The Synonymous Series in Medical Terminology

Abstract

Synonymy in medical terminology is a natural phenomenon, an indispensable attribute of specialized language, triggered by the continuous evolution of medical science, which implicitly reveals new aspects, new valences, specialized knowledge that needs to be designated. The purpose of our paper is to reveal the role of synonymous series in structuring the language semantic dimension through the organic exteriorization of the semantic aspects of similarity at the level of lexemes in medical terminology. We also pay special attention to numerically different synonymous series (bi-member and poli-member) as well as the place they hold in medical language at all three lexical levels (non-terminological, scientific and terminological). Finally, aspects related to the research of synonyms are discussed based on the semantic, integral and differential characteristics, which make possible the semantic nuance in the paradigms they form (structure of the synonymous series, core, periphery, etc.).