Syntactic Variability in Medical Terminology

Abstract

Syntactic variability is one means formal variability manifests itself in medical terminology through. Data for the research were collected from the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Medical Terms. The article analyzes the types of syntactic variability as follows: ‘word / word combination’ and ‘word combination / word’ substitutions; replacement of a prepositional word combination by a nonprepositional one; replacement of an abbreviation by an explicit term; change of the subordination type within a word combination that acts as a term; simplifi cation of the term’s formal structure; change of the morphological status of the dependent word. Group (type) one of syntactic variability comprises a number of models, namely: 1) a model where semantics of a word-combination term is equal to root morphemes of the word term; 2) a model where semantics of a word-combination term corresponds to root and affi xal morphemes of the word term. Materials of the work once again confi rm that the problem of variability cannot be ignored neither when it comes to compilation of standard dictionaries nor in the context of theoretical research. Questions about the degree of dependence of the special medical language upon cultural and historical development of the literary language and the role of individual lexicographers in the compilation of medical dictionaries and normalization of variability are still open and unanswered.