0 INTRODUCTION

4. RHETORIC AND THE WORLD OF SCIENCE IN THE EModE PERIOD
treatises, there is a higher preference for foreign terms, namely Latin and French names of
sicknesses. Hence, the amount of native names 13 in the 15 th century is much lower than
that of foreign terms (144 native items vs. 253 foreign). In the case of surgical texts there
is also a preference for foreign terms, although not as definite as in the case of academic
treatises (148 native vs. 196 foreign terms). Finally, the amount of foreign words
decreases in remedy books, where their number is the same as that of native terms (85
items of each kind). These differences may be explained by sociohistorical factors like the
author’s education and the level of readership (Taavitsainen 2001a: 86), the latter being
even more important since it shows more variation (Taavitsainen 2010: 34). Academic
treatises were used to teach at universities, where a good command of Latin was required.
By contrast, remedy books were health guides intended to be read by any literate person
(see Section 4.5 for further details). However, at that time the fact of having literacy in
English did not imply an understanding of Latin words. This might be the reason why
these words were used much less frequently than in academic treatises or surgical texts.
4.5. Medicine and the language of medical writing in the EModE period
Since Section 6.3 of this dissertation is devoted to the analysis of the differences in the
type and use of nominalizations in medical writing, it is essential to deal in greater detail
with the status of medicine and the different categories of medical writing in the EModE
period because, as is well known, the sociohistorical context plays an important role in
linguistic development.
13 In Norri’s (1992) study native also applies to those names created by affixation having foreign roots and
to loan translations.
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