To the Problem of Medical Term Emotiogenicity

The article deals with the issue of medical terminology used in the doctor-patient communication. The author aims to prove the emotiogenic potential of medical terms of the deadliest diseases that are directly related to such basic human concepts as life and death . The study object is intricately connected with semantic and pragmatic aspects of a medical term, namely its emotiogenicity. The methodology is based on Russian researchers’ works in the field of emotive linguistics, terminology theory, and medical terminology. The article solves the problem of broadening theoretical conceptions of emotive linguistics in its relation to terminological units. Research material includes the respondents’ answers to the questionnaire and doctor-patient and doctor-relative dialogues. Semantic and contextual analysis and the survey among 200 medical students and patients find that a medical term is emotiogenic (emotionally evocative) and provokes emotions dominated by fear, despair, aggression, shame, etc.

term, medical term, discourse, emotion, emotivity, emotiogenicity, emotional communication, influence, Ebola, AIDS