Translation of medical terms into Chinese

Abstract

The subject of this study is the peculiarities of translating medical terms into Chinese. The purpose of the study is to analyze strategies for translating medical terms into Chinese, as well as to identify the most effective and frequent methods of translation of medical terms. The research material is medical terms (60 hieroglyphic names of medicines and medical equipment) and their translation into Chinese. The article analyzes the four most commonly used ways of translating medical terms: phonetic, semantic, graphic and mixed. The analysis also focuses on alphabetic words of the Chinese language: full alphabetic words and partial alphabetic hieroglyphic words. The features of translating medical terms of Latin origin into Chinese and medical terms borrowed from English are compared. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used: descriptive method, method of analysis of theoretical literature, as well as methods of systematization of material and classification. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that with the advent of new medicines and medical equipment, the question of translating new concepts into other languages, in particular into Chinese, has become acute. The article provides examples illustrating typical ways of translating medical terms into Chinese. The authors conclude that when translating borrowings from Latin into Chinese, preference is given to the phonetic method, while when translating English medical terms, phonetic-semantic, semantic and graphical methods are mainly used. The semantic method allows you to convey the meaning of borrowed words most fully, as well as create a pragmatic effect. The frequency of using the graphical translation method is significantly lower, since English and Chinese have different types of writing, which also introduces limitations for the transmission and interpretation of information.