Medical Translation Essay Example for Free

Medical Translation Essay Introduction The medical terms to be translated are selected from three articles. Two articles deal with the posttraumatic stress disorder, a kind of mental disease and the other article is about the immune response in transplantation. Medical terms differ from that in daily use, and the same word can have different meanings within various contexts. In addition, many medical terms have roots and affixes which are mostly borrowed from Greek and Latin language, and as a result an analysis of the roots, prefixes and suffixes is necessary in order to translate the terms acutely and succinctly. Some terms can be transliterated into Chinese language while some need to be paraphrased into Chinese according to the context. The translation of medical terms should not only be accurate, but should also be concise, easy to understand and avoid being ambiguous. Article One: Blockade of Lymphocyte Chemotaxis in Visceral Graft-versus-Host Disease 1. Graft-versus-host Disease: Graft means any transplanted or implanted organ or tissue in English, in Chinese language, graft can be translated as â€Å" †. The term â€Å"versus† in English means the situation in which two sides are against each other. In Chinese language, the term refers to â€Å" †, but the term â€Å" † is usually used in military area and it is not concise for the translation of â€Å"versus† in medical field. Comparatively, the term â€Å"? † in Chinese is more suitable for the translation of â€Å"versus† as it is concise and it can reflect the condition in which one part is resistant toward another. â€Å"Host† means the body which accepts the transplantation. In Chinese, the character â€Å" † means the body on which another animal or plant lives (cf. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary:854). In medical field, â€Å"† can be referred to the body to which the organ or tissue is attached. Therefore, the disease Graft-versus-host can be translated as â€Å" †, a disease in which the transplanted organ is antagonistic towards the body which accepts the implantation and it can lead to the destruction of the host body. 2. Antigen-presenting cells: The prefix â€Å"anti† means being against and antagonistic. The suffix â€Å"–gen† refers to â€Å"that which generate†. Therefore, the term â€Å"antigen† can be literally translated as â€Å" †, a kind of substance that can generate immune response. â€Å"Presenting† refers to â€Å"clinging to a cell surface for detection of other molecules†. In biological process, the antigen-presenting cell can process the antigen cells by taking and presenting them to the lymphocyte cells. In Chinese language, the term â€Å" † refers to recognizing and detecting specific substance and the term â€Å" † means â€Å"taking† and â€Å"bringing†. Consequently, the term â€Å"antigen-presenting cell† can be translated into â€Å" † in Chinese language. 3. Lymphocyte recruitment: Lymphocyte is a kind of leukocyte cell and it is a product of lymphoid tissue, participating in immune activities. In Chinese language, the term â€Å"lymphocyte† is transliterated as â€Å" †, which refers to pertaining to the lymphocyte. The term â€Å"recruitment† refers to the gradual increase and in Chinese language, â€Å" † means a growth and proliferation in number. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. 4. Secondary Graft Losses: â€Å"Secondary† generally refers to the second rank in dictionary, but in the context, the term means being derived from what is original and primary. The term â€Å"secondary† should be translated as â€Å" † which means pertaining to progressive. The terms â€Å"losses† means dysfunction and destruction of the transplanted graft and in the context, and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese. Consequently, the term â€Å"secondary graft losses† translated into Chinese is â€Å" †. 5. Myeloproliferative Disorder: The root â€Å"myelo† refers to bone marrow and the term â€Å"proliferative† means rapid growth and increase. The term means an abnormal increase of marrow. Thus â€Å"myelo† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The term â€Å"proliferative† can be translated as â€Å" † which means abnormal increase and production. â€Å"Disorder† can be translated as â€Å"? † which means abnormal condition of body. Therefore, the term â€Å"myeloproliferative disorder† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. 6. Antichemotactic effect: The prefix â€Å"anti† means â€Å"against† and it can be translated as â€Å"? † in Chinese language. The term â€Å"chemotacxis† refers to the orientation of a microorganism in response to chemical stimulus and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language which means the orientation of an object moving toward or away from something. â€Å"Effect† means result of something and it can be interpreted as â€Å"† in Chinese. Thus the term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. Article Two: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Diagnosis, History and Longitudinal Course 7. Shattered Cognitive Assumptions: The word â€Å"shattered† means fatigue, â€Å"cognitive† refers to mental process including thinking and learning and the word â€Å"assumptions† means subjective supposition. The term here refers to the disease with which the patient subjectively cannot stop thinking and assuming something terrible is going to happen without real proof and actually everything is imaginary. â€Å"Shattered† here can be translated as â€Å"†, and â€Å"cognitive† can be interpreted as â€Å" † and â€Å"assumptions† can be translated as â€Å" † in which the character â€Å"? † means â€Å"subjective and imaginary† and â€Å"? † refers to thinking. The character â€Å"? † means â€Å"disease†. Therefore, the term can be concisely interpreted as â€Å" †. 8. Fear Conditioning: The word â€Å"fear† means the feeling that someone thinks he or she is in danger. The word â€Å"conditioning† refers to a situation in which a stimulus originally unable of evoking a response becomes able to cause the response to occur by linking it with another stimulus that does so. The term â€Å"fear conditioning† here in the context means in a particular neutral condition, the patient who suffers posttraumatic stress disorder feels worried and frightened by consistently linking the neutral condition to the unpleasant experience that causes the patient to feel feared. â€Å"Fear† here can be translated as â€Å" †, which means feeling in danger and â€Å"conditioning† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which refers to under a particular situation. Therefore, the term â€Å"fear conditioning† can be translated as â€Å" †. 9. Diffuse Anxiety: â€Å"Diffuse† means not specific or limited and in the context, â€Å"diffuse anxiety refers to a kind of mental disease with which the patient experiences uncontrollable worries and fear without definite reasons. It is a kind of anxiety that has no specific content or focus. â€Å"Diffuse† here can be translated as â€Å" † which means pervasive and not confined and â€Å"anxiety† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which refers to fear and worries. As a result, the term â€Å"diffuse anxiety† can be translated as â€Å" †. 10. â€Å"Shell Shock† The word â€Å"shock† refers to an emergency in which the tissues and organs of a body experience a lack of blood flow and oxygen, and it can lead to severe damage to the body. In the context, â€Å"shell shock† is a mental disease, and it often occurs in soldier who has been hurt by the explosion of cannonballs. Patients with the â€Å"shell shock† generally have symptoms like tremor, headache, difficulty in concentration. â€Å"Shock† can be transliterated as â€Å" † and â€Å"shell† can be literally translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The translation of â€Å"shell shock† should be â€Å" †. But the translation â€Å"† cannot reflect the nature of the disorder. As a result, the term â€Å" † which means the neurasthenia should be added to the translation. Therefore, the term â€Å"shell shock† should be translated as â€Å" †. 11. â€Å"Operational Fatigue†: The term â€Å"operational† is pertaining to military and â€Å"Fatigue† literally refers to weariness. In the context, â€Å"fatigue† means mental tiredness and â€Å"operational fatigue† is a mental disorder with symptoms like irritability and tremor. The disorder mainly occurs in soldiers who are influenced by the cruelty of war both mentally and psychologically. â€Å"Fatigue† can be translated as â€Å" † which means unbearable mental and psychological stress caused by war. Thus, the term â€Å"operational fatigue† can be translated as â€Å" †. 12. â€Å"Startle Reaction† The word â€Å"startle† means to frighten or alarm suddenly and the word â€Å"reaction† refers to the response to a stimulus. In the context, the term â€Å"startle reaction† is a symptom of posttraumatic patients who behave and response vigilantly to neutral stimulus. The term can be translated as â€Å" †. 13. â€Å"Sympathetic overreactivity†: The word sympathetic means showing sympathy and understanding. The term in the context means the symptom of patient who over concerns and understands other people’s feelings. â€Å"Sympathetic† can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. â€Å"Overreactivity† refers to abnormal reaction and it can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. The term, then can be concisely translated as â€Å" †. 14. â€Å"Traumatic Neurosis†: â€Å"Traumatic† refers to serious injury to the human body. The term â€Å"traumatic neurosis† in the context means the shadow exerted by traumatic injury to the human body both in psychology and mentality. The term â€Å"traumatic† can be translated as â€Å"† which means relating to physical injury and â€Å"neurosis† can be interpreted as â€Å" † which means the psychological dysfunction and mental fatigue. The term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language. 15. â€Å"Psychological Numbing† The term in the context refers to the aloof attitude of the patient towards the people and events around him or her. People with psychological numbing are frigid and show little concern or care about the outside world. The term is related to the patient’s psychological and emotional attitudes towards the society and â€Å"psychological† can be translated as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"numbing† can be interpreted as â€Å" † in Chinese language which means apathetic and callous. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. 16. â€Å"Delayed Referral†: â€Å"Delayed† means something happened latter than expected. â€Å"Referral† refers to the transference of a patient from one clinician to another. In the context, delayed means the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder which may occur latter than expected after the traumatic event. â€Å"Delayed† here can be translated as â€Å" † which means postponement and â€Å"referral† can be interpreted as â€Å" †. Therefore, â€Å"Delayed Referral† can then translated as â€Å"†. Article Three: Neuroimaging and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder 17. â€Å"Extinction Recall†: The word â€Å"extinction† means something that is extinguished and disappeared and â€Å"recall† refers to recollection. In the context, the term means the symptom of intrusive recollection of the terrible scenes experienced by the patients who suffer posttraumatic stress disorder. They develop hallucination in brain and experience the scene as if it were happening again. Therefore, the term can be translated as â€Å" † in Chinese language in which the word â€Å" † means again and again, and â€Å" † refers to experiencing and suffering. 18. â€Å"White Noise†: The word â€Å"white† means albus literally, but in the context, the word has another connation. Actually the word â€Å"white† in the article means the noise that can cover the disturbing sound and it is beneficial to human body. Thus the term in the article can be translated as â€Å" †. The term â€Å" † means not being disturbing and â€Å" † refers to noise. 19. â€Å"Flashback Intensity† â€Å"Flashback† means a vivid and sudden and recurrent memory of a past experience. In the context of the article, the term refers to a recurring and lively image of traumatic experience happened in the past. The intrusive memory is so lively that the patient who suffers posttraumatic stress disorder often recognizes the memory as something that is occurring in the real time. Therefore, the term â€Å"flashback intensity† can be translated as â€Å" †. The character â€Å" † means memory, the term â€Å" † refers to flashback and â€Å" † means intensity. 20. â€Å"Concomitant Dissociative Responses: â€Å"Concomitant† means existing at the same time and it can be translated as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"dissociative† refers to separate and it can be interpreted as â€Å" †. The word â€Å"response† means reaction and it can be concisely translated as â€Å" †. In the context, the term means reactions that coexist with posttraumatic stress disorder. As a result, the term can be translated as â€Å" †. Conclusion The medical terms are different from the terms used in daily life and it is characterized by its academic accuracy and conciseness. The translation of the medical terms should not only be a linguistic conversion between two languages, but also be a product in a specific context. English, as an international language, absorbed a large number of Greek and Latin roots and affixes. A good understanding of the roots and affixes is crucial in translating medical terms. By analyzing the literal meaning and the context, the terms can be translated by adopting the strategy of transliteration and paraphrasing. Bibliography Baidu Encyclopeida. http://www. baidu. com/ Collin Cobuild Learner’s Dictionary Concise Edition. 2001. HarperCollins Publishers. Homepage of The Free Dictionary by Farlex. http://www. thefreedictionary. com/ Hudong Encyclopedia. http://xinjiancitiao. hudong. com/ Haici Dictionary. http://dict. cn/ Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary [1988] 2004. Oxford University Press; The Commercial Press. Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page.