Διονύσης Γούτσος: Χαρτογραφώντας το σημασιολογικό πεδίο της ασθένειας στα Ελληνικά

Languages crucially differ with regard to the distinctions they make in the semantic field of disease, including the referring expressions used for the dysfunctions of the mind and body; cultures also differ in how they construe the relationship between diseases and affected individuals (Fleischman 1999). The paper examines some of the most common words of the semantic field of disease in Greek, including αρρώστια [aróstça], ασθένεια [asθénia], διαταραχή [δjataraçi], νόσος [nósos], σύνδρομο [sínδromo] and related vocabulary in the Corpus of Greek Texts, a collection of a broad variety of spoken and written texts of about 30 million words. Their relative frequency and distribution in text types is discussed, along with their implications for the construal of the physical or mental dysfunctions referred to. It is found that disease is mainly construed as a participant rather than a process in the Greek data studied, while related vocabulary is organized in a tri-partite distinction corresponding to the English terms disease, illness and sickness, that capture different aspects of the same phenomenon.

ΛΕΞΕΙΣ-ΚΛΕΙΔΙΑ: ασθένεια, ιατροανθρωπιστικές επιστήμες, σώματα κειμένων