Iryna Rybizant

Danylo Halytsky Lviv National Medical University

Terms in neurology and their interpretation in the Ukrainian explanatory dictionaries

© Rybizant I. L., 2014

Terms of neurology as a separate branch of medicine are considered in the article. Some features of their system organization are distinguished.

Keywords: Ukrainian language, terms of neurology, explanatory dictionary, lexical value, affix.

The development of Ukrainian medical terminology is closely connected with terminology formation in general. The problem of correlation between Ukrainian and English medical terms has been researched by I. Оhienko, S. Smal’-Stotsky, О. Potebnia; among modern linguists М. Zhovtobriukh, L. Petrukh, N. Tsisar, N. Misnyk and others are worth mentioning in this respect.

Neurology as an independent branch of medicine deals with diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the spine, the cerebrum and peripheral nerves. Neurological terminology is a logical combination of national and adopted words designating diseases, their symptoms, means and methods of treatment. The basis of neurological terminological system is still formed by Ukrainian words.

Among borrowings quite a lot of terms have classical roots (stems) that are used at the beginning or at the end of compounds. Combining with each other, they form compound terms which scientists refer to internationalisms and international words.

For this analysis not all such words were taken, but only a small quantity of neurological terms that have such international components. This research focuses on special post-position lexemes such as -фоб(ія), -гноз(ія), -том(ія) and -ман(ія).

International components, both prepositive and postpositive, play an important role in the creation of new terms.

For example, the postpositive component -фоб(ія) is used in compound words that correlate with the concepts "intolerance", "fear" and denote a sense of fear in relation to what the first component designates (акрофобія, клаустрофобія, ізолофобія, ксенофобія).

Another postpositive component -ман(ія) describes concepts connected with psychic disorders. It typically denotes the concentration of consciousness and feelings on a particular idea (демономанія, дактоманія, дипсоманія, клептоманія). On basis of the same principle the post position components -оз, -том(ія), -гноз(ія) were considered.

Modern Ukrainian medicine develops rapidly, therefore new concepts that require nomination appear. For the nomination of neurological concepts Greek and Latin elements are mostly used giving terms constituency and productivity (it is clear that in ancient Latin and Greek such words could not exist. They have been coined relatively recently). The development of medicine is also characterized by continuous exchange of information that results in the enrichment of vocabulary of the language by new branch terms.

The analysis of medical terminology allows concluding that in Ukrainian there is a developed and well structured system of medical terms that meets modern international scientific standards and can serve as a means of communication between specialists, both theoretical researchers and medical practitioners. The main source of Ukrainian medical terminology is native Ukrainian names as well as borrowed terms and their derivatives. Modern Ukrainian medical terminology is a thematically branched system that is constantly developing and expanding due to lexico-semantic and word-formation processes in the general literary language.