Patterns of Textual Cohesion in Medical Textbook Discourse in English and Arabic.

This study attempts to bring together, in a systematic framework, various approaches to the study of medical texts. It is intended to offer the reader a comprehensive coverage of the various kinds of material which medical students may be expected to encounter at an advanced level. This study analyses the significance of certain aspects of cohesion in Arabic and English medical textbooks. It has three specific objectives: the first objective is to undertake a detailed review of approaches to the study of text with the intention, secondly, of designing categories appropriate to the analysis of the corpus. The lexical categories are: "simple lexical repetition", "complex repetition", "partial repetition A and B", "synonyms", "near-synonyms", "part/whole", "inclusion as a coordinate, superordinate, or subordinate member (general/specific)", "opposition or contrast", and finally "collocation A and B". The logical conjunction categories are: "Additive", "Adversative", "Causal/Illative", "Enumeration", and Illustrative/ Explanatory/Alternative". The third objective, which forms the basis for the experimental work in the study is a comparison by means of the use of quantitative analysis of two aspects of cohesion in English and Arabic. These aspects are: patterns of lexical cohesion and patterns of logical conjunctions. The main findings are: (1) the frequency of occurrences of lexical patterns within sentences in Arabic is higher than in English. (2) the frequency of occurrences of lexical patterns between sentences is higher in English than in Arabic. (3) the number of occurrences of the category of logical conjunctions Additive is higher in Arabic than in English. (4) the number of occurrences of the category of logical conjunctions 'Adversative' is higher in English than in Arabic. (5) the number of occurrences of Causal/Illative category is higher in English than in Arabic. Possible reasons for these findings are discussed. The findings indicate a number of possible recommendations and suggestions for research: (i) A comparison of ancient Arabic medical writing with the contemporary could be explored. (ii) A comparison between medical interviews in Arabic and their counterparts in English could be investigated. This has practical implications to improve communications between doctors and patients from different cultures