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.

Keywords

• Medical language
• medical text
• medical translation
• comprehensibility in translation
• literal translation

References

1. Erten, A. (2016). Tıp Terminolojisi ve Tıp Metinleri Çevirisi. Ankara: Seçkin Yayıncılık
2. Göktürk, A. (2016). Çeviri: Dillerin Dili. İstanbul: YKY yayınları.
3. Günay Köprülü, S. (2017). Tıbbi Çeviri ve Zorlukları, Turkish Studies - International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, 12(7), 249-262.
4. Hansen-Schirra, S. and Gutermuth, S. (2015). Approaching comprehensibility in translation studies. In: K. Maksymski, S. Gutermuth, and S. Hansen-Schirra (Eds.) Translation and Comprehensibility, 53–76. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
5. Hastürkoğlu, G. (2020). A Case Study on the Effectiveness of Teaching Morphological Analysis for Translating Medical Terminology, International Journal of Languages’ Education and Teaching, 8(2), 155-166.
6. Maksymski, K. (2015). Dimensions of translation. In: K. Maksymski, S. Gutermuth, and S. Hansen-Schirra (Eds.) Translation and Comprehensibility, 11–32. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
7. Newmark, P. (1979). A Layman’s View of Medical Translation, British Medical Journal, 1405-1407
8. Newmark, P. (1988). A Textbook of Translation. Prentice Hall.

9. Nisbeth Jensen, M. (2015). Optimising Comprehensibility in Interlingual Translation: The Need for Intralingual Translation. In: K. Maksymski, S. Gutermuth, and S. Hansen-Schirra (Eds.) Translation and Comprehensibility, 163–194. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
10. Odacıoğlu, M. C. and Çoban, F. (2017). Tıp Metinlerinin Çevirisinde Çevirmenlerin Kullanabilecekleri Yöntem ve Stratejiler, Turkish Studies - International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, 12(22), 545-558
11. Prunč, E. (2002). Einführung in die Translationswissenschaft. Selbstverlag, Institut für Theoretische und Angewandte Translationswissenschaft.
12. Stolze, R. (1997). Übersetzungstheorien. Eine Einführung. Gunter Narr Verlag.
13. Tahir Gürçağlar, Ş. (2016). Çevirinin ABC’si. İstanbul: Say Yayınları.
14. Vinay, J.-P. and Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative stylistics of French and English: a methodology for translation, Translated and edited by Juan C. Sager, M.-J. Hamel, John Benjamins Publishing.
15. Wolfer, S. (2015). Comprehension and Comprehensibility. In: K. Maksymski, S. Gutermuth, and S. Hansen-Schirra (Eds.) Translation and Comprehensibility, 33–51. Berlin: Frank & Timme.
16. Yalçın, P. (2015). Çeviri Stratejileri. Kuram ve Uygulama. Ankara: Grafiker.
17. https://www.infektionsschutz.de/erregersteckbriefe/