From Terminology to

Phraseology in
English for Psychology

Rosita B. Maglie
 Lexis and Terminology
“Studying psychologic(al) terminology
in English is
like learning a new language”

At first words look different and complicated.

However, by understanding a few important
guidelines, psychologic(al) terminology can
become interesting and seem like solving a
logical puzzle.
 Vocabulary

Classical (Greek and Latin) origin
e.g.
membrane, deficit, amnesia, cerebellum

 from Greek: e.g. catharsis (G.

purification);
 from Latin: e.g. cerebellum (L. dim.
of cerebrum, brain)
 Vocabulary

Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) origin
e.g. behavior, chunking, coping, debriefing,
fear, flooding etc.

 ictus/stroke
 ecografia: *ecography☺ultrasonography,
ultrasound scanning
 Phonology & Spelling
 Italian
psicologia, psicologo, psicologico

 English
psychology [sai’kolodji]
psychologist [sai’kolojist]
psicologic(al) [saiko’lodjikl]
Monoreferentiality or
Semantic Uniqueness

One Word/Term = a specific meaning and concept.
No synonyms

 Anorexia nervosa = a mental disorder manifested

by extreme fear of becoming obese and an aversion
to food, usually occurring in young women and
often resulting in life-threatening weight loss,
accompanied by a disturbance in body image,
hyperactivity, and amenorrhea.

 Megacolon = a condition of extreme dilation of the

colon. Syn. Giant colon
Hirschsprung disease for the Danes
Ruysch disease for the Dutch.
Non-Emotionality

Medical Terms have Denotative Functions

Brain in EP and EGP

 The nerves connecting the brain and structures of the
head are cranial nerves
 they were not the only ones to have brains and ambition
 He’s a hot head!

 catachresis (neck of uterus, corpus/body of uterus,

fundus uteri)
 ellipsis (Otto’s fever, parachute mitral valve)
 eponyms (Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease)
 toponyms (Thogoto virus, Rio Bravo Fever)
Accuracy and Transparency

Affixation = Prefix - Root – Suffix
e.g. acrophobia = acro- (= highest point,
extremity) -phobia (=fear );
biopsychology = bio- (=combining form
denoting life); -psycho- (=the mind, mental); -
logy (=study).
 Imprecision
e.g. carcinoma (epithelial cancer) vs. glaucoma
(a rise in the pressure of the eyeball)
 Obscurity
e.g. trichotomy (the trimming of unwanted hair
before surgery)
Shortness
e.g. contraception (contraconception)

Acronyms

simple: ANS = Autonomic nervous system, DID =
Dissociative Identity Disorder.

compound: A-B-A design= Experimental design in
which participants first experience the baseline condition
(A), then experience the experimental treatment (B),
and then return to the baseline (A).

combined (numerals and letters for types, stage,
severity, position, measures): IQ 50-70, type A1.

Abbreviations CV (cardiovascular), Fld (fluid)

Stacked Noun Phrases body mass index

 Redundancy caesarean section delivery

Syntax of EMP

Omission of Phrasal Elements

 prepositional phrases with of, in, on, with:

 root nodule bacteria
(bacteria to be found in root nodules)

 prepositional phrases with for, usually for +

gerund:
 the operating room/theatre
(the room for carrying out operations)
Expressive Conciseness and
Pre-Modification

nouns modified by relative clauses:
 a blood donor (a person who donates
blood),
 laboratory equipment
(equipment which is used in a laboratory)

a combination of for + gerund and passive

voice:
 crisis intervention techniques
(techniques which are used
for intervening in a crisis)
Relative clause (1)

Replace the relative clause with
adjectives, usually obtained through
affixation:
 Measurable lesion
( = lesion which can be measured)
 Reactive force (= force which reacts)
 Absorbent material
(= material which absorbs)
Relative clause (2)

Omission of subject and auxiliary when
the clause has a passive form

Patients assigned to the combination-

therapy group also received irinotecan…
(= Patients that were assigned to the
combination-therapy also received
irinotecan…)
Relative clause (3)

the verb of the passive form in the
relative clause without a complement:
it precedes the noun it specifies and
becomes a past participle:

 Predefined subgroup analyses included

analyses of the patients whose disease
progressed after…
(= analyses of subgroups which had been
predefined included analyses…)
Relative clause (4)

When the agent is expressed, it is

placed before the past participle and a
hyphen is inserted in between:

 Non-treatment-related toxicities
(= toxicities which are not related to
treatment)
Relative clause (5)

The prefix un- + past participle permits

the omission of the relative clause in
the negative form:

 The unwanted liquid was thrown away

(= the liquid which was not wanted was
thrown away)
Relative Clause (6)

The verb of the passive form modified
by an adverb: the latter is placed
before the former with a hyphen in
between

 At least one unidimensionally-

measurable lesion was required (= one
lesion which can be measured
unidimensionally was required..)
Relative Clause (7)

Thus and so are used not only in order to
avoid a relative clause but also to coordinate
clauses beginning with expressions like and
in this way:

 Cetuximab is a chimericIgG1monoclonal
antibody that binds to EGFR with high
specificity and with a higher affinity than either
epidermal growth factor TGF-α, thus blocking
ligand-induced phosphorylation of EGFR.
Relative Clause (8)

The use of gerund:
 Increasing clinical evidence exists
supporting the notion that
radiotherapy dose-escalation results in
improved prostate tumor control
 Late-reacting normal tissues (= normal
tissues which have a late reaction).
 A robot controls the moving line (= a
robot controls the line which is moving).
Stacked Noun Phrases
 antibody-dependent cell-mediated tumor
 cell killing
 metastatic androgen-independent prostrate
cancer
 metformin-associated lactic acidosis
 diabetes-related emotional stress
 drug injecting behaviour
 functional insertion and deletion
polymorphism
 difficult-to-measure variables
Nominalization (1)

To reflect the same process of
deduction of results from experiments
or the same process of derivation of
objects from a manufacturing process:

 Modifications of the dose of cetuximab

were made only in cases of toxic effects
to the skin, and modification in the dose
of irinotecan were made in cases of
hematologic or non hematologic toxic
effects.
Nominalization (2)

The concept in thematic position, thus
making the communication of
information more natural by placing it
in thematic position
 It is essential to keep magnetic disks
and tapes in fireproof safes. The
protection of original software, however,
is not sufficient. An additional security
precaution consists in storing copies at
different sites, away from the computer
Nominalization (3)

Greater objectivity to the author’s
thought

 The effectiveness of the combination of

irinotecan and cetuximab in patients
with irinotecan-refractory tumors
suggests that cetuximab may
circumvent irinotecan resistance.
Nominalization (4)

The verb only links more and more
complex noun phrases.

 The complete development of the fracture

model requires an understanding of the
bond-rupture reaction.

 With regard to the understanding of a

specialized text, even if the structure is
simplified, the higher lexical density of
the sentence and the more complex
structure of stacked noun phrases makes
its decoding more and more difficult.
Tense Use

A great number of non-finite forms:

 To explain this remarkable behaviour, each

electron is considered to possess an electric
charge, the charge being a numerical
measure of the force of repulsion
experienced between two electrons
(= To explain this remarkable behaviour, each
electron is considered to possess an electric
charge, which is a numerical measure of
the force of repulsion that is experienced
between two electrons)
Active Voice vs. Passive Voice
 We considered patients eligible if they were
more than 18 years of age and had stage
IV, histologically confirmed colorectal
adenocarcinoma. Other criteria for eligibility
were used: a Karnofsky performance-status
score of 60 or more; adequate hematologic
function (haemoglobin, at least 9 g per
decilitre [5.6 mmol per liter]; neutrophil
count, at least 1500 per cubic millimetre;
and platelet count at least 100,000 per
cubic millimetre .
Sentence Length

 In order to improve the positive predictive

value (PPV) for cancer, predictors of biopsy
outcome have been investigated including
DRE and TRUS findings and PSA correction
methods such as density, velocity, and age-
adjusted reference ranges, but none of
them has proved useful to select cases for
biopsy with an acceptable balance in terms
of avoided biopsies versus reduced
sensitivity.
Textual Features in EMP

Conjunctions: a cohesive function and
a pragmatic function

 Patients with advanced colorectal cancer

who receive fluoropyrimidine, irinotecan,
and oxaliplatin in combination or
sequentially may survive 18 to 21
months. However, once these tree
standard drugs have failed, there are no
accepted treatment options.
Theme and Rheme

Theme (where the subject is
introduced) & Rheme (showing what
is said about the subject)

 In the past decade, the median duration

of survival among patients with advanced
colorectal cancer has increased from 12
months to about 18 to 21 months, mainly
owing to the introduction of irinotecan
and oxaliplatin. Irinotecan and oxaliplatin
are widely used….
Text Genres in EMP

Patient Information
Case histories: or
Leaflets (PILs) SOAP

En PIL Subjective (the patient’s

statement of his/her
 User friendly condition)
 Common words and
Technical terms Objective (the physician’s
observations of the
patient’s condition)

It PIL
Assessment
 Difficult
 Technical terms
Plan
Research Article (RA)

Title

 Title
 Authors
 Name of the affiliation, department
 Date of submission
Research Article

Abstract

 Overview or summary of the article

(100-150 words)
 Highlights of results
 General statement of significance
Research Article

Introduction

 Specific problem under study.

 Background information to clarify
topic: history, patho-physiology,
clinical presentation.
 Rationale and purpose of the
manuscript
Research Article

Methods

 Study Design
 Subject selection procedures
 Methods of measurements
 Descriptions of analytical techniques
Research Article

Results

 What happened?
 Graphs, tables, charts, figures that
summarize findings.
 Statistics
Research Article

Discussion
 Meaning and significance of work
 Evaluation and interpretation of results
 Critique of study: discussions of limitations,
as well as strengths, further analysis
 Comparison with work of others
 Disclaimers, equivocation, apologies, chest
thumping, speculation, instruction, fantasy
and so on.
Research Article

References

 Evidence that the work of others has

been considered
 Leads to further exploration of the
subject

(adapted from Gehlbach 2002: 6)

Title

indicative, indicating only the topic

informative, giving some idea of the

message of the paper
Abstract

 What the author did

 How the author did it
 What the author found
 What the author concluded
Abstract

a) Introducing purpose
b) Describing methodology
c) Summarizing results
d) Presenting conclusions

(Bhatia 1993: 78-79)

Introduction - Verb Use

Extended review of other literature
surrounding the topic.

 If it is relevant to the previous study, the

latter is always presented in the present
perfect tense
 Work which is perceived as distant from the
present study, or is refuted by the authors,
is usually given in the simple past

 Hence the choice of tense is not governed

only by considerations of time but also
implies the author’s attitude to the content
Introduction – Verb Use (2)

 Only a universally accepted truth is

given in the present tense

 “Saliva contains IgA and IgM antibodies

derived from perioral lymphoid tissue...”
(Webber 1996)
Introduction – Tense Use

When the authors speak of their own

work, they often use a personal form
– generally the first person plural.
There is also a switch in the tense
choice here – to the simple past if
the study is finished.
Materials and Methods
The methods section describes the
methodology of the study. It details
the patient population studied, the
study design utilized, and data
collection techniques employed; it
describes in more detail than many of
us care to know the analytical and
evaluative procedures used in the
course of the study.
Results
The results section, quite logically,
presents the information obtained
from the execution of the study.
Results are usually found both in the
text and in accompanying tables,
charts, graphs, and figures. The
analysis and some interpretation of
the data are also presented in the
results section.
Materials and Results

These two sections are characterized by a

high percentage of lexical items, very
few author-marked elements and very
little use of connectors. Passives are
used by convention. The tone is thus
factual and detached. Wide use of
nominalizations focus the reader’s
attention on the procedures and the
findings.
Discussion
The longest section of the paper, occupying
up to 40% of the total. The first sentence of
the discussion, or comment, usually
contains a further analysis of the results.
Other topics are discussed in it such as the
outcomes and conclusions of other
studies may be compared and contrasted;
the authors may offer apologies for
oversights and transgressions or build a
case to strengthen and support the results.
Finally, there are usually
recommendations, often with the use of
the verb should, and suggestions for
future research.