MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY AS A COMPONENT OF YURII SHCHERBAK’S IDIOSTYLE: A CORPUS-BASED APPROACH
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Introduction. One of the areas contemporary linguistics is the study of the creative heritage of authors who have shaped significant cultural and intellectual traditions and produced multi-genre textual material suitable for multidimensional linguistic analysis. Among such figures is Yurii Shcherbak, a Ukrainian writer, diplomat, publicist, epidemiologist, Doctor of Medical Sciences, and public figure. His work is characterized by terminological density, the combination of medical and literary discourses, and an intellectual manner of writing, which makes the study of medical terminology within the structure of his
individual style particularly relevant.
Purpose. The purpose of this study is to identify the peculiarities of the functioning of medical terminology in Yurii Shcherbak’s literary discourse, to determine its semantic, figurative, and discursive load, and to demonstrate the potential of a corpus-based approach for investigating the role of specialized vocabulary in shaping an intellectualized authorial style.
Methods. The methodological basis of the research is the corpus-based approach, which makes it possible to objectively identify the core elements of the author’s language and its dominant concepts, trace the functioning of specialized vocabulary, and reveal the specific features of the writer’s idiostyle. The study also employs linguostylistic, semantic, contextual, and discursive methods of analysis.
Results. The study has shown that medical terminology in Yurii Shcherbak’s works performs not only a nominative but also a symbolic, emotional-expressive, philosophical, and concept-forming function. Terms belonging to hematology, immunology, epidemiology, pathology, and radiation medicine undergo processes of determinologization in literary texts, acquiring additional figurative and metaphorical meanings. Medical vocabulary becomes a means of representing war, social degradation, moral trauma, fear, and spiritual resistance, thereby forming a complex system of conceptual images and semantic dominants. It has been demonstrated that the use of specialized terminology intellectualizes the writer’s literary discourse and produces an effect of combining scientific precision with artistic imagery.
Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the comprehensive interpretation of medical terminology as an important feature of Yurii Shcherbak’s individual authorial style and in the application of a corpus-based approach to identifying patterns in the functioning of specialized vocabulary in the writer’s literary discourse.
Conclusions. Medical terminology in Yurii Shcherbak’s works performs an important text-forming and meaning-organizing role, becoming one of the key means of shaping the intellectual character of his literary discourse. The combination of specialized medical vocabulary with artistic imagery ensures a multilayered interpretation of the human being, society, and historical reality, while deepening the psychological and philosophical dimensions of the writer’s prose. The corpus-based approach opens up prospects for the further systematic study of Yurii Shcherbak’s authorial language.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Aforyzmy, pryslivia, sententsii pro likariv [Aphorisms, proverbs, and sayings about doctors]. (2008). In : Medychne pravo [Medical law], 2. Available at: https://medicallaw.org.ua/uploads/media/Aforyzmi.pdf (in Ukr.).
Horodylovska, H. (2014). Pereosmyslennia semantyky termina ta rozshyrennia sfer yoho funktsionuvannia [Rethinking the semantics of the term and expanding the spheres of its functioning]. In: Visnyk NU “Lvivska politekhnika”. Seriia “Problemy ukrainskoi terminolohii” [Bulletin of Lviv Polytechnic National University. Series “Problems of Ukrainian terminology”]. Lviv, 791, 105–108 (in Ukr.).
Karpova, V. (1967). Termin i khudozhnie slovo: Terminolohichna leksyka v movi suchasnoi ukrainskoi poezii [Term and literary word: Terminological vocabulary in the language of modern Ukrainian poetry]. Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 132 (in Ukr.).
Kuznietsova, Kh. Proza Yuriia Shcherbaka u literaturnomu dyskursi druhoi polovyny XX stolittia [Yurii Shcherbak’s prose in the literary discourse of the second half of the twentieth century]. Master’s thesis. Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Ústav slavistiky, 78 (in Ukr.).
Lutsak, S. M., Yurchak, H. M. (2025). Teoretychni osnovy korpusnoi linhvistyky [Theoretical foundations of corpus linguistics]. In: Prykarpatskyi visnyk Naukovoho tovarystva imeni Shevchenka. Slovo [Precarpathian Bulletin of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Word], 21(77), 33–48 (in Ukr.).
Matsko, L., Sydorenko, O., Matsko, O. (2003). Stylistyka ukrainskoi movy [Stylistics of the Ukrainian language]. Kyiv: Vyshcha shkola, 462 (in Ukr.).
Mentynska, I. (2020). Terminolohizatsiia ta determinolohizatsiia ukrainskykh kompiuternykh terminiv [Terminologization and determinologization of Ukrainian computer terms]. In: Internationale virtuelle Konferenz der Ukrainistik. Dialog der Sprachen – Dialog der Kulturen. Die Ukraine aus globaler Sicht (24–27 Oktober 2019).
München: readbox unipress Open Publishing LMU, 143–150 (in Ukr.).
Navalna, M. I., Khomych, T. L. (2024). Leksyka medychnoi sfery – dzherelo ekspresyvizatsii movy suchasnykh masmedia [Medical sphere vocabulary as a source of expressivization in the language of modern mass media]. In: Kultura slova [Culture of the word], 100, 215–227 (in Ukr.).
Pasieka, A. O. (2024). Rozvytok ukrainskoi medychnoi terminolohii ta urolohichnoi terminoleksyky: osnovni etapy stanovlennia [Development of Ukrainian medical terminology and urological terminological vocabulary: main stages of formation]. In: Vcheni zapysky TNU imeni V. I. Vernadskoho. [Scientific notes of V. I. Vernadsky Taurida National University]. Seriia: Filolohiia. Sotsialni komunikatsii. 4, 12–20 (in Ukr.).
Pustovit, V. Yu. (2016). Medychnyi dyskurs khudozhnoi literatury [Medical discourse of fiction literature]. In: Literatury svitu: poetyka, mentalnist i dukhovnist [World literatures: poetics, mentality and spirituality], 7, 102–110 (in Ukr.).
Rohachova, H. (1997). Termin u khudozhnomu teksti [Term in a literary text]. In: Pryntsypy ta metody funktsionalno-semantychnoho opysu movy: pidsumky, napriamy, perspektyvy [Principles and methods of functionalsemantic description of language: results, directions, prospects]: materialy konferentsii. Kyiv, 248–250 (in Ukr.).
Samoilenko, O. V. (2020). Osoblyvosti ukrainskoi medychnoi terminolohii [Features of Ukrainian medical terminology]. In: Zakarpatski filolohichni studii [Transcarpathian philological studies], 13 (1), 108–111 (in Ukr.).
Taran, A. (2019). Poshukova systema y korpus yak instrument doslidzhennia semantyky sliv [Search engine and corpus as a tool for studying word semantics]. In: Visnyk Cherkaskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni Bohdana Khmelnytskoho. Seriia: Filolohichni nauky [Bulletin of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Cherkasy National University. Series: Philological sciences], 1, 99–103 (in Ukr.).
Shcherbak, Yu. (1971). Barrier nesumisnosti [Barrier of incompatibility]. Kyiv: Rad. pysmennyk, 317 (in Ukr.).
Shcherbak, Yu. (1966). Yak na viini [As in war]: povist ta opovidannia Kyiv: Rad. pysmennyk, 319 (in Ukr.).
Shcherbak, Yu. (1987). Prychyny i naslidky: analitychne doslidzhennia [Causes and consequences: analytical research]. Kyiv: Radianskyi pysmennyk, 318 (in Ukr.).
Shcherbak, Yu. (1989). Chornobyl [Chornobyl]: dokumentalna povist. Kyiv: Vyd. khud. lit. “Dnipro”, 224 (in Ukr.).