STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES OF ENGLISH MEDICAL TERMS ON DENOTING COVID-19

Abstract

The article deals with the problems on the formation of English medical terms on denoting COVOD-19. The emphasis is done on the identification of the organizational structure of English medical terms on denoting COVID-19 (EMRC-19) as well as the discovery of structural features of terminological units forming this type of medical terms. The article has outlined causes, which led to the topicality of scientific research of EMRC-19. The study has also provided cluster organization of EMRC-19, which consists of five groups: Therapeutic and General Terms; Case and Symptoms Terms; Quarantine, Protection, and Isolation Measures Terms; Medical Equipment and Medicine Terms; and Testing terms. The main ways to create EMRC-19 are syntactic and morphological. All terminological units under consideration can be divided into several groups: terms-combinations; derivatives terms; termsabbreviations; complex and simple terms. The most productive group is terms-combinations. It is explained by the tendency to widen and provide the most detailed lexical meaning of a phenomenon or a subject, which is being determined. In addition, the research has identified that the greatest amount of terms-combinations belongs to the following clusters: “Therapeutic and General Terms” and “Testing Terms.” While analyzing parts of speech of termscombinations, dominance of Adj+N and N+N structures has been detected. Multicomponent terms-combinations are rarely found among EMRC-19. Derivatives medical terms on denoting COVID-19 have the tendency to being formed by suffixation and prefixation. The most popular prefixes are self- and anti-. Besides, the article has explained the reasons why terms-abbreviations are so numerous in EMRC-19, especially in clusters “Case and Symptoms Terms” and “Medical Equipment and Medicine Terms”. Their nominative character (the nomination of a phenomenon or a subject) has been proven. Moreover, the study has shown that simple and complex terms of EMRC-19 are not numerous and are only used to name means of protection, cases, and their particular features as well as medical manipulations. Complex terms of EMRC-9 are characterized by semantic and structural unity.