Lääketiedettä englanniksi yli 700 vuotta: latinan varjosta tieteen lingua francaksi

Kirjoittajat

• Irma Taavitsainen Helsingin yliopisto

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.57048/aasf.156635

Avainsanat:

englannin kieli, lääketieteen kieli, tieteen kieli, tieteen historia

Abstrakti

English medical writing across seven centuries

Vernacular medical writing is discussed in a diachronic perspective with illustrations from original texts. Medieval texts of learned origin show features of scholasticism with references to authorities and absolute certainty, while remedybooks use simple language. In the early modern period observation replaced language as the source of knowledge. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1665-) created the new style of writing in accordance with empiricism and a tentative mode of knowing. The eighteenth century brought increasing professionalism, institutionalization and specialized journals. The status of English as the lingua franca of science is fairly recent.