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RESEARCH ARTICLE Open AccessThe use of Latin terminology in medical case reports: quantitative, structural, and thematic analysis

Yuliia V. Lysanets

and Olena M. Bieliaieva

Abstract

Background:This paper focuses on the prevalence of Latin terms and terminological collocations in the issues of

Journal of Medical Case Reports(February 2007-August 2017) and discusses the role of Latin terminology in the

contemporary process of writing medical case reports.

Methods:The objective of the research is to study the frequency of using Latin terminology in English-language

medical case reports, thus providing relevant guidelines for medical professionals who deal with this genre and

drawing their attention to the peculiarities of using Latin in case reports. The selected medical case reports are

considered, using methods of quantitative examination and structural, narrative, and contextual analyses.

Results:We developed structural and thematic typologies of Latin terms and expressions, and we conducted aquantitative analysis that enabled us to observe the tendencies in using these lexical units in medical case reports. The

research revealed that the use of Latin fully complies with the communicative strategies of medical case reports as a

genre. Owing to the fact that Latin medical lexis is internationally adopted and understood worldwide, it promotes the

conciseness of medical case reports, as well as contributes to their narrative style and educational intentions.

Conclusions:The adequate use of Latin terms in medical case reports is an essential prerequisite of effective sharing of

one's clinical findings with fellow researchers from all over the world. Therefore, it is highly important to draw students'

attention to Latin terms and expressions that are used in medical case reports most frequently. Hence, the analysis of

structural, thematic, and contextual features of Latin terms in case reports should be an integral part of curricula at

medical universities. Keywords:Medical discourse, Medical case report, Latin, Term, Terminological collocationBackground The profound influence of Latin upon the genesis and development of English medical terminology is undeni- able and well-grounded [1-3]. Approximately 95% of English terms are borrowed from or created on the basis of Latin and latinized Greek [4]. Therefore, the English medical terminology cannot be"reasonably mastered without the knowledge of basic Latin"[5]. Within the English terminological system, Bujalkova and Dzuganova distinguish (1) Latin terms that were assimilated into English (anglicized Latin terms, such as"muscle,""vein," "nerve,"and so forth), (2) terms that experienced a multiple assimilation (from Greek into Latin, from Latin into Old French, from Old French into English; for in- and (3) terms preserved in the original Latin form ("vena," "dorsum,""nucleus,"and so forth) [2]. The last-mentioned group of terms are preserved in the original Latin form up to the present but have undergone certain modifications in terms of pronunciation in accordance with English phonetic rules. Therefore, we suggest referring to this group of lexis as semiassimilated terms. In addition, we consider it necessary to distinguish the nonassimilated Latin terminology, represented by multiple-word terms that preserve the original features of the Latin grammat- ical system, such as the relationship between the parts of speech, agreement in gender, inflection rules, and so forth * Correspondence:julian.rivage@gmail.com Department of Foreign Languages with Latin and Medical Terminology,

Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine© The Author(s). 2018Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and

reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to

the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver

(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Lysanets and BieliaievaJournal of Medical Case Reports (2018) 12:45

DOI 10.1186/s13256-018-1562-x

(for example,per os,cor pulmonale,os ischii,musculus latissimus dorsi, and the like). Within the framework of medical discourse, virtually all genres are based largely on Latin and latinized Greek terminology. All medical research is built on the principles ofab ovo("from the very beginning,"literally "from the egg"),ab incunabulis(literally"from the cra- dle"), andad fontes("back to the sources"), which provide the intergenerational continuity of medical science. Indeed, all areas of theoretical and practical medicine (biology, anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, clinical sciences, and so forth) as well as nomenclature corpora (taxonomies, International Non- proprietary Names, and so forth) are deeply rooted in the ancient nominative traditions. In this context, Latin occupies the firmest position in the anatomical vocabu- lary. Studies in Latin and Latin translations from Ancient Greek [6]"were the foundation of scientific thinking that was born in the boards of first universities" and"remain relevant in the current official anatomical terminology"[7].De humani corporis fabrica libri septem("On the Fabric of the Human Body in Seven Books,"1543) by Andreas Vesalius not only contributed to the formation of anatomy as a separate academic sub- ject [8] but also contained the data of pharmacological interest, such as the mention ofdigitalis, which is still used to treat heart failure. Pathology ranks second to the prevalence of Latin terminology; apart from Latin terms, clinical medicine displays more intensive expression of national languages [5]. Hence, it is natural that both original research (pri- mary articles) and review articles (literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses) use Latin terms extensively. Within the structure of primary research lit- erature, it is also necessary to distinguish such an important genre as medical case report (MCR). In fact, MCRs are of interest because publications in this genre present a detailed report of diseases, the symptoms and their localization, management, and prognosis. That is, each MCR represents and integrates several medical domains and activities (description of anatomical struc- tures and physiological conditions, laboratory studies and experiments, diagnosis and treatment, and so forth) at the same time. Therefore, it is relevant to determine to what extent the Latin terms are spread and how they are used in contemporary MCRs, as exemplified in the Journal of Medical Case Reports(JMCR). In such a way, our present research provides medical professionals with an appropriate terminological arsenal to be ready to deal with the genre of MCRs.

Methods

The objective of the research is to study the frequency of using Latin terminology in English-language MCRs and, in such a way, to provide relevant guidelines for medical professionals to produce effective MCRs. The material used for the present research is the corpus of 1275 papers published inJMCRfrom February 2007 through August

2017. The material was selected by automatic search and

sampling using theLatin-Ukrainian Thesaurus of Clinical Terms[9]. The search strategy was based on the authors' teamwork: two groups of MCRs were formed and subse- quently compared and discussed for their eligibility for inclusion. To standardize the selection of Latin terms, we developed the structural and thematic typologies of these units. The structural typology focuses on the major modeling patterns of Latin terminology in MCRs and comprises the following groups:

1.One-word terms: This category includes

semiassimilated medical lexis that is deeply entrenched in the modern English language and is included in all English dictionaries (such as "abdomen,""varicella,""appendix,"and so forth). For objective reasons, these terms will not be subjected to quantitative analysis, because they virtually penetrate the entire English medical discourse. However, this group also embraces the Latin lexis, which is not that common and therefore can be studied quantitatively.

2.Two-word phrases: The group of two-word phrases

is of particular interest because these terms are much less anglicized and preserve the original features of the Latin grammatical system. We believe that careful lexicogrammatical categorization of these terminological units will provide better understanding and deeper memorizing of them, which in turn will prevent possible spelling errors in MCR writing. We conducted quantitative analysis of the two-word terminological phrases and present them in descending order (highest to lowest frequency) within each subcategory. Hence, this group embraces the following subcategories: a. Preposition + noun in ablative case b. Preposition + noun in accusative case c. Preposition + adjective in ablative case d. Noun + adjective constructions e. Other types of two-word phrases represented by miscellaneous constructions, such as noun + pronoun, preposition + pronoun, adverbial constructions, noun + noun in genitive case, noun + participle in genitive case, and verb + adverb

3.Three-word phrases: The group of three-word

phrases comprises the following subcategories: a. Noun + adjective + adjective b. Noun + noun + adjective c. Noun + adjective + noun d. Noun + preposition + noun Lysanets and BieliaievaJournal of Medical Case Reports (2018) 12:45 Page 2 of 10 e. Preposition + preposition + noun

4. A subgroup of compound English-Latin word

phrases, which we refer to as thehybrid terms, containing both assimilated and nonassimilated lexical units

5. The group of abbreviations

Further, we organized the collected material into

thematic groups and determined the frequency of their use inJMCR:

1.Medical phenomena and processes:

a. Anatomical descriptions b. Physiological conditions c. Methods of studies and experiments d. Indications for treatment and routes of administering medications e. Pathological conditions

2.Academic language

The selected MCRs were considered using the method of lexicogrammatical and stylistic analyses, with a focus largely on the structural peculiarities, narrative function, and contextual role of Latin terminology. The use of Latin terms and phrases was subjected to quantitative examination to determine their frequency.

Results

We studied 1275 papers published inJMCRfrom

February 2007 through August 2017 and containing

Latin terms and terminological phrases. Within the structure of the selected research material, MCRs consti- tute an overwhelming majority (n= 1232), followed by errata (n= 17), research articles (n= 14), reviews (n=

10), and editorials (n= 2). We developed the structural

and thematic typologies of Latin terms and conducted quantitative analysis of these terms. In this way, we determined the frequency of using Latin in MCRs, as well as detected the most prevalent and productive lexical units and phrases. The structural typology com- prises the following groups:

1.One-word terms: We found four MCRs with the

adverbmane(meaningin the morning), which is used in prescriptions, for example:"She was treated for MDD with paroxetine 20 mg/manein 2002" [10]. There are four publications with the which is used for descriptive purposes, for instance: "a reduced debit of the fistula ofcirca10 mL"[11].

We detected 17 cases of using the nounerratum

(meaningerror) for amending a published text.

Furthermore, the one-word terms are represented

by compound Latin lexis, such asprimigravida ("a woman who is pregnant for the first time"; n= 30 cases) andnullipara("a woman who has never given birth";n= 2 cases). In this context, it is necessary to remark that pluraliz- ing one-word Latin terms can sometimes be quite a challenge. For instance, a common mistake occurs when deriving the plural form of the Latin wordseptum. This lexical unit belongs to the second declension of Latin nouns, neuter gender. Therefore, the correct plural form in Latin (and in English) issepta. However, the plural formseptais quite often mistaken for a singular formquotesdbs_dbs46.pdfusesText_46

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