Medical Terminology on the Web : from Definition to Discourse

Aims of the study: to investigate how medical terminology is defined in online medical dictionaries; to verify whether definitions are exploited at a discourse level or, in other words, to verify whether and how the lexicographic-definitional frame expands far beyond defintions and the dictionary itself and is used to communicating knowledge. The investigation combines a general overview of dictionaries' lemmata and a series of examples concerning widespread medical conditions and concepts.