THE TERMINOLOGY IN THE SCIENTIFIC TEXTS ON CARDIOLOGY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ACRONYMIC COMPOSITIONS IN PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH

IN THIS ARTICLE WE PRESENT SOME OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED IN OUR PROJECT TERMINOLOGY IN HEALTH SCIENCES: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION IN THE FIELD OF CARDIOLOGY, SUPPORTED BY THE RITERM-JOVEN PROGRAMME 2005-2007. THE MAIN OBJECTIVE WAS TO CARRY OUT A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE NEOLOGICAL WORD FORMATION PROCESSES BETWEEN THE PENINSULAR SPANISH AND THE BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE IN THIS FIELD. IN THIS ARTICLE WE DEAL WITH THE USE OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS IN THIS AREA OF EXPERTISE FOR THOSE TWO LANGUAGES. IN ORDER TO DO THIS, WE FIRST DISCUSS SOME THEORETICAL QUESTIONS, TO ESTABLISH THE TERMINOLOGY THAT WE WILL USE FOR THE DIFFERENT PROCESSES OF WORD FORMATION. THEN WE PERFORM A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE TERMS FOUND IN OUR CORPUS. THIS CORPUS IS COMPOSED OF A SELECTION OF SPECIALIZED SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS IN THE FIELD OF CARDIOLOGY, PUBLISHED IN SPAIN AND BRAZIL IN THEIR VERNACULARS. ONCE THIS IS ACCOMPLISHED, WE VERIFY THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ACRONYMIC COMPOSITION AS A WORD FORMATION PROCESS IN THIS FIELD OF CARDIOLOGY. WE ALSO CONFIRM THAT THE GREAT MAJORITY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS FOUND IN OUR CORPUS ARE SUBSTANTIVES, WHICH ARE USED IN THESE SENTENCES AND TEXTS SPONTANEOUSLY. THESE ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS CAN OPERATE AS NEW ROOTS TO CREATE NEW WORDS IN THE LANGUAGE AND CAN ALSO BE INFLECTED ACCORDING TO THE CORRESPONDING GRAMMATICAL CASE.