Un-Stroking the Spanish Translations (and Synonyms) of “Stroke”: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Within the field English-Spanish medical translation we encounter a noteworthy list of difficulties, arising from the fact that medical English oftentimes tends to use either a single term (or a phrase) lexicalizing each concept. Considering the increasing relevance of “stroke” nowadays, we aimed at researching the Spanish renderings (and synonyms) for this issue in order to see whether the English language provides us with more or less terms and phrases.   By using institutional and professional sources, in this paper, we first delve into the etymology of “stroke” in English language, as well as the stroke types and subtypes, recording a total of 10 lexical items and phrases. Then, we research into the Spanish counterparts. By referring to computer-aided translation, as well as human translation, later on we carry out the English-Spanish contrast. Overall, the findings unveil how Spanish lexical and phrase items (n=33) triple the English ones available (n=10).