METONYMISATION OF MEDICAL EPONYMS BASED ON PERSONAL NAMES AND THEIR METONYMIC PATTERNS IN ENGLISH CLINICAL TERMINOLOGY
METONYMISATION OF MEDICAL EPONYMS BASED ON PERSONAL NAMES AND THEIR METONYMIC PATTERNS IN ENGLISH CLINICAL TERMINOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: Metonymisation of Medical Eponyms Based on Personal Names and Their Metonymic Patterns in English Clinical Terminology. This paper presents insights into the metonymisation of medical eponyms based on a comprehensive overview of relevant literature. The article introduces a corpus-based study that analyses 25,787 medical eponyms derived from proper names extracted from articles, dictionaries, and specialised online resources. Given the established metonymic frameworks, this research investigates the characteristics of medical eponyms categorised as metonymic expressions through descriptive analysis. In our study, we considered eponymy as a subclass of metonymy, involving metonymic shifts where a name indirectly refers to a related medical concept. The specific features of a medical phenomenon are transferred from the object to a person who either discovered or is somehow associated with it. In this case, the proper name in an eponymous term does not provide access to biographical information but reveals the meaning of the medical phenomenon associated with a person. We also regard eponymy as a common form of metonymy that manifests in elliptic constructions, where the proper name is used without common nouns like disease, reflex, sign, etc. Metonymy is also considered from a cognitive standpoint in medical terminology, as it is used in reasoning to indicate how humans perceive medical objects. The information contained in eponyms gradually accumulates in the doctor's mind. Such knowledge accumulation helps to elucidate the relationship between language and medicine, enriching not only theoretical linguistics but also medical practice and education. The deeper the knowledge, the more information is condensed within the eponymous term; i.e., the meaning of a medical eponym is revealed as it is studied and characterized by individual associative layers and identification descriptors, where the proper name serves as a trigger for understanding the information ingrained within it. The proper name picks out a unique entity from several similar ones and provides access to some specific information. A mental lexicon uses such names as a compact container for keeping a large amount of information that can be grained into particular categories. Such metonymic categories as PHYSICIAN FOR THE DISEASE, PATIENT FOR THE DISEASE, and PART-FOR-WHOLE METONYMY can be specified within medical terminology due to the associative relations between source and target. Such an associative relationship between eponyms and medical phenomena is based on knowledge and experience, which steadily extend and may convey complex concepts quickly. The cognitive framework of metonymy facilitates the structuring of conscious processes and potentially influences standardized medical nomenclature, which in turn enhances clarity in international communication.

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