Contrastive and Translation Analyses of Medical Texts (English-Spanish): the Case Report genre

Abstract

The main aims of this doctoral thesis are to identify the features of medical texts and to determine a framework for contrastive and translation analyses. This thesis is divided into three main parts. Each part is introduced by a theoretical framework followed by an empirical-descriptive study.

The first part is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 presents and briefly evaluates a series of text typologies from three different perspectives. There we found some relevant deficiencies to approach in this thesis. Based on the lack of characterization of text genres, we proposed a contextual model of genre characterization. Chapter 2 characterizes medical texts and proposes some contextual elements as defining features of medical genres, based on a proposal taken from Gamero (1998 and 2001). Due to the lack of empirical identification of genres, Chapter 3 focuses on the identification, characterization and classification of groups of medical genres into a text typology based a general corpus of written medical texts. The text typology was hierarchically organized according to text functions and tenor (communication level).

The second part is divided into two chapters. Chapter 4 presents an overview of concepts related to the communicative and sociocultural approach selected for this thesis and provides different translation categories based on Hurtado (2001). Chapter 5 characterizes medical translation within the framework of specialized, scientific and technical translation. It also shows some varieties of specialized translation and its definition, and proposes some specific competences for professional translators of medical texts.

The third part is divided into four chapters. Chapter 6 situates this thesis within the framework of corpus linguistics and shows an application of the contextual model of genre characterization, analyzed in the Case Report genre, selected from our typology of written medical genres. Due the lack of description of linguistic characteristics of text functions, in Chapters 7, 8 and 9 a corpus-based approach is used in a comparable corpus and a parallel corpus respectively. Chapter 7 identifies the text functions of the selected genre by means of a seven-step methodology adapted from Hatim (1997), in which systematic analyses of context elements, hypotheses and superstructure (Introduction, Case Description and Discussion) are analyzed in the comparable corpus. Chapter 8 identifies the linguistic conventions of the text functions in the superstructure by means of a five-step methodology, in which three analysis units are processed, compared and interpreted in the comparable corpus. Chapter 9 identifies translation conventions and variants by means of a

seven-step methodology, in which a set of contrastive analyses are used within the framework of the text functions in the parallel corpus of the Case Report genre. Finally, in addition to conclusions and perspectives, some findings in particular can be highlighted: the characterization of 31 written medical texts, a definition of medical genres, one predominant function (argumentation) and two subsidiary functions (exposition and instruction) of the Case Report genre and a prototypical structure for its writing, and a set of linguistic conventions and translation conventions and variants.