Includes bibliographical references.

Maintaining the balance between knowledge and the lexicon in terminology: a methodology based on frame semantics -- An English–Chinese termbase of neological medical terms: a corpus-based project -- Lexical verbs in a medical case-report wordlist -- Disambiguating the use of common terms across related medical fields: the problem of intervention -- A socio-cognitive investigation of English medical terminology: dynamic varieties of meaning.

[Article Title : Maintaining the balance between knowledge and the lexicon in terminology: a methodology based on frame semantics / Marie-Claude L’Homme, p. 3-22]

Abstract : This paper argues for an approach to terms—based on Frame Semantics (Fillmore in Ann N Y Acad Sci Conf Origin Dev Lang Speech 280:20–32, 1976; Fillmore and Baker in A Frames Approach to Semantic Analysis, 313–339, 2010)—that takes into account their linguistic properties and shows how terms and their properties are connected formally to the expression of knowledge in specialized fields. I briefly present the theoretical assumptions underlying this proposal. The main part of the article describes the methodology devised to implement the proposal in two terminological resources that are under development at the Observatoire de linguistique Sens-Texte (OLST). The methodology that comprises seven main steps is based on that of FrameNet (https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/fndrupal/, 2017. Accessed 20 January 2017) (Ruppenhofer et al. in FrameNet II: extended theory and practice. https://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/fndrupal/index.21php?q=the_book, 2016. Accessed 27 January 2017), the lexical implementation of Frame Semantics. I illustrate the methodology by applying it to terms that belong to the field of endangered species, a subfield of the environment.

[Article Title : An English–Chinese termbase of neological medical terms: a corpus-based project / Qingxiang Sun and Xuhua Zhang, p. 23-38]

Abstract : Rapid advances in medical sciences produce an enormous number of neologisms that are not promptly included in the dictionaries. Corpus technology and IT have furnished language researchers and lexicographers with more effective and efficient means than traditional manual efforts of extracting neologisms. Online dictionaries are gaining popularity against those in print. This paper reports a corpus-based project aimed to build an English–Chinese neological medical termbase. For this purpose, a corpus and an exclusion list have been prepared, the former containing the articles published in the top four comprehensive medical journals from 2010 to 2015 and the latter composed of entry items in a recently published bilingual medical dictionary, a general English lexicon, and all entry items in a name dictionary. Medical neologisms extracted from the corpus are being standardized and translated into Chinese, thus constituting the intended termbase. A search engine has been constructed and will be launched as the outlet of the termbase for the target users.

[Article Title : Lexical verbs in a medical case-report wordlist / Tatiana Canziani and Philippa Mungra, p. 23-38]

Abstract : Clinical case reports or clinical cases (CRs) are, perhaps, the most widely read text type in medicine, since they contain a detailed description of the patient’s medical history and symptoms and thus furnish ample teaching material for physicians-in-training. For non-native speakers of English in medicine, autonomous learning is often restricted because of a lack of medical lexicon, poor academic vocabulary, and weak lexical verb use. Here, we present the results of an investigation of lexical verbs: their distribution, classification, and contextual use in the different sections of the genre CRs. We suggest that lexical verbs with contextual use should be included in medical dictionaries to aid vocabulary development for all levels of English language competence. We found that relational and reporting verbs predominate in CRs and are used to describe and contextualize author observations. Stative verbs are generally found to describe patient data, while change of state verbs generally refers to patient response to therapy. Contextual analysis suggests that lexical verbs categories might be related to the moves of this genre, useful for teaching the structure of medical publications. We give some applications of this investigation to dictionary building and in integrating corpora in teaching and eventually in testing activities.

[Article Title : Disambiguating the use of common terms across related medical fields: the problem of intervention / Adam Smith and Aleisha Davis, p. 63-80]

Abstract : Medical terminology can cause problems of communication both between professionals in related fields and between medical professionals and their patients. Generic medical terms labelled as ‘semi-technical’, such as treatment, are often polysemous and, therefore, present potential difficulties that need to be addressed by medical dictionaries and term banks. This paper will look at the problems caused by the term intervention as related to the treatment of children with hearing loss. The broad application of the term, in both a clinical/medical context and a general one, opens up the possibility of misunderstanding for professionals and patients alike. The efficacy of using corpora as a means of assessing the importance of a particular term is widely acknowledged. In addition, researchers such as (L’Homme, A Lexico-semantic Approach to the Structuring of Terminology. CompuTerm 2004—3rd International Workshop on Computational Terminology, 2004) have emphasised the importance of corpus data in establishing the network of associations that common terms may have in specialised fields. This study will first identify the prevalence of the specialist uses of intervention in general corpora, and then present the findings from a c.260,000-word corpus composed of academic papers published between 2000 and 2014 on the topic of intervention for children with hearing loss. It will demonstrate the centrality of the term to this field of medical discourse, present the range of meanings and collocations associated with it, and propose lexicographical approaches to clarifying the uses of this and similar semi-technical terms.

[Article Title : A socio-cognitive investigation of English medical terminology: dynamic varieties of meaning / Maria R. Dahm, p. 81-103]

Abstract : Patients and doctors can differ in their ideas about what constitutes ‘a medical term’ and what a particular term might mean. Differences in the understanding of medical terminology in doctor–patient communication can impact patient health outcomes. The field of terminology has moved away from the notion of univocity (one term permanently assigned by scholars to describe one concept). Novel, more applied approaches to terminology study have provided evidence for the dynamic variety of meanings associated with specialist terms. One of these, the socio-cognitive approach to terminology aims to explore how the understanding of terms is influenced by the interplay between different cultural, linguistics and knowledge backgrounds. However, most studies in doctor–patient communication have previously neglected to include non-native English speaking doctors or patient in studies focused on the impact of medical terminology in medical encounters. This mixed methods study aims to contribute the new era of descriptive and applied terminology studies by exploring the perception, and understanding of medical terminology among native and non-native English speaking patients and doctors in Australia. In this way, this study adds to the growing evidence base that challenges the ideal of univocity in a global world where monolingual and multilingual individuals from different cultural and knowledge backgrounds commonly use (medical) terminology in specific (medical) contexts.