Releasing Terminology Inhibitions in Medical English Under a Postmodernist Influence

Abstract

There is a universally acknowledged truth that the medical lexis is largely composed of Greco-Latin vocabulary. There is also a general assumption that health professionals supposedly possess no other relevant linguistic means but the Greco-Latin terms to communicate clinically specific information. In a postmodernist approach, however, there is an ‘assault’ on this dogmatic view. To the postmodern eye, the truth is pluralistic; diverting opinions are embraced when constructing this truth. And if postmodernist approach welcomes pluralism and open-mindedness in composing this information, then health professionals may well construct the evidence-based information through various linguistic devices, rather than relying exclusively on fixed terminology and concepts of Latin and Greek origin. This means that the evidence-based medical and clinical information may be communicated, inter alia, by such constructs as metaphors and metaphoric expressions.