A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC STUDY OF HOW MEDICAL STUDENTS PROCESS AND UNDERSTAND MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY IN ENGLISH ANNOTATION

This article explores how medical students cognitively process and comprehend medical terminology in English from a cognitive linguistics perspective. Medical terminology represents a complex lexical system characterized by Greek and Latin roots, affixation, metaphorical extensions, and high semantic density, which often poses difficulties for non-native English-speaking medical students. The study examines the cognitive mechanisms involved in understanding medical terms, including conceptual metaphor, categorization, image schemas, and morphological decomposition. Special attention is given to how prior linguistic knowledge, domain-specific experience, and cognitive strategies influence term recognition, interpretation, and retention.