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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Les premiers dictionnaires médicaux en langue anglaise : glissements diachroniques du spécialisé au non spécialisé

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Abstract In the field of languages for specific purposes, the diachronic study of medical dictionaries published in English is a territory that remains largely unchartered. The aim of this study is to pinpoint and analyse the emergence of the first medical glossaries and dictionaries in Great Britain so as to mark out the specialised territory of medical English. The specialised domain, as defined by Michel Petit, and the analysis of the passage from the specialised to the non-specialised domain put forward by Michel Van der Yeught provide the theoretical background to the study, which spans the 17th and 18th century. The corpus comprises both general English dictionaries and the first specialised compilations whether they are of exogenous or endogenous origin. My research shows that A Physical Dictionary, published in 1652 for John Garfield, is the first instance of a transition from the specialised to the non-specialised in the specialised territory of medical English. In the Age of Enlightenment, A Medicinal Dictionary, compiled by the English doctor Robert James between 1743 and 1745, confirms this passage, and heralds the publication of the first medical dictionaries in the United-States.