied cold and hot compresses (583);

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treatment devices, tools, and instruments: needle, ear scraper, surgical instruments, surgical tools, surgical knife, surgical thread, surgeon’s instruments, surgeon’s tools, surgeon’s supplies, double-edged lancet, treatment tools, birthing chair, drill for extracting foreign bodies from bones, splint, duct dilator, bone saw, knife, small knife for opening cysts, scalpel, razor, fine-toothed saw, traction device, waxed thread, etc., for example:

He pulled out two sharp knives, a needle with waxed thread, a short board, cloths for bandages, and a small fine-toothed saw (140);

As Rob’s scalpel pierced the skin, Gershon cried out (243);

He scrubbed and sharpened curved scalpels, bone saws, ear scrapers, duct dilators, small knives for opening cysts, and drills for extracting foreign bodies from bones (496);

<…>, soon he was already working tirelessly with all the surgical instruments (503);

Holding a sharp razor in his right hand, he sliced off unnecessary body parts in a single movement, <…> (508);

He was handed a bag of surgical tools (659);

persons participating in the treatment process: barber-surgeon, surgeon, physician, woman in labor, eunuch, patient, newborn, patient, midwife, nurse, pharmacist, wet nurse, etc., for example:

He certainly did not want to become such a bloodsucking quack as the one who bled his father and caused his death (33);

<…>, he boasted that an experienced barber-surgeon worked in his caravan (279);

The chief physician read an excerpt from Galen stating that urine is excreted by the kidneys (385);

Four patients still had to be examined, and he returned to work, trying to care for them as a good physician should—with the aid of reason, which illuminated each patient as though a small, blazing sun were shining through the crystal lens of his attention (518);

medical procedures, manipulations, interventions: amputation, amputating, Caesarean section, surgical operation, surgical removal of a bubo, cream enema, hot baths, castration, emasculation, bloodletting, dissection of the body, lens opacity surgery, examination of patients, dissection of corpses, milk enema, dissection, autopsy, urine test, cups, cupping, cleansing enema, wound treatment, intestinal cleansing, etc., for example:

He not only administered cleansing enemas, cut hair, shaved beards, but also performed surgical operations and prescribed medicines (42);

<…> hot baths weaken the heart and limbs (88);

Bloodletting, cupping, and intestinal cleansing apparently have no more pronounced effect (410);

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One afternoon, having operated on an eye independently for the first time—the operation for a cataract was what most astonished Rob in surgery—he tried to thank al-Juzjani, but the surgeon brusquely interrupted him (503);

He listened attentively to Rob’s account of amputation and the treatment of wounds <...> (557);

Having begun this double dissection at the site where abdominal disease is found, he was immediately told to stop (624);

healthcare institutions and premises: outpatient clinic, examination room, surgery room, operating theatre, surgeons’ quarters, laboratory, waiting room, dissection room, hospital, plague hospital, children’s ward, operating room, ward, pharmacy, and others, for example:

A large hospital operates in Parvzh. <...> (182);

Through one half-open door, Rob saw an operating room, a bed intended for a patient, buckets, and instruments (192);

Then he found the operating theatre and could barely restrain himself from stopping at each bed to examine what the patients’ wounds and stumps looked like (333);

The two sat down in the examination room and questioned Ibn Sina about the symptoms of his ailment, just as he himself had taught them (610);

<...>, Rob continued to prescribe wine for him to drink every day and ordered him to resume work in the mortuary (614);

For another full month, Rob Jey avoided the outpatient clinic and did not ask to accompany his father on visits to patients (705).

As already mentioned in the introduction, in the second half of the twentieth century the idea was put forward in terminological scholarship that, upon entering an unusual, non-scientific environment, a term inevitably undergoes determinologization. This is the broad conception of the phenomenon under discussion. Such a term no longer designates a special concept; the latter becomes simpler and more understandable to non-specialists. However, the research conducted shows that most medical terms in the novel designate the same concepts as in a scientific text; in other words, their semantic structure remains unchanged, they perform a denotative function, and acquire no additional shades of meaning¹¹; thus, in the broad sense, they are not determinologized, for example:

The thoracic cage protects the heart and lungs, <...> (425);

Ibn Sabur asked him to explain how to distinguish smallpox from measles (516);

– I have heard of such an operation (110).

It is another matter when medical terms are used figuratively in the novel. Such terms have already lost their connection with a special concept; their semantic scope has expanded and a new figurative meaning has formed—in other words, they

¹¹ Some authors call this process despecialization (see Куликова, Сальмина 2018: 58).

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to determinologize (see Куликова, Сальмина 2018: 58), but there were only a few such cases, e.g.:

<...> so that they could be slaughtered by the plague, <...> (312);

– The mosque and the state will grind away from the same guts, <...> (596).

However, on the other hand, it cannot be said that the medical terms used in the two sentences have undergone determinologization to the same degree. In the first sentence, the term plague has undergone partial determinologization; its medical meaning is still discernible, whereas in the second sentence the term guts has already undergone complete determinologization.

A term in a work of fiction is not some foreign body or isolated lexical unit; it is often surrounded by other words, non-terms, which influence its semantic transformation and modification. The context of a work of fiction “rewards” terms with epithets¹², which may alter the term’s semantic structure and provide it with additional semantic connotations (Бобырева 2016: 125; Маджаева 2020: 39).

In the novel, medical terms are often used not alone but with their contextual partners—various descriptive or evaluative adjectives or participles, which would be impossible in a scholarly text, e.g.:

He reached Eglstan’s stables completely out of breath; a sharp stitch pierced his side, and there he saw an unfamiliar elderly woman swaddling a newborn baby (17);

One after another, without delay, he examined the patients: <...> a foolishly grinning girl with an ugly ulcer on her breast, <...> (89);

– I injured my damned leg (177);

<...> he remembered only a huge fever and such a terrible headache that his entire skin became extremely sensitive (414);

However, Ibn Sina summoned him not to confirm the otherwise obvious terrible disease (429);

At night he cut open the old, bald man, wishing to discover what had caused such a peaceful death, <...> (632).

In the novel, medical terms are also enlivened by employing other kinds of contextual partners—verbs together with their dependent partners, most often adverbs, e.g.:

Pain stabbed once more, first in her abdomen, but immediately seized her mind and entire body as well, so that she could no longer stand (14);

Pain gnawed unbearably, different this time, unfamiliar (15);

And if the stream is copious, does that mean the body flushes out and expels the disease? (385);

<...> plague devours both souls and bodies alike (411);

<...> witnessing how swiftly illness devours Ali Rashid, <...> (412);

¹² There is an opinion that epithets are one of the most widespread means of realizing the evaluative function (Лобанов 2008: 79).

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However, the fever again gathered its strength and attacked (412);

<...>, and then the abdominal pain again angrily reminded him of its presence (608);

I will also examine the urine, and we will observe whether the illness will advance further (695).

Medical terms in fiction on medical themes are used to create a vivid comparison. Here, the term plays a dual role—it is either the signified or the signifier of the comparison. Thus, two types of comparisons can be distinguished. In comparisons of the first type, a scientific concept is described through an everyday one; here, the specificity of the scientific concept is seemingly pushed into the background, whereas in the second type, conversely, an everyday concept is described through a scientific one (Жидкова 2007: 87).

The novel contains many medical terms, most often organs or parts thereof, that form part of comparisons of the first type, for example:

Whenever she gave birth, she would pray to the saint bearing her name, and Saint Agnes would help her, but this time the whole world was nothing but unrelenting pain, while the fetus in the womb—like a huge plug (15);

After him, Rob led a stocky, balding man behind the curtain, with eyes pale as milk (108);

The intestines were pink like a painted Easter egg, the blood bright red (133);

After quite some time, through the abdominal muscles he felt the large mass, soft as a soaked sponge, contract into a small, firm ball (170);

<...> Rob was again greeted by the sea-sickness like an old friend (307);

<...> he felt the pulse beats, weak and fluttering like the wings of a trapped bird (412);

The abdomen on the right side appeared hard as a board (459);

He clearly saw several pink milk ducts converging at the nipple; they were like branches of a river converging at its mouth (511);

When the animal stepped on it, its upper arm cracked like a little stick, <...> (518);

Rob worked patiently, cutting through muscles, drawing them like wires or skeins of rope (631);

At night he cut open the old man’s remains, wanting to discover what had caused such a peaceful death, and saw that the artery supplying the heart and lower part of the body was withered and shrunken like a stalk (632);

<...> drew the intestines in the distended abdomen like an overturned goblet, protecting the life growing within it (632);

His jaws were locked, his mouth full of frothy saliva, barely passing through his clenched teeth, while his body was arched like a taut bow – his abdomen raised upward, with only his heels and head resting on the bed (674).

Medical terms occurring as components of phraseological expressions were also found, for example:

<...> even spitefully mocked the chairman, Draifildas, the king’s court physician, <...> (667),

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or as components of other figurative expressions, for example: – Apparently, you had not been in the city for the past couple of years, when the smallpox epidemic raged? (124); <...>, they rode to the homestead on the hill, where the smell of illness lingered – there Ostrik’s wife Ardise was struggling with death (704).

Thus, having discussed the last five instances of the use of medical terms, the question arises: can it be claimed that all the terms mentioned here have been determinologized? Or, for example, do the adjectives sharp (a sharp stitch), barrel-chested (a barrel chest) and so on, and the verbs eat away at (the plague eats away), attack (the disease attacked) and so on, eliminate the denotata of the terms stitch, chest, plague, disease? Here, it would most likely be possible to speak of partial determinologization, or despecialization; in other words, although medical terms are used in another, nonscientific sphere as well, they designate special denotata, yet surrounded by contextual partners they are understood more simply than in their usual functional environment.

In a scientific text, a medical term cannot be replaced by another word, except in cases of absolute synonymy, for example, caries and tooth decay, epilepsy and falling sickness, skeleton and skeleton, pericardium and pericardial sac. Fiction is another matter. Here, a term gains greater freedom and becomes semantically more flexible.

In the novel, medical terms are sometimes replaced by other words or word combinations from the general language. For example, instead of the term amniotic fluid, her own ocean is used, for example:

Agnese placed her palm on her abdomen and felt the baby moving, floating in her own ocean between her hips (13).

Although the term waters also occurs, for example:

Before giving birth to Anna Mary, she miscarried several times afterward, but both Jonathan and the little girl, as soon as the waters broke, emerged easily from her body, like smooth seeds, without feeling them slip between her fingers (15).

The male organ (Latin penis) is called a spike, a thing, for example:

<...> she will remember how hot and wondrous her husband’s spike joins them both as she lets him into the depths of her body (506);

Ala’s thing, which had protruded upright like a stick, was considerably bent, <...> (581), or by a euphemism, for example:

This was probably related to his trimmed penis (256);

His penis looked smaller than Rob’s and darker (580).

A specialist in surgery is designated by the term surgeon, but it is sometimes replaced by such vivid expressions as bone expert, mender of bones and limbs, for example:

<...> Rob once again crossed the entire hospital, but this time following the hakim Jalal ul Din, the mender of bones and limbs; his patients lay wrapped in ropes, <...> (364);

Rob did not understand, but the bone expert winked cheerfully (616);

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Because of such a multitude of anatomical and therapeutic errors, the bone expert Jalal would have caused a real uproar (674).

The use of diminutive suffixes in fiction is regarded as one of the stylistic devices. Terms with these suffixes in such texts may be used not only to describe a concept—in other words, they do not convey any evaluation—but also to express certain emotional shades (see Маджаева 2020: 39; Ланьлян 2013: 181). However, such suffixes do not affect the semantic content of a term (Жидкова 2007: 86–87). The diminutive derivatives under discussion usually name the same thing as their base words, but the thing named is generally smaller than an object of the same kind designated by the base word (see Keinys 2005 [1975]: 65).

Medical terms with diminutive suffixes also occur in the novel under examination. Such terms have no additional connotations, for example:

William Stuart lost his appetite; his little face looked increasingly pointed, while his eyes looked larger (210);

“Follicular tonsillitis,” Feraton finally said, pointing to the white little sores in his father’s dark-red throat (26);

This time he showed new little tumors that had sprouted in the groin (243);

According to the chief physician, the little lump that initially appears becomes a small heart; then a second little lump appears, from which the liver develops; at the third stage, all the other vital organs form (508);

He had treated a man who had been bitten in the neck by a donkey, incised more than one boil, set a dislocated wrist, and returned the little bones of a broken finger to their place (673).

As already noted, medical terms in the novel are most often used in their direct terminological meanings; only a couple of metaphors involving medical terms occur. In the novel, the infectious disease plague, besides the term plague in its direct meaning, is also called by the figurative term Black Death, which lends the text vividness and vitality, for example:

<…> the chief physician announced that he was sending them to Anshan to fight the Black Death, <…> (397);

Since the Black Death can be caused by infection transmitted through the air and spread by the fumes of decay, I would think that you should build the largest possible bonfires of fragrant trees both near the sick and near the healthy (397);

<…> on the left, when the Black Death broke out, four of every five doctors caring for the sick themselves became infected and died (401);

<…>, we carried those corpses out of the city as quickly as possible and burned them, but it was too late, the Black Death had appeared among us as well (403);

The same can be said of the term death, which in several instances is replaced by a vivid animistic metaphor, for example:

He tries to outwit the accursed Black Knight (582);

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And he realized that, in fighting the accursed Black Knight, he was fighting to survive himself (665).

In a scholarly medical text, it is customary to provide the Latin equivalents of terms alongside them. The novel likewise contains such a scholarly insertion, in which the Latin equivalent is written next to the Lithuanian name of an organ, for example:

Every butcher knows this, because he sees every day where the kidneys are; he sees the ureter leading from each kidney to the urinary bladder (called ureter^¹³), and thus, by examining such anatomy, understands their purpose and the work they perform (385).

Most of the medical terms used in the novel are clear to readers without medical training. Their author generally does not explain them. And when a term is explained, it is usually explained simply, in everyday language, though also expressively, for example:

The heart is a pump that circulates blood (566).

One way in which the author explains unclear terms to the reader in a work of fiction is to clarify the meaning of an opaque term by relying on other terms appearing nearby, which in turn are more or less clear (see Camoxина 2011: 165).

In the novel, several borrowed medical terms are explained by synonyms, that is, by their Lithuanian equivalents, for example:

Therefore, the old Persian doctors called this disease nazul-i-ab, in other words, “water leakage.” This name later became simplified to “waterfall disease,” or cataract (362–363);

Rob felt uneasy, remembering the horseman who had died of opisthotonus,<...> (674);

<...>; it was opisthotonus, backward spasm (674).

There were a dozen or so medical terms or components of compound medical terms that may be unclear to the ordinary reader, yet the author does not explain them, and this lends the narrative an air of mystery, for example:

– Inflammation of a temporary nature supuratyvus (26);

When he left, he left a small bottle containing a mixture of liquid kalomelio and reed charcoal <...> (26);

The Barber needed portulakų; when steeped in the Special [mixture], they would stop and suppress the fever (99);

I know how to cut off an injured finger so that the bigė would look as decent as possible (184);

By the end of his studies, everyone would be able to perform flebotomiją, cauterize, incise arteries, and remove cataracts (193);

<...> there is a bubonas in the intestines (194);

^¹³ Kursyvinta originale.

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<…> the heart; it works like a constantly clenching fist, ejecting blood during sistolę, then relaxing and filling with blood again during diastolę (495); He visited them for three days in succession, giving them both sparrow’s herb and sagapeno, and Ibn Sina’s purges, but saw no effect whatsoever, <…> (574); Having poured opium and buingo into Kasim’s red wine, he hurried to the patient (618); Perforuojantis abdominal disorder was observed in six cases; all the patients died (630); It was precisely the season when krupas began to rage, and Rob would now have found Persian medicinal substances useful <…> (669).

The central medical term of the novel may be considered gydytoją. Moreover, it also appears in the novel’s title. This term is used most frequently—more than 300 occurrences have been counted (for the numbers of occurrences of other medical terms in the novel, see Table 1). Gydytojo’s contextual partners are words with twofold connotations—positive (usually) and negative, for example:

<…> so, in a moment of weakness, he summoned a real doctor <…> (25); <…>—That is precisely what is wrong,—he snapped,—that such a clever doctor can in no way help me get rid of the pain in my bones and joints, <…> (175); Rob vaguely remembered the Barber speaking of the famous doctor Adolescentol <…> (191); Perhaps somewhere there is a great doctor who can help him (238); <…>, but he is a wonderful doctor, <…> 420); <…>, a respected and prosperous doctor, <…> (423);—You are a fine doctor, Jesse, <…> (446);

Yet you are honest and honorable, and also an extraordinary doctor (490); <…> the best way to become a famous doctor is to win the chatir (495); Ibn Sina was the most distinguished doctor in the caliphates of East and West, <…> (513); The greatest and most wonderful doctor, to whom no one in the whole world was equal (637); In time, both understood that the ruler would take no action, although the prince of doctors—a distinguished man—was the shah’s favorite (590);

<…> the gate commander Ibn Sina showed the customary respect for the prince of doctors, <…> (590); <…> Above these wretched little men stood red-cheeked, arrogant doctors, who cared for the nobility because they charged like no one else (66); Everyone says that the science is worthless, and those who complete it are useless doctors (109); Of course, among the Jews there were sometimes genuine blockheads who later became mediocre doctors, <…> (514); I heard it said that the wizard doctor can affect a patient so that foam begins to pour from his mouth and he stiffens as if dead (674).

Surrounded by such contextual partners, conflicting attitudes toward the medical profession in those distant times become apparent.

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TABLE 1. Number of occurrences of medical terms in the novel

Medical term | Number of occurrences physician | 384 patient | 202 hospital | 64 disease, body, barber surgeon | 61 medicine | 56 pain | 50 drug | 42 hand | 38 blood | 37 abdomen | 36 wound | 33 eye | 32 plague | 31 surgeon | 30 bone, leg | 25 skin, fever | 24 treatment | 20... | fewer than 20

In conclusion, one may agree with the view that artistic medical discourse cannot do without terms that reveal the professional and linguistic worldview of the medical specialist in a more interesting and profound manner (Маджаева 2020: 39), as well as more accurately, realistically, and convincingly.

Although the study was based on a single source, certain principal tendencies in the functioning of medical terms in a literary text nevertheless emerged. They may be confirmed or refuted, supplemented or refined in further studies in this field.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

1. The need for, emergence, and inevitable necessity of medical terms in a literary work are determined by the work’s subject matter. In the novel The Physician: The Story of Avicenna’s Disciple, medical terms are most often used to describe various medical situations revealing the everyday work and specific nature of physicians’ activities. Medical terms

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lend the narrative scientific suggestiveness and realism. They create a professional, medical environment and characterize it, thus becoming a means of implementing the writer’s ideological conception and a reflection of the state of health and medical affairs in the historical epoch depicted—the Middle Ages.

2. Four principal microcontexts in which medical terms are used in the novel have been distinguished: examining patients and describing their physical condition; describing diseases, pathological states, and their symptoms; describing operations and other medical manipulations and interventions; and conveying anatomical knowledge.

3. Two groups of medical terms used in the novel have been distinguished: genuine (scientific) medical terms, which mainly designate anatomical and clinical concepts, and spurious medical terms, or pseudoterms, which denote medical concepts only approximately. The latter also play a considerable role in the novel, as they reflect the period depicted, when most diseases had not yet been identified; consequently, they are described descriptively, for example, appendicitis is called in the novel a flank ailment, an abdominal ailment, an abdominal disorder, an abdominal disease, an ailment of the large intestine, a flank disease, an abdominal-flank ailment, an abdominal-flank disease.

4. From a terminological perspective, the medical terms used in the novel comprise 7 principal groups: parts of the human body, organs and their parts; diseases, pathological states, and their symptoms; medicines, medicinal substances, and dressings; therapeutic devices, tools, and instruments; persons involved in the treatment process; medical institutions and premises; and medical procedures, manipulations, and interventions. Thus, it may be said that the writer presents the reader with the entire arsenal of medical terminology.

5. Unlike in a scientific text, where a term is monofunctional, in a literary text it is characterized by multifunctionality.

5.1. The principal function performed by medical terms in the novel is nominative (denominative), i.e. they are most often used in their direct, terminological meaning, as in a scientific text, and have no additional emotional, evaluative, or similar overtones; in other words, they are stylistically neutral.

5.2. Another important function performed by medical terms in the novel is pictorial: that is, the terms help create realistic portrayals of a physician’s everyday work.

5.3. Most medical terms are clear and understandable to readers without medical education. Only a few unclear medical terms occurred. In this case, such terms perform a cognitive function, since clarifying their meanings helps provide new medical information.

5.4. There are relatively few medical terms in the novel that perform an emotional-expressive function, i.e. the most important function of literary-style texts. However, it should be noted that this function is characteristic of them only when the terms are used in the text not alone, but together with their contextual partners—various descriptive and evaluative adjectives and participles. Medical terms are particularly personalized and enlivened

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verbs, which in turn themselves have dependent contextual partners (most often adverbs). Medical terms, most often naming organs or parts thereof, sometimes form part of such a semantic stylistic device as comparisons.

5.5. Another function of medical terms that should be mentioned is the educational function. Medical terms, coherently woven into a literary text and having become an integral part of the world of images and emotions, also provide the reader with knowledge of the history of medicine or deepen such knowledge, while broadening the reader’s practical education.

6. The study conducted essentially refutes the claim that a term, upon entering an environment atypical for it (a literary text), undergoes determinologization. Manifestations of this phenomenon in the novel under study are rare, except for isolated cases of metaphorization, since medical terms most often precisely designate concepts without losing their terminological meanings, i.e. they retain a transparent semantic structure. Partially determinologized, or despecialized, medical terms are somewhat more common.

ŠALTINIS

Noah Gordon. Gydytojas. Avicenos mokinys. Iš anglų kalbos vertė Leonas Judelevičius, Vilnius: Alma littera, 2020.

LITERATŪRA

Gaivenis Kazimieras 1997: Termin izacija ir determin izacija. – Terminologija 4, 4–7. Prieiga internete: http://journals.lki.lt/terminologija/article/view/804/895.

Gaivenis Kazimieras 2002: Lietuvių terminologija: teorijos ir tvarkybos metmenys, Vilnius: LKI leidykla.

Humbert-Droz Julie, Pict ion Aurélie, Condamines Anne 2019: How to build a corpus for a tool-based approach to determinologisation in the field of particle physics. – Research in Corpus Linguistics 7, 1–17. DOI 10.32714/ricl.07.01. Prieiga internete: https://archive-ouverte.unige.ch/unige:126482.

Keinys Stasys 2005 [1975]: Priesaginė lietuviškų terminų daryba. – Dabartinė lietuvių terminologija, Vilnius: Lietuvių kalbos instituto leidykla, 21–76.

Kvašytė Regina 2005: Mokomasis terminologijos žodynėlis, Šiauliai: VšĮ Šiaulių universiteto leidykla.

Mincu Eugenia 2018: Sistemul terminologic medical: modelare și remodelare. – Philologia LX, 30–36. Prieiga internete: https://ibn.idsi.md/sites/default/files/image/file/30-36.pdf.

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Mitkevičienė Asta 2020: Terminai internetinėje žiniasklaidoje (žvalgomasis tyrimas). – Terminologija 27, 108–127.

Pikčilingis Juozas 1971: Lietuvių kalbos stilistika 1, Vilnius: Mintis.

Riaubaitė Šarūnė 2016: „Gydytojas. Avicenos mokinys“ nukels į paslaptingus XI amžiaus pasaulius. Prieiga internete: https://www.15min.lt/kultura/naujiena/literatura/gydytojas-avicenos-mokinys-nukels-i-paslaptingus-xi-amziaus-pasaulius-286-722622?copied).

Salamakha M. Ya. 2017: Secondary Nomination as the Way of English Environmental Term-Formation. – Science and Education a New Dimension. Philology V (32), Issue: 122, 70–73. Prieiga internete: https://seanewdim.com/uploads/3/4/5/1/34511564/m.va_salamakha_secondary_nomination_as_the_way_of_english_environmental_term-formation.pdf.

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Medical Terms in a Fictional Text

SUMMARY

The article addresses medical terms in Noah Gordon’s novel The Physician, reveals the features of their functioning in the fictional text and the functions performed by them.

The need and occurrence of medical terms in fiction are determined by the theme of the work of fiction. Concerning the novel under analysis, medical terms are usually used to describe various medical situations revealing the daily routine and specificity of the physician’s job. They create a professional, medical, environment and characterise it, becoming the means of bringing the writer’s idea to life and a reflection of the healthcare and medical situation of the historical epoch – the Middle Ages – described in the novel.

Four major micro-contexts of the novel in which medical terms are used were distinguished: patients’ examination and determination of their physical condition, description of diseases, conditions and their symptoms, operations and other medical manipulations and interventions, presentation of knowledge in the field of anatomy.

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Medicinos terminai grožiniame tekste

Medical terms were classified into two groups: proper (scientific) medical terms, which mainly nominate anatomical and clinical concepts, and improper medical terms, or pseudo-terms, which indicate medical concepts to some degree only.

Thematically, the medical terms used in the novel make up seven major groups: parts of the human body, organs and their parts; diseases, conditions and their symptoms; medications, medicinal substances and dressings; medical equipment, tools and instruments; people involved in the treatment process; medical institutions and facilities; medical procedures, manipulations and interventions. In other words, the writer provides the reader with the massive stock of medical terms.

The medical term demonstrates multifunctionality in the fictional text.

The principal function played by medical terms in the novel is nominative, i.e. they are usually used in their direct meaning in the manner identical to a scientific text and have no additional emotional, evaluative, etc. shades; in other words, they are stylistically neutral.

The medical terms used in the novel help in creating realistic images of the physician’s daily life, i.e. they play a visual function.

Most of the medical terms are clear and understandable to the reader without any medical background. The clarification of the meaning of unfamiliar medical terms helps the reader to get new medical information, playing an informative function.

In the novel, the medical terms, which are accompanied by descriptive and evaluative adjectives and particles, personifying and vivifying verbs and which form comparisons, idioms and other vivid expressions, perform an emotional-expressive function. They make up an integral part of the work of fiction as the world of artistic images and emotions.

The medical terms used in the novel provide the reader with the knowledge of medical history or enhances the said knowledge and benefits the reader professionally, i.e. they play an educational function.

As soon as the medical term gets into a non-typical environment (a fictional text), it usually nominates the same specific denotatum as in a scientific text; in other words, it does not undergo full terminologization. Partly terminologized medical terms are slightly more common in the novel.

Įteikta 2021 m. balandžio 7 d.

PALMIRA ZEMLEVIČIŪTĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

Petro Vile išio g. 5, LT–10308 Vilnius, Lietuva

[email protected]

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