GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS OF EPONYMOUS TERMS IN ENGLISH MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

The purpose of the research aimed to study the genitive constructions of English medical eponymous terms concerning the twocase grammar system.

Methods. The following methods of linguistic analysis are used in the paper: comparative-historical (to trace the evolution of the genitive case; structural (to identify genitive relations between elements of eponymous terms); descriptive (allows interpreting the genetive constructions of English medical eponymous terms and their possessive forms at the present stage of development of the English language).

Results. Morphological changes that took place in the Middle English period led to the fact that all cases, except the genitive, lost their endings and assimilated into the nominative. Thus, the English language has lost its case system, leaving for nouns only the common case, and the genitive case, which is correlated with the possession, the possessive case, respectively. Such a two-case grammar system has caused that the genitive case is quite difficult to identify due to numerous interpretations. Genitive relations can indicate affiliation, origin, description, measurement, perform an attributive role and, the like. Since the common case is expressed by word order, then, in turn, the genitive case has syntactic and morphological ways of formation.

Conclusions. In English medical terminology, the eponymous term is a substantivized phrase, the proprial component of which reflects the category of the genitive case. Genetive constructions concerning the proprial component of the eponymous term in English medical terminology have the following forms of expression: 1) by means of a possessive formant, namely an apostrophe and ’s, such as Wells’ syndrome or Kahler’s disease; 2) prepositions, namely paracusis of Willis or osteodysplasty of Melnick and Needles; 3) with the help of inflections -ian / -ic, namely Pickwickian syndrome, Hippocratic nails or the classical Latinized form of the genitive singular, i.e. torcular Herophili. Due to the evidence of the apostrophe’s, the category of the possessive case with the meaning of belonging disappears gradually, and such ways of its expression as apostrophe, inflection and prepositions lead to the fact that the proprial component acts as an attributive modifier eliminating the possessive function.