Language Used in Medical Journals

Abstract

This research makes an effort to analyze and describe the language used in medical journals in terms of tense, aspects, voice and sentence types.This research is descriptive one which is based on the secondary sources of data. The data for the study were collected from three journals such as:‘Journal of Nepal Medical Association’, ‘Journal of Institute of Medicine ’and ‘Kathmandu University Medical Journal’. The total samples were thirty texts. The required data was collected using observation as the data collection tool. The study found that past tense was more frequently used than non-past tense. Simple aspect was maximally used; perfective aspect was more frequently used than progressive aspect. Regarding voice,passive voice was highly used than active voice. In case of sentence types, complex sentences were maximally used. Compound sentences were more frequently used than simple sentences. Regarding the use oft echnical words, technical non-abbreviated words were more frequently used than technical abbreviated words.This thesis is divided into four chapters: Introduction; Methodology;Analysis and Interpretation; and Findings and Recommendations. The first chapter contains general background, review of the related literature,objectives of the study and significance of the study. The second chapter consists of the methodology in which the sources of data, sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the study are discussed. Similarly, the third chapter comprises of analysis and interpretation of data obtained. Finally, the forth chapter contains the findings, recommendations and pedagogical implication of the thesis.