Comprehensibility in translation of medical texts

Abstract

Medicine is a field that is being closely followed as a scientific field worldwide and in which there are continuous developments. Because it is a science that covers the necessary applications to prevent and treat diseases, as well as to protect and improve health. This field of science, whose history is as old as the history of humanity, has its own terminology, which comes from Greek and Latin. Therefore, the (difficult) comprehensibility of the medical language is one of the issues emphasized. Medical professionals know this terminology well and understand it easily. Lay people, however, may have difficulty understanding medical language. The (difficulty) level of language used in medical texts varies according to the target audience. If the target audience of the text is professionals, a language dominated by sophisticated medical terminology of Greek and Latin origin is used. The reason for this is that medical terminology facilitates communication, as it is a shared language worldwide. However, if the target audience of the text is lay people, people tend to use easier-to-understand language and more common medical terms and known to the public. This is because the text should be accurate and easy to understand. This should also be the aim of translations of medical texts. This present study analyzed the Turkish translations of German texts published on the website of an official institution and produced to inform the public about infectious diseases. Informative texts about 32 different diseases on the website were analyzed, and eight texts were selected as different examples of ‘comprehensibility in translation’. The study focused on medical terms and expressions that are unclear, misunderstood, or cause ambiguity in translation texts and investigated the causes of the clarity problem. As a result of the study, it was observed that the literal translation approach in the translation of medical texts in which equivalent equivalents (i.e. national medical terms) in their own language replace medical terminology since the target audience is lay people, leads to the emergence of 'comprehensibility' problems.