Lexical Strategies in Intralingual Translation between Registers

Hill-Madsen, Aage

doi:10.7146/hjlcb.v27i54.22949

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…intralingual translation (e.g. Zethsen 2007, Ezpeleta Piorno 2012, Hill-Madsen 2015a, Zethsen/ Hill-Madsen 2016, Muñoz-Miquel et al 2018. This interpretation stresses the fact that the linguistic transformation serves to neutralize a comprehension barrier, exactly as is the case with translation in the ordinary sense of the word, i.e.…”

Section: Pils As Products Of Derivationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Coherence in hybrid texts: The case of the Patient Information Leaflet genre

Hill-Madsen¹

2019

HJLCB

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This article investigates the degree of coherence in a particular type of hybrid text, viz. the Patient Information Leaflet, which is a lay-oriented genre fusing original and derived textual elements. Having their source in the specialized genre named Summary of Product Characteristics, derived segments undergo various kinds and degrees of registerial simplification in the transfer to the Patient Information Leaflet. Given this complex textual genesis, the aim of the article is to investigate the nature and degree of coherence in the Patient Information Leaflet genre, and, more specifically, to investigate the degree of integration between derived and non-derived elements. Following Halliday/Hasan’s (1976) definition of the coherence concept, the article examines the genre’s contextual coherence in the form of registerial consistency and its text-internal coherence in the form of cohesiveness. For the investigation of cohesiveness, the analytical framework known as Cohesive Harmony Analysis (Hasan 1984, 1985) has been applied to a sample text from the genre, and likewise to a parallel lay-oriented, but non-hybrid text from the health column of a British quality newspaper, which serves as a control. While the investigation confirms already well-known problems with registerial consistency in the Patient Information Leaflet genre, the analytical results reflect a high degree of cohesiveness, and one that is even markedly higher than that of the non-hybrid control text. Further, the results reflect a high level of integration between derived and non-derived segments in the Patient Information Leaflet.

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Section: Pils As Products Of Derivationmentioning

confidence: 97%

Coherence in hybrid texts: The case of the Patient Information Leaflet genre

Hill-Madsen¹

2019

HJLCB

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“…The literature on PILs is vast and tends to be focused on comprehension barriers and problems with poor readability in the genre (e. g. Askehave/Korning Zethsen 2003, 2010, Clerehan/ Buchbinder 2006, Hirsch et al 2008, to name but a few). Studies that are more specifically concerned with the derivational aspect of PILs, i. e. with PILs as products of derivation and popularization processes, are, e. g., Ezpeleta Piorno (2012), Van Vaerenbergh (2003 and Hill-Madsen (2015a, 2015b. A precursor of the present investigation is Hill-Madsen (2015a), which is a study more broadly focused on the reformulation of lexis as such (not only specialized, but also semi-and non-specialized items), whereas the present study focuses specifically on the popularization of highly specialized medical terminology.…”

Section: Presentation Of Corpusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variable scope for popularization of specialized terminology

Hill-Madsen

Pilegaard

2019

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This paper responds to the call often voiced in today's knowledge society for popularization of specialized knowledge within a field relevant to us all, viz. medicine. Specifically, the aim of the paper is to explore the popularization potential of specialized terminology within this field. Whereas many previous studies of popularization within different LSP fields have been preoccupied with the actual linguistic strategies employed in the mediation of specialized knowledge to non-expert audiences, the present study explores whether subcategories of terms associated with medicinal products exhibit different degrees of popularization potential, i.e. whether there are differences in the degree to which terminological subcategories in this field lend themselves to popularization. Empirically, the investigation is based on a corpus of two derivationally related text types: The specialized pharmaceutical genre named Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC) and the patient-oriented counterpart, the so-called Patient Information Leaflet (PIL), which contains user-relevant information, recontextualized from the SmPC, about the medicinal product in question. The PILs are legally required to be written in a lay-friendly register. We identified four categories of specialized terms from the SmPCs that are recontextualized in the PILs: a) terms for medical disorders, b) biochemical and microbiological terms, c) terms for medicinal products or the active substances of these, and d) terms for so-called excipients (carrier substances in the drug). Using the so-called ‘coupled-pairs’ methodology known from Translation Studies, whereby lexical items with a medico-pharmaceutical content in the PILs were traced back to their origin in a specialized SmPC term, we identified patterns of popularization strategies that differed markedly between the four categories of terms: Terms for medical disorders are either replaced with established core-vocabulary equivalents, or their constituent Greek/Latin morphemes or words are translated more or less directly into English. Biochemical/microbiological terms and terms for medicinal products/active substances, on the other hand, are not actually replaced by such reformulations, but are in virtually all cases retained in the PILs and accompanied by a definition. Excipients, it turned out, are in effect not popularized at all, but transferred directly from the SmPC without any kind of reformulation or explanation. We argue that these different types of strategy, i.e. a) replacement by a core-vocabulary equivalent or translation, b) definition and c) direct transfer, represent a scale of popularization, with replacement strategies representing the top degree and direct transfer the lowest degree. Since the findings show a very clear correspondence between the different types/degrees of popularization and the terminological subcategories, we conclude that this overlap indicates clear differences in popularization potential: When a given category of terms is consistently popularized by means of one type of strategy rather than others, this must be taken as indicative of what the category in question allows. We also venture explanations for the observed divergences in popularization potential. Thus, in the medical-disorder category of terms, etymology turned out to a key factor, since the Greek/Latin origin of most of these terms makes for easy translatability (in the ordinary, i.e. interlingual, sense of the word). This is because the original Greek/Latin constituent morphemes/words of these terms represent a wholly non-specialized vocabulary that is easily translated into core English lexis. In the biochemical/microbiological category and the medicinal-products/active-substances category, this etymologically based translatability is absent, and so the only other popularization strategy available appears to be definition. Definitions using terms understandable to the lay reader are, however, possible in these two categories, since the salient parts of the definitions turned out to consist in references to bodily functions or diseases for which lay terms exist, or for which the medical term is typically known to the average lay reader. The absence of explanatory definitions in the excipients category, on the other hand, is in all likelihood due, not to the impossibility of defining such terms (since any specialized term is definable), but to the impossibility of providing definitions based on concepts known to the lay reader. Excipient terms denote substances that are only definable by reference to their chemical composition and to their location within a specialized taxonomy of chemical substances and compounds – a taxonomy, in other words, which is bound to be beyond the chemical knowledge of most lay readers. With medico-pharmaceutical terminology as a case in point, the implications of the paper’s findings are that popularization is not equally possible across terminological categories. Hence popularization may at best be able to only partially bridge the knowledge divide, or asymmetry, between experts and non-experts. The investigation is here limited to a particular field of LSP terminology, i.e. medicine, and a particular language, i.e. English. Even so, theoretically, the paper may be seen as representing a first step towards creating a taxonomy of popularization strategies that may be further explored and refined in future studies encompassing other specialized domains and other languages than English.

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“…After a few years, the factory bought new machinery from England intended for this specific kind of rotational moulding. In England, this manufacturing process was more common at the time than it was in Denmark (Madsen, 2015).…”

Section: The History Of Dandollsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the late 1980s, the company changed its name to Dan Hill Plast A/S, but already during the 1970s the dolls were sold under the name of DanDoll. The company specialized in rotational moulding and over time made hollow articles for an increasing variety of purposes (Dan Hill Plast A/S; Madsen, 2015).…”

Section: The History Of Dandollsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A study of stearyl alcohol bloom on Dan Hill PVC dolls and the influence of temperature

Lauridsen

Hansen

Brock‐Nannestad

et al. 2016

Studies in Conservation

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A study was conducted to investigate white bloom found on more than 130 polyvinyl chloride (PVC) dolls from the 1980s and 1990s produced by the Danish factory Dan Hill Plast A/S. The bloom was discovered on the dolls after 10 years of storage in a climate controlled facility with average temperature at 11-12°C and a relative humidity at 50 ± 5%. Analysis of the dolls and the bloom was carried out using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, which revealed that the bloom consisted primarily of stearyl alcohol. Subsequent analysis with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed a minor presence of cetyl alcohol. It is proposed that the alcohol had been added as a lubricant to aid flow during processing. The stearyl alcohol was almost completely reabsorbed into the PVC dolls following one month storage at room temperature, suggesting that low temperature storage played a decisive role in the appearance of the bloom. It is likely that a decrease in temperature has led to a decrease in compatibility of the stearyl alcohol in the PVC compound, thus promoting its exudation. This paper also discusses an extreme bloom of white crystals on other PVC dolls of unknown provenance.

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Lexical Strategies in Intralingual Translation between Registers

Cited by 17 publications

References 20 publications

Coherence in hybrid texts: The case of the Patient Information Leaflet genre

Coherence in hybrid texts: The case of the Patient Information Leaflet genre

Variable scope for popularization of specialized terminology

A study of stearyl alcohol bloom on Dan Hill PVC dolls and the influence of temperature

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