Unpacking Medical Knowledge: A Corpus-based Investigation of (De)metaphorization in Cross-cultural Communication from Britain to China in the Late 19th Century

Abstract

This study explores translation strategies in medical knowledge transmission in late 19th-century China, through a perspective focused on grammatical metaphor (GM) observed in a parallel corpus of medical texts. Specifically, this study examines how the Jiangnan Arsenal’s translators in late 19th-century China adapted GM in the source text in English into more explicit and congruent Chinese expressions, balancing scientific accuracy with accessibility, revealing how translation mediates knowledge transmission across social and cultural contexts. A parallel corpus was constructed containing both the original text in English, Physician’s Vade Mecum, and the translated text in Chinese, Neike lifa (《内科理法》). Extensive linguistic annotation of the corpus was carried out to identify metaphor-congruency shifts encoded grammatically between the source language and the target language.

This research identifies shifts within ranks, which are encoded as noun-to-verb and noun-to-adjective shifts, as well as shifts across ranks, which are encoded as noun-to-clause. These variations of GM, known as de-metaphorization, reveals translators’ emphasis on conveying the core conceptual meaning of GM in English, at the expense of scientific features, such as abstraction and compactness. Against the broader historical backdrop, where Chinese readers of the time were unfamiliar with modern medicine, these strategies prioritized unpacking essential meanings for accessibility. Furthermore, the study identifies instances of re-metaphorization, where expressions initially unpacked into congruent forms were repacked into less congruent forms to enhance their suitability for scientific communication. This dual strategy, unpacking to ensure accessibility and repacking to achieve compactness, illustrates the translators’ efforts to adapt medical knowledge for both comprehension and precision. However, it was not the mainstream of strategies during that period.

Through these findings, this research uncovers the role of GM variations encoded in the translation process and how linguistic shifts facilitate knowledge transmission and adaptation across cultural and developmental contexts. This sheds light on the critical role of language in constructing scientific knowledge and facilitating cross-cultural communication. Further, such linguistic shifts may be viewed as cultural adaptations necessary for the smooth transmission of disciplinary knowledge across cultures and developmental stages in the evolution of scientific knowledge. The study provides empirical evidence for shifts from grammatical metaphor to congruent expressions during the infancy of knowledge transmission from the West to the East. It highlights the importance of language and historical context in shaping the perception and representation of ideas and concepts in medical discourse. From a practical perspective, this research demonstrates how translators adapted scientific concepts to suit differing cultural and developmental contexts. It offers insights into translation practices, particularly in cases where cultural or technical terms are lacking. From the interdisciplinary view, the work bridges linguistics, translation studies, and the history of science, positioning translation as a process of knowledge construction. It offers a fresh perspective on the role of language in shaping scientific development and cross-cultural communication.

Date of Award	6 May 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Chengyu Alex FANG (Supervisor) & Florin-Stefan MORAR (External Co-Supervisor)