Structural and semantic analysis of medical terminology based on the ER TV series

Recent years have given rise to an upsurge in research pertaining to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and specialised terminology. The foci of attention are predominantly the languages of medicine and law. Medical terminology has been researched with particular emphasis on translation hindrances as well as doctor-patient communication. Nevertheless, investigating medical terminology utilised in audiovisual products such as films and TV series remains underresearched. Therefore, this paper aims to provide an analysis of medical terminology applied in an American TV series ER. The paper starts with an overview of the most salient features of medical English. The overview in question is followed by the analysis of the corpus. The selected examples are classified and analysed in a twofold manner. Firstly, medical terminology is classified according to the typology of medical English characteristics such as eponyms, collocations, abbreviations etc. This classification enables one to conduct a structural analysis of medical terms. The context in which they are used is also deliberated on. Secondly, the terminology is grouped based on its meaning into the following semantic groups: medications, medical procedures, equipment, anatomy and diseases (semantic analysis). The results are followed by the discussion of medical terminology distribution in the two analysed groups. The results allow one to establish the features emblematic of medical discourse portrayed in TV series which endeavours to emulate medical terminology used by medical professionals in real life.