TYPES OF TERMINOLOGICAL COLLOCATIONS IN MEDICAL ENGLISH DISCOURSE

Background. The problem of word compatibility has been actively studied by Western and Russian researchers since the middle of the XX century. Any language is known to be a living and constantly developing system, within which certain speech patterns are formed. According to the lexical approach, words do not exist separately, the language consists of ready-made lexical chunks that can be easily recalled from memory and used while speaking. Such ready-made chunks include collocations, idioms, set expressions, etc. This study is devoted to the problems of common collocations in medical English. Purpose – to analyze the lexical content of well-known courses of medical English, authentic dictionaries and textbooks on medicine for identification and classification of terminological collocations. Materials and methods. Courses of medical English published by Oxford and Cambridge University press: «English in Medicine» (E.H. Glendinning, B.A.S. Holmstrom); «Professional English in Use: Medical» (E.H. Glendinning, R. Howard); «Test Your Professional English: Medical» (A. Pohl); «Check Your English Vocabulary for Medicine» (A&C Black); «Nursing 1» (T. Grice), some authentic medical dictionaries (London Dictionary of Medical Terms; Stedman's Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions & Nursing; Illustrated Medical Dictionary - A Dorling Kindersley Book) and textbooks on medicine: Anatomy and Physiology for Health Professionals (J. Moini); Eyewitness. Human Body (R. Walker); How it Works Book of the Human Body (Imagine Publishing Ltd); The Facts on File Illustrated Guide to the Human Body (The Diagram Group). Results. The article analyses various definitions of the term "collocation", describes its main characteristics, presents the classification of the most common terminological collocations used in medical English. The research shows that various types of terminological collocations are present in different types of medical discourse. These lexical units describe the structure and state of the human body, name medical staff, equipment and technologies, characterize common methods of diagnosis and treatment, etc. Therefore, when working with medical information in English, it is necessary to pay special attention to their structure and use.