疾病概念的跨语际传播——以Influenza的入华“旅行”为例

Translingual Travels of Disease Concepts:The Chinese Translation of Influenza as an Example

"流行性感冒"和"感冒"是一组易混淆概念,后者常被用作前者的简称,这在很大程度上蒙蔽了大众对流感这一疾病严重程度的认知。此番误读始于语言层面influenza的翻译,而且与国人的健康观念紧密相关。这一错误观念的形成可追溯到清末民初influenza概念的传入。其传入我国最先遭遇的是"痟首疾、天行中风"及"伤寒"等传统疾病概念,伴随中西两种医学碰撞的是包括"时行伤风传染、?症"及"流行性感冒"等一系列新名词的诞生。到20世纪30-50年代则见证了"流行性感冒"五字表达的确立。这一概念"旅行"的过程体现了科学概念跨语际传播的复杂性。

The Chinese terms"ganmao"for"common cold",and"liuxingxing ganmao",for influenza,are often confusing to many people.The former is often used as an abbreviation of the latter,which hinders people’s understanding of the severity of the influenza.Such misunderstanding,closely related to the Chinese people’s health concept,started from the translation of the word"influenza".This misunderstanding can be traced back to the late Qing Dynasty and the early republic of China when the word"influenza"was first introduced into China.It first met head-on with Chinese traditional concepts such as"xiaoshouji","tianxing zhongfeng",and"shanghan".Later,the interaction of Chinese and Western Medicine gave rise to a number of terms that were used for translations of the term influenza in the Chinese language,such as"shixing shangfeng chuanran","shenzheng",and"liuxingxing ganmao".During the 1930s and 1950s,the translation for the term influenza(liuxingxing ganmao)was finally settled.This translingual travel reveals the complexity of the promotion of scientific concepts in China.