The Place of Verbal Nouns in Georgian Medical Terminology

Abstract

Georgian does not have two different forms – infinitives and verbal nouns. However, it is more inclined to function as a noun.

Verbal nouns are used quite frequently in Georgian, especially as medical terms, but many tend to lose verbal features and are converted into nouns. For example, anteba ‘inflammation’ as a medical term has a broader meaning, namely, as inflammation of several parts of the human body. The medical term with this word: filt'vebis anteba ‘pneumonia’ or ‘lung inflammation’ is frequently used too, but this can more easily be replaced by Latinate words such as p'nevmonia and many others (naghvlis busht'is anteba or koletsist'it'i ‘inflammation of the gallbladder’ or ‘cholecystitis’). In addition, new terms are derived from it: antebiti  daavadeba (p'rotsesi, tsvlileba) – ‘inflammatory disease’ (‘process’, ‘change’), antebadi (midamo, ksovili...) ‘inflammatory area’ (‘tissue’), etc.

Semantical differentiation can also take place; for example, khvela is the verbal noun ‘coughing’, khveleba ‘cough’, ‘having cough’ – denoting a symptom of disease, and khvela-bat'onebi (=q'ivanakhvela) – in the meaning of the certain infection, ‘chin cough’ or ‘pertussis’. In these words, and several others, like boq'ini ‘belch(ing)’, slok'ini – ‘hiccups’, some kinds of reactions as symptoms of illnesses.

We can group some verbal nouns among the medical terms according to their structure – such as single-word terms (consisting of one word only with a derived stem and compound ones), and terminological collocations. In compound words, the first component is mostly a noun, and the second is a verbal noun. Examples of complex-stem terms are airtsvla ‘gas exchange’, siskhlkhveleba ‘hemoptysis’, p'irghebineba ‘vomit’... In complex root words, a noun is the first word, and the second word is a verbal noun, for example, terms with attribute-determining – emotsiuri bodva ‘emotional delirium’; terms with genitive-determining: siskhlis shededeba ‘blood thickening’, venebis gaganiereba ‘varicose veins’…

In Georgian medical terminology, almost all kinds of verbal nouns, having gone through some processes, are used – with the help of the suffixes -a, -il, -in (such as koshini ‘anhelation’, ‘dyspnea’, kavili ‘itchiness’, ‘itching’...). In terms of their origin, most of the suffixes are of Georgian provenance. However, some are of foreign origin: - iz+eba//ir+eba: st'erilizeba ‘sterilize’, neit'ralizeba ‘neutralize’, dozireba ‘dosage’, ‘dose’. The terms, on the aforementioned types, have their synonyms with the suffix -tsia: neit'ralizatsia ‘neutralization’, and several others.

In some cases, a Georgian preverb is added directly onto foreign stems; hence, we have foreign medical terms with Georgian preverbs and so-called thematic markers.