THE CASE OF THE WORD PATTERN IN THE ROMANIAN MEDICAL LANGUAGE

THE CASE OF THE WORD PATTERN IN THE ROMANIAN MEDICAL LANGUAGE

IULIA CRISTINA FRÎNCULESCU

Abstract. In Romanian, pattern is considered to be an Anglicism, used with various meanings in medical texts. This paper serves a twofold purpose. Firstly, it argues in favour of a different origin of the word, and secondly, it tries to discover how the many meanings of the English polysemic word pattern may be rendered in the Romanian medical language. The method of analysis combines etymological research, contrastive lexicology, corpus analysis, and translation.

Key words: polysemy, medical language, etymology, English influence, translation.

1. INTRODUCTION

Focusing on the study of one exemplary case – the polysemic loanword pattern – the present article forwards a practical and scientific method for the in-depth analysis of particular cases of medical words with multiple meanings, borrowed from English into Romanian.

A diachronical survey precedes the actual analysis, with the intent of reviewing the history of the term in question, probing its alleged English origin, the older and the current uses, and its ties with the medical field.

Then, the study focuses on the presence of pattern in the Romanian medical language.

Used in various medical fields, the word raises problems of translation

, as its meanings are more or less differentiated. In view of its disambiguation, the current paper puts together a bilingual collection of examples, in the Corpus Analysis section (cf. 2.3.), in order to discover how the many meanings of English pattern may be rendered in Romanian.

This study suggests appropriate Romanian equivalents of pattern that could fit the vocabularies of different medical domains, in which the word is in use, the equivalents being found in context-matched English and Romanian medical texts.

1 “Victor Babeş” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timişoara, [email protected].

2 Romanian is not the only language that has difficulty in translating the word pattern, but also French and German. In a study dedicated to the various meanings of the same word in French medical texts, Karin Band states that the French translations of pattern: patron, schéma, dessin, motif, modèle, aspect, profil, tableau, are currently considered insufficient while the German equivalent Muster, even if it shares several of the meanings of pattern, tends to be overused (cf. Band 2001: 23).

RRL, LIX, 4, p. 369–380, Bucureşti, 2014

Unless otherwise specified, the translations of terms, phrases and medical texts are my own suggestions, labelled as o.t. (which means “own translation”). In so doing, this paper broadens the area of research to encompass medical translation, as all Romanian texts surveyed are translated into English and most English texts are translated into Romanian.

Advice on medical issues was obtained from doctor Marius Frînculescu, a specialist in cardiovascular surgery.

2. CASE PRESENTATION

2.1. The etymology of pattern

There is certain unanimity about the English origin of the word pattern in most dictionaries (cf. MDN 2007; DN 1986; DEX 1998). According to A Dictionary of European Anglicisms (DEA 2001), pattern was attested in Romanian in the ‘70s, being used with pronunciation and spelling identical to those of the so-called “English etymon”.

However, source-words are not always etymons proper. The same dictionary (DEA 2001) specifies that the word is now used in many technical vocabularies, with the meaning of

“fixed or regular behaviour”.

In reality, many centuries ago, the English language borrowed the French word patron. The origin of the English word pattern is undoubtedly Anglo-Norman. Such words, originating in the Gallo-Roman region, entered Old English at the time of the Norman Conquest (Iliescu 2007: 135). Hence, an important Romance component of English. For a long time, and even up to now, French loanwords have linked even the most remote languages of the old continent (Iliescu 2007: 131).

Pattern is derived from Old French (< patrun/patron, the 12th-13th century) (cf.

OED 1989; Merriam-Webster 2003). The French word comes from Latin (< lat. patrōnus).

In Latin, patrōnus was a form derived from pater,-tris, used as a generic term referring not to physical paternity, but rather to the householder, the head of the family (dominus, pater familiās).

From Old French, the word entered the English language through Anglo-Norman.

The Anglo-Norman patron (patrun/patroun/patrone) had both the meaning of “patron, patron saint; owner” (in legal terminology), and the meaning of “model, pattern”. In architecture it meant “plan, design”, and in naval terminology the word used to mean

“captain” (cf. AND 2005).

In the 16th century, during the The Great Vowel Shift, patron changed its form (patarne, paterne, pattern) and stress (cf. OED 1989), and around 1700, patron and pattern became distinct terms with different meanings. The original form patron was no longer used to describe things, but only people, and the metathetical form pattern came to be applied to objects.

Patron also added the meaning of “supporter, upholder”, whereas the meanings of pattern developed along different lines, more or less connected with the sense of “model”

(cf. OED 1989).

In time, from common language, pattern entered specialized/technical languages, such as the language of medicine

(e.g. vascular pattern, clinical pattern, dietary patterns, sleep patterns, blood pressure patterns, pattern of symptoms), informatics (e.g. pattern recognition), engineering (e.g. pattern book), economy (e.g. marketing patterns, pattern of foreign trade), the vocabulary of psychology/sociology (e.g. behaviour patterns), but also literary language (e.g. rhyme patterns, patterns of continuity), as well as linguistics (e.g.

word order patterns, corpus pattern analysis, discourse patterns, agreement pattern, morphosyntactic patterns).

Nowadays a polysemic word that easily transgresses the boundary between common language and specialized languages, called by a Canadian publication “terme caméleon”

(‘cameleon term’, apud Band 2001: 23), pattern (with its lexical series: patternless, to pattern, patterned, patterning) is also a word of high frequency of use. In the medical treatise Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (Harrison 2005), for example, the word appears in 680 occurrences, and in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Brown et al. 2005) pattern appears in 1492 occurrences.

But the long voyage of pattern did not stop to the English language. Around 1922, it was borrowed back by the French language (cf. TLFi 2004), with the basic meaning of

“design, model”, and, probably in the second half of the twentieth century

, pattern finally entered the Romanian language.

As far as its intermediary is concerned, it is possible that this neologism may have initially entered Romanian through French intermediary (its definition in MDN 2007 is almost the same as the one found in French dictionaries: “specific model, representing in a simplified way the structure of a sociological, linguistic, and psychological phenomenon”) and borrowed subsequently directly from English, with additional meanings.

In Romanian, the word pattern is mainly used in specialized/technical languages, which sometimes “imported” whole phrases from English. For example, in medicine we have pattern de cancer (‘pattern of cancer’), pattern interstiţial (‘interstitial pattern’), pattern filamentos (‘filamentous pattern’) etc. In computer science we come across XML design patterns (‘XML design patterns’), pattern de arhitectură (‘architectural pattern’), pattern de analiză (‘pattern of analysis’), pattern-uri de creaţie (‘patterns of creation’), pattern-uri structurale (‘structural patterns’).

In terms of its standardization in Romanian, although present in the dictionaries of neologisms after 2000, the term is not currently standardized by DOOM (2005). Like many other Anglicisms, pattern is used with the original English spelling and etymological pronunciation, which represents a deviation from the phonetic (or more precisely phonological) principle of the Romanian language spelling.

2.2. The term pattern in the Romanian medical language

Pattern entered the Romanian medical language around 1990. At first it was signalled as belonging to a different linguistic code by the use of inverted commas.

Moreover, its use was limited to certain contexts (o.t. means “own translation”):

3 In medical English, the term pattern was attested in 1900, in an article of neurology:

“M. Henri advocates localisation on a life-size pattern or model of the part of the body which is being investigated, and obtains satisfactory results” (Rivers 1900: 340−342, apud OED 1989).

4 Even though in 1982 it was not recorded in the dictionaries of recent words (cf. DCR), DEA (2001), as already stated, records the term as having been in use in Romanian since 1970.

1. […] angina crescendo, angorul care şi-a modificat „patternul” sau angina instabilă (Păun 1992: 57) (‘[…] crescendo angina, the angor that has changed its “pattern” or unstable angina’, o.t.);

2. Angina instabilă este un sindrom clinic caracterizat prin debutul recent sau prin schimbarea „patternului” anginei […] (Păun 1992: 95) (‘Unstable angina is a clinical syndrome characterized by the recent onset or by the changing of the “pattern” of the angina […]’, o.t.);

3. Aspectul caracteristic este de hipertrofie ventriculară stângă de tip baraj „strain pattern”, cu unde T negative ample (Gherasim 1999: 328) (‘The characteristic aspect is that of left ventricular hypertrophy of a barrier type “strain pattern”, with large negative T waves’, o.t.).

In time, the term began to be used more frequently, with additional meanings, and since 2000 it has been well represented in the terminologies of different medical specialties (in physiology, clinical immunology, psychiatry, pharmacology etc.). I will give only a few illustrative examples below:

4. […] pattern-ul de absorbţie al spray-ului nazal fiind cel mai apropiat de cel al nicotinei din ţigară, efectul de diminuare a simptomelor de sevraj este cel mai important (Ciobanu and Mihălţan 2003: www.stetoscop.ro) (‘[…] the pattern of absorption of the nasal spray being the closest to that of nicotine in the cigarette, the effect of diminishing the withdrawal symptoms is the most important’, o.t.);

5. De aici, informaţia este trimisă mai departe către alte regiuni cerebrale, unde sunt analizate informaţiile de la mai mulţi receptori olfactivi, alcătuindu-se un pattern (***, 2004: www.stetoscop.ro) (‘From here, information is passed on to other brain regions, where information from several olfactory receptors is analyzed, thus setting up a pattern’, o.t.);

6. Descrierea pattern-ului centromeric la testul ANA este întâlnită la 80% dintre pacienţii cu sclerodermie limitată şi în sindromul CREST (Cojocaru 2004: www.stetoscop.ro) (‘The description of the centromeric pattern in ANA test is seen in 80% of patients with limited scleroderma and in CREST syndrome’, o.t.);

7. Pattern-ul activităţii cerebrale predispune indivizii la diverse tipuri de psihoză (***, 2008:

www.pulsmedia.ro) (‘The pattern of brain activity predisposes individuals to different types of psychosis’, o.t.).

From all the examples above, we can discern some of the meanings of the word pattern in the Romanian medical language: “aspect/character” (examples 1, 2), “model”

(examples 3, 4, 5), and “type” (examples 6, 7).

DM (2007) records the term as an Anglicism frequently used in current medical vocabulary with multiple meanings: “model, type, template-based scheme, form of a living structure”, in phrases such as:

•

pattern of an action, with reference to the fact that certain stimuli systematically produce certain individual actions;

•

clinical pattern, the characteristic clinical features of a disease;

•

electrocardiographic pattern, typical aspect in electrocardiography;

•

immunofluorescent pattern, a certain specific antigenic structure detected by immunofluorescence;

•

radiological pattern, radiological profile, characteristic/typical radiological

aspect.

A good question at this point would be if the borrowing of pattern is necessary, if the word expresses new concepts in medicine. Of course, necessity varies with the individuals and in time. In the case of pattern, there are no clear-cut answers. But in general, pattern seems to be more widely used in recent, as compared to older medical texts.

For instance, the concept of “characteristic clinical features of a disease” is an old one in medicine, being expressed, in the Romanian medical language, for more than five decades, by the phrase tablou clinic, as shown in the following examples:

8. Tabloul clinic va fi constituit din semne ce trădează pe de o parte suferinţa coronarelor – dureri anginoase prin claudaţie coronariană – şi fenomene mai mult sau mai puţin exprimate de decompensare […] (Haţieganu 1955: 288) (‘The clinical features will be made up of signs that reveal, on the one hand, a coronary disorder – angina-like pains by coronary claudication – and phenomena more or less expressed by decompensation [...]’, o.t.);

9. Tabloul clinic este dominat de subiectiv (Haţieganu 1955: 58) (‘The clinical features are dominated by a subjective view’, o.t.).

The phrase tablou clinic was maintained even in some medical works after the 1990s:

tablou clinic (Păun 1992: 51) (‘clinical features’, o.t.), “Există, deci, o fază preclinică asimptomatică

diversele teritorii arteriale.” (Păun 1992: 30) (‘There is, therefore, an asymptomatic preclinical stage and a clinical stage manifested by the clinical features of ischaemia represented on different arterial territories.’, o.t.), “În cazurile avansate, tabloul clinic mai poate cuprinde semnele insuficienţei cardiace drepte” (Moldovan 1993: 168) (‘In advanced cases, the clinical features may also contain signs of right heart failure’, o.t.), tablou clinic (Gherasim 1999: 325) (‘clinical features’, o.t.).

If the concept discussed above is not a recent one, requiring a new signifier to express it, we may wonder why the phrase clinical pattern was introduced in the Romanian medical vocabulary. That is probably due to a tendency to ease translation, because in English, clinical pattern has, in addition to the meaning of “clinical features”, the meanings of “clinical form” and “clinical manifestation”. In fact, the exact rendering of the last two meanings is preferred by some Romanian authors of medical books: forme clinice (Păun 1992: 60, 156) (‘clinical forms’, o.t.); manifestări clinice (Moldovan 1993: 110; Păun 1992:

131) (‘clinical manifestations’, o.t.).

However, as the three fore-mentioned meanings are usually activated in the same contexts, the Romanian language has chosen to use, instead of a long Romanian equivalent:

tablou/formă/manifestare clinică (‘clinical features/form/manifestation’), the English polysemic word pattern, followed by the Romanian adjective clinic: pattern clinic (‘clinical pattern’).

On the other hand, the borrowing of the word pattern may also be part of the current

trend that considers from the very beginning Anglicisms as more “scientific”. Nowadays

English items are sometimes adopted mechanically by health care professionals and

transformed into linguistic automatisms. Laziness in translation is, however, dangerous, and

should be fought.

2.3. Corpus analysis

The bilingual corpus was made on the English medical treatise Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (2005) and its Romanian translated version. Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine

(2005) is a worldwide reference medical book, published first in the United States of America in 1987, with new editions every four years. The treatise is included in the bibliography of all important medical exams in many countries, Romania included. The samples of text are only illustrative. The occurrences of the term in the medical treatise are more significant in number (cf. 2.1.).

The corpus is organized according to the three situations encountered:

A.1. Pattern was taken as such from English and, in this case, I rendered its meanings in different contexts, by giving the suitable Romanian translations;

A.2. Pattern was translated, in which case I gave its Romanian equivalents, and, in some cases, I suggested other Romanian equivalents as well;

A.3. Pattern is neither translated nor borrowed, but its meanings are included in the meanings of other words or in the meaning of the phrase/text in which it appears. I tried to recognize pattern behind the Romanian terms, and restore it as and where necessary.

In the examples below, the context and the changes I brought to the context are, where required, indicated between square brackets. For purposes of this paper, the analysis is structured as follows:

a. The Romanian way of rendering pattern or simply the Romanian equivalent (o.t.

means “own translation”);

b. The original English text;

c. The Romanian translated version.

The word pattern and its Romanian counterparts are in bold and italic letters.

A.1. Texts in which pattern is used as a loanword, with the English form

10. a. pattern = aspect (o.t.)

b. Scant cytoplasm; small, hyperchromatic nuclei with fine chromatin pattern; nucleoli indistinct; diffuse sheets of cells […] Intermediate filament pattern (Harrison 2005: 507) c. Citoplasmă în cantitate mică; nuclei mici hipercromatici, cu un pattern fin de cromatină;

nucleoli greu vizibili; plaje difuze de celule […] Pattern filamentos intermediar (Harrison 2003: 604)

11. a. pattern = aspect [de suprasolicitare] (o.t.)

b. A ventricular strain pattern, as well as high-amplitude P waves in leads II and V1, indicating RA enlargement, are associated with severe stenosis (Harrison 2005: 1388) c. Un pattern de forţare ventriculară, precum şi unde P înalte în derivaţiile DII şi V1 indicând mărirea atriului drept, sunt asociate cu stenoză severă (Harrison 2003: 1442)

12. a. pattern = lege [mendeliană de moştenire] (cf. Raicu and Stoian 1989: 39)

b. Mendelian pattern of inheritance (Harrison 2005: 387)

c. Unele cancere prezintă pattern mendelian al moştenirii (Harrison 2003: 562)

13. a. pattern = desen (o.t.)

b. If the patient has a diffuse interstitial pattern on chest x-ray, it may be reasonable to institute empirical treatment with TMP-SMX (for Pneumocystis) and a quinolone (for Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, and Legionella) or an erythromycin derivative (e.g., azithromycin) [...] (Harrison 2005: 493)

c. Dacă pacientul are un pattern interstiţial difuz pe radiografia simplă, el poate fi propus pentru instituirea tratamentului empiric cu trimetoprim-sulfametoxazol (pentru Pneumocystis) şi Eritromicină (pentru Chlamydia, Mycoplasma şi Legionella [...]

(Harrison 2003: 589)

A.2. Texts in which pattern is translated

14. a. pattern = aspect

b. A dendritic pattern of corneal epithelial ulceration revealed by fluorescein staining is pathognomonic for herpes infection but is seen in only a minority of primary infections.

(Harrison 2005: 166)

c. Un aspect dendritic al ulceraţiei epiteliului corneean, evidenţiat prin colorarea cu fluoresceină, este patognomonic pentru infecţia herpetică, dar este întâlnit numai în puţine infecţii primare. (Harrison 2003: 182)

15. a. pattern = fel

b. Because depression is the most common emotional disturbance in patients with chronic pain, patients should be questioned about their mood, appetite, sleep patterns, and daily activity. (Harrison 2005: 75)

c. Deoarece depresia este cea mai comună tulburare emoţională la pacienţii cu durere cronică, ei vor fi chestionaţi asupra dispoziţiei lor, apetitului, felului somnului şi activităţii zilnice. (Harrison 2003: 64)

16. a. pattern = model

b. Pain due to functional causes conforms to none of the aforementioned patterns.

(Harrison 2005: 83)

c. Durerea psihogenă nu se conformează nici unuia dintre modelele anterior menţionate ale bolii. (Harrison 2003: 75)

17. a. pattern = evoluţie

b. Erythema marginatum, the rash of acute rheumatic fever, has a distinctive pattern of enlarging and shifting transient annular lesions. (Harrison 2005: 109)

c. Eritemul marginat, rash-ul reumatismului articular acut, are o evoluţie distinctivă cu mărirea şi mutarea leziunilor inelare tranzitorii. (Harrison 2003: 101)

18. a. pattern = tip

b. If lower motor neuron weakness is suspected, or if the pattern of weakness is uncertain, the clinical approach begins with an EMG and nerve conduction study. (Harrison 2005: 137) c. Dacă este suspicionată slăbiciunea de neuron motor periferic sau dacă tipul slăbiciunii este incert, abordarea clinică începe cu EMG şi un studiu de conducere nervoasă.

(Harrison 2003: 124)

19. a. pattern = tip particular

b. In extreme situations, wheezing may lessen markedly or even disappear, cough may become extremely ineffective, and the patient may begin a gasping type of respiratory pattern. (Harrison 2005: 1511)

c. În situaţiile extreme, wheezing-ul se poate ameliora semnificativ sau chiar poate dispărea complet, tusea poate deveni total ineficientă şi pacientul începe să aibă un tip particular de respiraţie întretăiată. (Harrison 2003: 1570)

20. a. pattern = tipar

b. Inadequate sleep hygiene is characterized by a behavior pattern prior to sleep or a bedroom environment that is not conductive to sleep. (Harrison 2005: 156)

c. Igiena inadecvată a somnului se caracterizează printr-un tipar comportamental anterior somnului şi/sau condiţiilor de mediu din dormitor care nu sunt propice somnului.

(Harrison 2003: 170)

21. a. pattern = caracter

b. It occurs sporadically or in an autosomal recessive, dominant, or X-linked pattern. […]

Serial examinations are required to document a malignant pattern of growth. (Harrison 2005: 172)

c. Apare în mod sporadic sau cu caracter autozomal recesiv, dominant sau X-linkat […]

Pentru stabilirea caracterului malign al proliferării sunt necesare examene seriate efectuate cu atenţie. (Harrison 2003: 187)

22. a. pattern = caracteristică

b. The pattern of nystagmus may vary with gaze position. (Harrison 2005: 176) c. Caracteristicile nistagmusului pot varia cu poziţia privirii (Harrison 2003: 191)

23. a. pattern = modalitate; model; formă

b. Eczema, or dermatitis, is a reaction pattern that presents with variable clinical and histologic findings and is the final common expression for a number of disorders […] The infantile pattern is characterized by weeping inflammatory patches and crusted plaques that occur on the face, neck, and extensor surfaces. The childhood and adolescent pattern is marked by dermatitis of flexural skin, particularly in the antecubital and popliteal fossae.

(Harrison 2005: 288)

c. Eczema sau dermatita este o modalitate de reacţie manifestată prin semne clinice şi histologice variabile […] Modelul infantil este caracterizat de pete inflamatorii zemuinde şi plăci crustoase ce apar pe faţă, gât, suprafeţe de extensie şi inghinal. Forma copilului mare similară cu a adolescentului este marcată de dermatita pielii flexurale, în special în fosele antecubitale şi poplitee. (Harrison 2003: 328)

24. a. pattern = desen

b. […] erythema of the cheeks is followed by a reticulated pattern on extremities; it is secondary to a parvovirus B19 infection, and an associated arthritis is seen in adults.

(Harrison 2005: 304)

c. […] eritemul obrajilor este urmat de un desen reticulat pe extremităţi; este secundar unei infecţii cu parvovirus şi la adulţi se întâlneşte artrită asociată. (Harrison 2003: 353)

25. a. pattern = mod

b. In young patients, the reaction pattern often begins as watery rhinorrhea, which can be complicated by nasal and sinus infection, and polyposis, bloody discharge, and nasal eosinophilia. (Harrison 2005: 321)

c. La tineri, modul de reacţie începe deseori ca o rinoree apoasă, care poate fi complicată de infecţie nazală şi sinusală, şi polipoză, secreţie sanghinolentă şi eozinofilie nazală.

(Harrison 2003: 339)

26. a. pattern = deprindere

b. Reduction of sun exposure through use of protective clothing and changes in the pattern of outdoor activities can reduce skin cancer risk. (Harrison 2005: 442)

c. S-a recomandat reducerea expunerii la radiaţia solară prin folosirea vestimentaţiei protectoare şi prin schimbarea deprinderilor de activitate în aer liber, ca una din căile de diminuare a riscurilor de cancer cutanat. (Harrison 2003: 544)

27. a. pattern = model; profil

b. The agents used should reflect both the epidemiology and the antibiotic resistance pattern of the hospital […] A single third-generation cephalosporin constitutes an appropriate initial regimen in many hospitals (if the pattern of resistance justifies its use).

(Harrison 2005: 494)

c. Agenţii folosiţi trebuie să reflecte atât modelul epidemiologic, cât şi profilul rezistenţei la antibiotice a spitalului respectiv […] O cefalosporină de generaţia a treia folosită singură constituie un regim iniţial potrivit în multe spitale (dacă profilul rezistenţei la antibiotice justifică acest lucru). (Harrison 2003: 590)

28. a. pattern = afectare

b. The chest radiograph generally shows an interstitial and sometimes an intraalveolar pattern that is strongest at the lung bases and may be symmetric. (Harrison 2005: 582) c. Radiografia toracică arată, în general, o afectare interstiţială şi uneori intraalveolară, situată în special la nivelul bazelor pulmonare şi care poate fi simetrică. (Harrison 2003:

692)

29. a. pattern = schemă

b. The most diagnostic pattern is the combination of (1) a prolonged bleeding time, (2) a reduction in plasma vWF concentration […] (Harrison 2005: 676)

c. Cea mai bună schemă de diagnostic este combinaţia dintre (1) timpul de sângerare prelungit, (2) reducerea concentraţiei plasmatice a FvW […] (Harrison 2003: 805−806)

30. a. pattern = mod; configuraţie; tip

b. Pattern of inheritance and laboratory findings in von Willebrand’s disease […] The multimer pattern illustrates the protein bonds present when plasma is electrophoresed in a polyacrylamide gel […] Desmopressin should not be given to patients with variant forms of vWD without prior testing, since it may not improve multimer pattern or hemostasis […] (Harrison 2005: 677)

c. Modul de transmitere şi rezultatele de laborator în boala von Willebrand […]

Configuraţia multimerilor ilustrează legături proteice prezente când plasma este supusă electroforezei în gel de poliacrilamidă […] DDAVP nu ar trebui administrată la pacienţii cu BvW fără o testare prealabilă, întrucât ar putea să nu îmbunătăţească hemostaza sau tipul multimerilor (Harrison 2003: 806−807)

31. a. pattern = manifestare

b. Initially, this clinical pattern was reported most frequently among persons given PEP after being bitten by vampire bats. (Harrison 2005: 1157−1156)

c. Această manifestare a fost semnalată mai frecvent la cei infectaţi prin muşcătură de liliac vampir, cărora li s-a administrat profilaxie antirabică post-expunere. (Harrison 2003:

1248)

32. a. pattern = curbă

b. Also, abdominal compression may elicit the JVP pattern typical of tricuspid regurgitation when the resting pulse wave is normal. (Harrison 2005: 1306)

c. Compresia abdominală poate evidenţia de asemenea o curbă a pulsului venojugular tipică pentru o insuficienţă tricuspidiană, dacă, în condiţii de repaus, aspectul pulsului venos a fost normal. (Harrison 2003: 1362)

33. a. pattern = modificare

b. This pattern may also occur with left atrial conduction delays in the absence of actual atrial enlargement, leading to the more general designation of left atrial abnormality.

(Harrison 2005: 1314)

c. Aceleaşi modificări ale undei P pot apărea şi în cazul tulburărilor de conducere intraatriale stângi, în absenţa unei dilatări obiective a AS, denumite cu un termen general anomalii atriale stângi. (Harrison 2003: 1370)

34. a. pattern = sindrom

b. (“early repolarization” pattern) (Harrison 2005: 1317) c. (sindrom de „repolarizare” precoce) (Harrison 2003: 1374)

35. a. pattern = tablou

b. However, a favorable lipoprotein pattern only partially accounts for the protection against atherosclerosis conferred by the premenopausal state. (Harrison 2005: 1427) c. Cu toate acestea, un tablou lipoproteic favorabil contează numai parţial în protecţia conferită de statusul premenopausal împotriva aterosclerozei. (Harrison 2003: 1488)

36. a. pattern = tulburare; aspect

b. A dermatomal pattern of sensory loss or a reduced or absent deep tendon reflex is more suggestive of a specific root lesion than the pattern of pain. (Harrison 2005: 97)

c. O tulburare de sensibilitate cu localizare pe un dermatom (parestezie, hiper- sau hiposensibilitate) sau reducerea sau pierderea asimetrică a reflexelor tendinoase profunde sunt mai sugestive pentru o leziune radiculară specifică decât aspectul durerii (Harrison 2003: 86)

37. a. pattern = marker; indicator (o.t.)

b. The serum creatinine level is elevated at presentation and shows a pattern of subacute worsening within weeks of the initial azotemia. (Harrison 2005: 582)

c. Concentraţia plasmatică a creatininei serice este crescută la internare, fiind markerul unei evoluţii subacute, pe parcursul săptămânilor, a azotemiei iniţiale. (Harrison 2003: 691) A.3. Texts in which pattern is not translated

38. a. pattern = aspect (o.t.)

b. In granulocytopenic patients with persistent or recurrent fever, the chest x-ray pattern may help to localize an infection and thus to determine which investigative tests and procedures should be undertaken and which therapeutic options should be considered (Harrison 2005: 492)

c. La pacienţii neutropenici cu febră persistentă sau recurentă, radiografia toracelui poate ajuta la localizarea infecţiei şi, astfel, în alegerea investigaţiilor ulterioare şi a opţiunilor de tratament (Harrison 2003: 588)

39. a. pattern = aspect (o.t.); model

b. The taste receptor cells are located in the taste buds, spherical groups of cells arranged in a pattern resembling the segments of a citrus fruit […] Response patterns of gustatory afferent axons can be grouped into classes based on the stimulus chemical that produces the largest response […] The fact that individual gustatory afferent fibers respond to a large number of different chemicals led to the across-fiber-pattern theory of gustatory coding, while the best-stimulus analysis led to the concept of labeled afferents. (Harrison 2005: 178)

c. Receptorii gustativi sunt localizaţi în mugurii gustativi, grupuri sferice de celule, dispuse similar segmentelor unui fruct citric […] Modelele răspunsului axonilor gustativi aferenţi pot fi grupate în mai multe categorii pe baza stimulului chimic care produce cel mai puternic răspuns […] Faptul că fibrele aferente gustative individuale răspund la un număr mare de substanţe chimice diferite a generat teoria „răspunsului încrucişat“ pentru codificarea stimulilor gustului, în timp ce analiza stimulului cel mai puternic a generat conceptul aferenţelor etichetate (Harrison 2003: 193−194)

40. a. pattern = aspect caracteristic [al reţelei venoase] (o.t.)

b. A prominent abdominal venous pattern with the direction of flow away from the umbilicus is often a reflection of portal hypertension (Harrison 2005: 244)

c. O reţea venoasă abdominală proeminentă cu direcţie de scurgere îndepărtându-se de ombilic este deseori o reflectare a hipertensiunii portale (Harrison 2003: 281)

41. a. pattern = aspect [de bloc de ramură dreaptă] (o.t.)

b. Right ventricular hypertrophy due to ostium secundum – type atrial septal defects, with the accompanying right ventricular volume overload, is commonly associated with an incomplete or complete right bundle branch block pattern with a rightward QRS axis.

(Harrison 2005: 1314)

c. HVD datorată defectului septal atrial tip ostium secundum, însoţit de suprasolicitare de volum a ventriculului drept, se asociază de obicei cu un bloc de ramură dreaptă complet sau incomplet, cu axa QRS la dreapta. (Harrison 2003: 1370)

42. pattern = aspect (o.t.); tip (o.t.)

b. (“sine-wave” pattern) (Harrison 2005: 1318) c. („unde sinusoidale”) (Harrison 2003: 1375)

43. a. pattern = obicei [alimentar] (o.t.)

b. The history should also include drug and alcohol ingestion, dietary patterns, falling, incontinence, sexual dysfunction, depression, and anxiety. (Harrison 2005: 46)

c. Anamneza trebuie de asemenea să cuprindă tratamentul efectuat, alimentaţia, existenţa căderilor, incontinenţei, depresiei şi anxietăţii. (Harrison 2003: 44)

44. a. pattern = [revenirea respiraţiei la un] ritm [normal] (o.t.)

b. Periodic breathing of the Cheyne-Stokes type occurs during NREM sleep about half the time at high altitude, with restoration of a regular breathing pattern during REM sleep.

(Harrison 2005: 157)

c. Respiraţia periodică de tip Cheyne-Stokes se instalează în general în timpul somnului NREM la intervale de timp de două ori mai mici la altitudine, cu revenirea respiraţiei normale în somnul REM. (Harrison 2003: 170)

45. a. pattern = [conversia] spectrului [energiei] (o.t.)

b. The retina is actually part of the brain, banished to the periphery to serve as a transducer for the conversion of patterns of light energy into neuronal signals. (Harrison 2005: 162)

c. Practic, retina aparţine encefalului, fiind situată la periferie în scopul de a servi ca transformator pentru conversia energiei luminoase în semnale neuronale. (Harrison 2003: 175)

46. a. pattern = traseu [al unui dermatom] (o.t.)

b. Herpes zoster from reactivation of latent varicella (chickenpox) virus causes a dermatomal pattern of painful vesicular dermatitis. (Harrison 2005: 166)

c. Herpesul zoster produs prin reactivarea virusului varicelozosterian latent (varicela) determină o dermatită veziculară dureroasă în zona unui dermatom. (Harrison 2003: 182).

3. CONCLUSIONS

A first conclusion of this study refers to etymology. The historical survey (cf. 2.1.) makes it clear that despite the fact that pattern is defined by most dictionaries as an Anglicism, the lexeme does not originate in English. Moreover, it travelled long journeys to different realms before entering the Romanian language, and eventually, medical language.

Secondly, as may be seen from the results reported above, in the corpus analysis (cf.

2.3.), there are many different ways of rendering English pattern in Romanian. The Romanian equivalents found are the following: manifestare, modificare, evoluţie, afectare, tulburare, aspect, aspect caracteristic, caracter, caracteristică, configuraţie, curbă, deprindere, desen, fel, formă, indicator, lege, marker, mod, modalitate, model, obicei, profil, ritm, schemă, sindrom, spectru, tablou, tip, tip particular, tipar, traseu. It goes without saying that the list remains open for further studies.

Another conclusion that emerges from this study (cf. 2.2., 2.3.) is the frequent use of some Romanian equivalents of pattern, namely aspect, mod, model, tablou and tip.

However, I have shown that there are open possibilities for other translations, and here context-matching research can be seen as a sort of drill, enhancing the researcher’s ability to recognize the meanings of the English term in different contexts.

To conclude, this research has tried to prove that finding correct and suitable Romanian equivalents is important, and translating pattern represents one of the most intriguing aspects of linguistic research.

REFERENCES

*** 2004, “Ultima oră”, Stetoscop, 32, www.stetoscop.ro, http://www.cardioportal.ro/ - Societatea Română de Cardiologie.

*** 2008, “Pattern-ul activităţii cerebrale predispune indivizii la diverse tipuri de psihoză”, PulsMedia.ro / Psihiatru.ro / Revista Psihiatru.ro nr. 13, VII/

AND = W. Rothwell (general ed.), S. Gregory, W. Rothwell, D. Trotter (eds.), 2005, Anglo-Norman Dictionary, London, Maney Publishing for MHRA, on-line version: www.anglo-norman.net Band, K. R. M., 2001, “The Many Ways of Saying “Pattern” in French Medical Texts”, META, 46, 1,

22−23.

Brown, K. (editor-in-chief), H. A. Anderson, L. Bauer, M. Berns, G. Hirst, J. Miller (coordinating eds.), 2005, Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, second edition, Oxford, Elsevier Ltd., on-line edition: www.elsevier.com/locate/ell2

Ciobanu, M., F. Mihălţan, 2003, “Tratamentul farmacologic al sevrajului tabagic”, Stetoscop, 15, www.stetoscop.ro, http://www.cardioportal.ro/ - Societatea Română de Cardiologie.

Cojocaru, M., 2004, “Indicarea şi interpretarea testelor imunologice în reumatologie”, Stetoscop, 30, www.stetoscop.ro, http://www.cardioportal.ro/ - Societatea Română de Cardiologie.

DCR = F. Dumitrescu, 1982, Dicţionar de cuvinte recente, Bucureşti, Editura Albatros.

DEA = M. Görlach (ed.), 2001, A Dictionary of European Anglicisms, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

DEX = Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică “Iorgu Iordan”, 1998, Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române, ed. a II-a, Bucureşti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic.

DM = V. Rusu, 2007, Dicţionar medical, ediţia a III-a revizuită şi adăugită, Bucureşti, Editura Medicală.

DN = F. Marcu, C. Maneca, 1986, Dicţionar de neologisme, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei.

DOOM = Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvisitică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, 2005, Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic al limbii române, ediţia a II-a revăzută şi adăugită, Bucureşti, Editura Univers Enciclopedic.

Frînculescu, I. C., 2010, Aspecte ale terminologiei medicale româneşti de după 1990 (cu specială referire la influenţa engleză), Craiova, Editura Aius Printed.

Frînculescu, I. C., 2010, “False Friends in Medical Language. A Case Study”, Lexique, Normalisation, Transgression. Actes du colloque du 7 septembre 2010, 63−80.

Gherasim, L. (ed.), 1999, Medicina internă, vol. II, Bolile cardiovasculare metabolice, Bucureşti, Editura Medicală.

Harrison, T. R., 2003, Tratat de medicină internă, ed. a XIV-a, Bucureşti, Editura Teora.

Harrison, T. R., 2005, Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, 16th edition, New York, Mc Graw- Hill.

Haţieganu, I., 1955, Clinică şi patologie medicală, probleme şi lecţiuni, Bucureşti, Centrocoop.

Iliescu, M., 2007, “Je sème à tout vent”, L’art de la philologie, Mélanges en l’honneur de Leena Löfstedt, 70, 131−136.

Marcovitch, H., 2005, Black’s Medical Dictionary, 41st edition, London, A & C Black.

MDN = F. Marcu, 2007, Marele dicţionar de neologisme, ed. a IX-a, Bucureşti, Editura Saeculum Vizual.

Merriam-Webster, 2003, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus, 11th edition, computer version 3.0.

Moldovan, T., 1993, Semiologie clinică medicală, Bucureşti, Editura Medicală.

OED = J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Steiner (eds), 1989, Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Păun, R. (ed.), 1992, Tratat de medicină internă, Bolile cardiovasculare, partea III-a, Bucureşti, Editura Medicală.

Raicu, P., V. Stoian, 1989, Gene şi cromozomi, Bucureşti, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică.

Rivers, W. H. R., 1900, “Reviews and Abstracts”, Brain, 23, 340–342.

Stockwel, R., D. Minkova, 2001, English Words: History and Structure, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

TLFi = Atilf, 2004, Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé, Paris, CNRS, http://atilf.atilf.fr/tlf.htm