The Vocabulary of Science-Popular Medical Discourse (as Exemplified in German Online Media)

Abstract

The paper analyzes the vocabulary of the German science-popular medical discourse as exemplified in the German online media. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest of non-professional participants of medical communication, as the main recipients of this institutional discourse, to the processes of self-diagnosis and self-treatment, which require the expansion of medical knowledge. The paper examines the texts of more than 40 publications in detail, establishes their distinctive structural features, genres and vocabulary. It is shown that the dominant genre in the studied type of discourse is a science-popular article. It has been established that the lexicon of the type of discourse under study includes common vocabulary, general scientific vocabulary and medical terminology. We consider some ways to clarify the terms: explanations, the use of doublet forms, hypertext links, as well as the use of international word-building elements. The types of phraseological units and metaphors that function in science-popular medical discourse are characterized: it is shown that phraseological units based on the similarity of the phenomena of the medical field with the phenomena of the animal world, as well as with everyday life realities, and metaphors based on images of the game, war and court are used more frequently. The results of the study prove the need to expand the scope of study of medical science-popular discourse by considering it in linguopragmatic and stylistic aspects.

Keywords

• vocabulary
• medical terminology
• medical phraseology
• metaphor
• online media
• medical discourse
• science-popular discourse
• German language