A Study Of English And Chinese Medical Terminologies:Based On Iconicity-Theory

In recent years,English for specific purposes(ESP)has attracted scholars' attention both at home and abroad.As one of its branches,English for medical purposes(EMP)also raises people's attention.And it is known to all that medical terminology is the first and foremost obstacle to overcome in the process of learning both medical English and Chinese.Based on these,this study will focus on English and Chinese medical terminologies,aiming at providing some implications and strategies for people who study medicine.This study will firstly analyze the iconicity of English and Chinese medical terminologies from four aspects: phonological iconicity,morphological iconicity,semantic iconicity and etymological iconicity.And then based on this analysis,a comparative study will be carried out to find out the similarities and differences between the two.Among them,Chinese medical terminology is selected from some books about Chinese medical terminology and the study of the iconicity of Chinese medical terminology is based on the previous study of English medical terminology.This thesis is original for the analysis of the iconicity of Chinese medical terminology and the comparative study between the two,which haven't been done by the previous studies.In order to do this study,the qualitative method which includes text analysis and the comparative study will be used.And in this thesis,for one thing,text analysis is used to analyze the iconicity of medical terms:(1)the medical terms which belong to phonological,morphological,semantic and etymological iconicity will be selected from medical books;(2)then the iconicity of these terms will be analyzed in detail;(3)besides the example terms,some other terms that have iconicity will be listed in order to better illustrate the iconicity of medical terms.For another thing,after the above analysis,a comparative study between English and Chinese medical terminologies will follow to find out the similarities and differences between the two,which can help people to have a better understanding of English and Chinese medical terminologies.Through this study,the results show that one medical term,either in English or Chinese,can have both,for example,phonological and morphological iconicity.And it also displays that English and Chinese medical terminologies are more similar in phonological semantic iconicity whereas they are mainly different from each other in morphological and etymological iconicity.At the same time,it is suggested that both medical teachers and students should apply iconicity to the teaching and learning of medical terms,which will be of great help for their study of medical terms.