Diaphasic intralingual translation of neoclassical compounds in the field of medicine: Micro- and macrostrategies

Abstract This article investigates a borderline case between inter- and intralingual translation , viz. the interregisterial rewriting of Greek-derived English medical terms into plain-language wordings for lay readers. Applying the well-known coupled-pairs method , the investigation charts the different types of micro- and macrostrategies observable in this particular type of translation. Since the ST medical terms sampled are all one-word items, microstrategies are, for the particular purposes of this study, defined as those applying to the translation unit of morphemes. For macrostrategies , the translation unit is ST words as a whole. Regarding microstrategies, different types have been identified for lexical morphemes as opposed to affixes. Among those applying to ST lexical morphemes, by far the most frequent type identified has turned out to be literal lexemic translation . In terms of macrostrategies, six different types or gradations on a scale of iconicity or literalness have been identified. Three types of macrostrategy were found to be the most frequent: One represents a non-morphemic approach, i.e., one not based on the translation of individual morphemes, and two represent morphemic approaches with partial literalness, i.e., strategies where all morphemes are translated individually, but not all literally.