[医学英语翻译特色及实例分析] 医学英语词汇

　　【摘要】近年来,随着医学界的对外交流越来越多,人们越来越注意医学成果英语表达质量问题。然而,一直以来,我国一直缺乏高水平的医学英语专业翻译人才,造成了国内医学英语翻译混乱,标准不统一及译文质量不高等诸多问题,严重影响了中国的医学成果在世界上的发布与交流。 本文以一个医学英语翻译与编辑的实际经验,通过大量的例证讲述并分析了医学英语翻译的特色及应注意的问题,对广大医学论文的的作者和从事医学英语翻译的认识提供了一定的指导意见。
　　【关键词】医学英语翻译 医学英语编辑
　　【中图分类号】G623.31 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】1009-9646(2008)09(a)-0210-03
　　
　　【Abstract】Recently, more and more medical communications with western countries demands people pay more attention to the quality of medical English translation. However, due to the lack of top medical English translators and interpreters, a lot of problems arise, severely affecting china’s medical communications with foreign countries. Experiences as a medical English translator and editor are to be shared to show what medical translation actually is. Meanwhile , this article can also help medical translators to avoid some common problems.
　　【Key words】Medical English translationmedical English editing
　　
　　I still remember the first time when I translated an introduction to a medicine. I put every word corresponds to the source language in my translation, which turns to be a “words cluster” more than a logic translation. It was a terrible experience; however, it forces me to think about what translation really is, and what is the unique features of medical translation. Since then, I have walked a long way, and I am still learning and practicing. Medical translation is a very practical course that involves much reading, practicing, thinking, and editing. I had a lot of fun in it and I would like to share it with my readers.
　　When I worked in the West China Hospital as an intern editor, I had met many doctors from all departments. Some of them had a native accent, but poor English writing; some of them looked upon my major for they thought an English translator cannot afford medical translation because of its professional background, and many more were waiting for helps from English writers and editors so to make their researches published in foreign medical journals. From them, I saw my position and future direction.
　　As Day said: “The goal of scientific research is publication…A scientific experiment, no matter how spectacular the results, it is not completed until the results are published and understood”. It is true; however, mistakes are still seen everywhere in Chinese medical journals, even in the core-sourced ones. For instance, in Vol.2 No2 2002 of Chinese Journal of Evidence-based Medicine, there are 44 grammatical mistakes in the abstracts, 14 misuses of pronouns, and two dangling modifiers. From this, we can see, revising and proofreading is very important for an article’s publication and being understood.
　　In the following part, I will try to compare some of the words, sentences in my translation to explain characteristics of medical writing.
　　Word Revision
　　Word revision is the first and most basic step to edit a medical translation. As Day expressed in his book “biomedical writing”: “medical writing emphasizes that clarity is the key, both in the use of simple than flowery language”. In other words, clarity and simplicity is two of the characteristics of biomedical writing. Please look at the following examples:
　　1) The investigation mainly involved: how much the patients know about their relative diseases before and after hospitalization;
　　2) The data were to be recorded by two researchers simultaneously to avoid recording mistakes in time.
　　3) Only when the patients know much about their diseases can they effectively cooperate with their doctors in the treatment decision-making.
　　4)… the doctor needs not only put the most emphasis on patients’ health and help them to recover,
　　The underlined words relative, in time, much, and the most can be dropped out with no affection to the meaning.
　　Simple words and usages are also expected.
　　Therefore, the health department must take the responsibility to fully disseminate health information to patients and their relatives in older that they can get some information relative to their disease.
　　EBM researches are considered by a majority of people to be as simple as calculation of results after literature searching…
　　In the first sentence,“relative to” can be simply substituted by “about” while in the second one,“a majority of”can be substituted by one word“most”.
　　There are other suggestions for simplifying usages that we often choose. For example,“as a matter of fact”can be changed to“in fact”;“for the reason that”,“on the grounds that” or “owing to the fact that” can be changed to one simple word “because”,and “in order to”to one word“to”.
　　Based on the changes above, we can make a further step to think about the word choice.
　　1) This is also a new ideology and direction of clinical medicine in the 21st century.
　　The word “concept” is more suitable here than “ideology” for the latter one often refers to economic or political theories.
　　2) …thus to form an attitude of respecting evidence, respecting science, and respecting effect in our medical services. Let’s work together now.
　　…继而形成良好的尊重证据,尊重科学,尊重成效的卫生行业新风。
　　At first, I used the word “respect” to translate “尊重”, but when I reread the sentence, I understood that here “尊重” means “put emphasis on” in English. So the sentence should be:
　　…thus to put emphasis on evidence, science, and effect in our medical services.
　　Sentence Revision
　　Clarity and simplicity are also the main principles of sentence revision. Besides, there are other problems that we need to avoid.
　　not expressing the core of the message in the subject and predicate;
　　1) we have given 208 patients and 46 patient relatives to investigate baseline data…
　　2) we have used randomized cluster sampling in 208 patients from 4 departments…
　　3)the investigator guided the patients to fill in the designed questionnaires…
　　4}we have performed quality control measures throughout the investigation…
　　These four sentences can be revised to:
　　1) …questionnaires were given to 208 patients and 46 patient relatives to investigate baseline data
　　2) …randomized cluster sampling was used in 208 patients from four departments of West China Hospital and in 46 relatives of the patients…
　　3) The patients were asked to fill in the designed questionnaires anonymously under the guidance of the investigator.
　　4) Quality control measures were strictly performed throughout the investigation…
　　The difference between the first group and second group is that I choose different subjects and predicates. However, the second group can express the core of the message simply and clearly. So the key point here is that we need to think about what are the subject and predicate in a sentence that can lead to the least words, but the most meanings.
　　ii) using sentence patterns such as “there be…” “it is…”;
　　In order to simplify the sentence structure and make it more meaningful, American editors suggest not use “there be…”, “it is…” etc..
　　1) It is difficult for a patient to make access to health information since it has not been disseminated to the public without highly-developed community medical service.
　　Compared with:
　　A patient can hardly make access to health information since it has not been disseminated to…
　　Every word in the latter sentence is meaningful and concise compared with the former sentence.
　　iii) putting unparallel ideas in parallel form;
　　We are likely to make small errors in the translation; one of them is putting unparallel ideas in parallel form.
　　1) At present, the medicare system is not satisfactory in China, so whether the patients can be well-informed and receive effective treatments depends much on the services of medical workers.
　　The relation between “well-informed”and “receiving effective treatments” is that “well-informed” aims to let patients receive effective and satisfactory treatments. So it needs to be revised like this:
　　At present, the medicare system is not satisfactory in China, so whether the patients can be well-informed to receive effective treatments depends much on the services of medical workers.
　　iv) the subject and the predicate do not agree;
　　Another small error is that the subject and the predicate do not agree.
　　1) The acknowledgement of the patients’ primacy of values and preferences has implied that the doctor needs not only put the emphasis on patients’ health and help them to recover, but also respects them in the decision-making.
　　“respects” here needs to be changed into “respect” according to the grammatical structure of the sentence.
　　2) The doctor need provide the patients with effective health information, and help them and their relatives to choose proper treatments.
　　“Need” here should be changed into “needs”.
　　v) the subject and predicate do not make sense together;
　　1) Ever since the 21st century, human beings are facing the challenge of emerging communicable diseases although the multi-pathogenetic pattern is gradually under control.
　　Here the predicate “under control” cannot make sense with the subject “the multi-pathogenetic pattern”. So the sentence should be revised like this:
　　Ever since the 21st century, human beings are facing the challenge of emerging communicable diseases although the multi-pathogenetic pattern is gradually stabilized.
　　c) Paragraph Revision
　　i) the agreement of voice
　　The questionnaire was designed on the basis of comprehensive literature reviews, expert opinions as well as EBM concepts. The investigator had explained to the patients all the questions and demands in this investigation in older that they can fill in the questionnaires correctly. The questionnaires were to be looked through one by one. The data were to be recorded by two researchers simultaneously to avoid recording mistakes.
　　Besides the underlined sentence, the rest of this paragraph used passive voice. So in order to keep the voice in agreement, we need to revise the second sentence into passive voice.
　　The questions and demands are to be explained in the investigation…
　　ii) the restructure of the sentences as a meaningful unit
　　Sometimes we need not put our eyesight only on the sentences, but also on the coherence of the passage.
　　医学科研投入的增加,医学科学技术的发展及公众对健康需求的提高,是医疗费用不断上升,其速度超过了人均国民收入的增长。
　　The first translation is:
　　Medical costs are rapidly increasing because of swelling medical research investments, the progress of science and technology as well as great demands of health care from the public. The increase in medical costs has already exceeded the increase in per-capita of gross domestic products (GDP).
　　From this unit, we can see that the word “increase” appeared in both sentences. So we can revise the unit like this:
　　As the result of the increasing medical research investments, the development of medical science and technology and the rising healthcare demands of the public, medical costs are skyrocketing at a rate that exceeds the increase in average national income.
　　Another example:
　　不少医生对循证医学存在疑惑和误解。有人认为循证医学研究很简单,只需要检索文献然后统计出最后结论就万事大吉。其实从提出临床问题到得出结论,循证医学研究地每一步都是逆水行舟,其难度不亚于一般的基础研究。
　　The first translation:
　　Quite a few physicians are still skeptical about EBM. Some believe EBM is just a simple method to search literatures and to work out the result. However, compared with classical basic research, EBM demands no less effort in every step of its studies, from the selection of a clinical topic to the obtainment of a result.
　　Although every sentence in this unit is clear and concise, the relations between them are loose. Please look at the revised one:
　　Concerns and misunderstandings do exist in medical doctors in China. EBM researches are considered by some to be as simple as calculation of results after literature searching, while in reality every stage in EBM researches, from asking clinical questions to obtaining a scientific result, takes appraisal thoughts and efforts, which is never easier than any other basic research.
　　The word “while” plays a very important role here. From this example, we can see, it is vital to learn to use connective words in a paragraph, especially in the long one.
　　d) Review the whole article
　　After we have finished the revisions above, it is necessary to look through the whole article for the following questions.
　　Is the wording clear and concise? Ask one of the classmates to read the translation.
　　Is the grammar correct?
　　Is the spelling correct? Remember to use the spell-checker on word processor.
　　Is the punctuation correct?
　　Are the proper words capitalized?
　　Are the verb tense correct?
　　Are the correct prepositions used?
　　Are the articles (a, an, the) used correctly?
　　Are all time expressions correct?
　　Is every item of the references correct? Check the sources.
　　If there is something unclear, try to contact with the author.
　　This is the whole editing process of a medical translation.
　　Are all time expressions correct?
　　Is every item of the references correct? Check the sources.
　　If there is something unclear, try to contact with the author.
　　This is the whole translating and editing process of a medical translation. I hope it will do some help to medical writers and medical English translators.
　　
　　参考文献
　　[1] Dong, Zhe. Biomedical Writing Course. Beijing: Peking Union Medical College & Bejing Medical University Press, 1997.
　　[2] Guyatt, Gordon. Evidence-based Medicine: Past, Present and Future. Chinese Journal of Evidence-based Medicine, 2004; 4(1): 3
　　[3] 朱立立.如何看待翻译中的跨文化因素[J].武汉理工大学学报:社会科学版,2002,15(4):202-204.
　　[4] 王绍祥.关于英语专业本科翻译教学的几点思考[J].四川外语学院学报,2002,18(1):150-152.