6.3.1 Sondas de conocimiento metalingüístico

Siguiendo la definición que mencionábamos en el apartado anterior, propuesta por Cabré (1993: 307), buscamos en el corpus contextos metalingüísticos, es decir, partes de textos que nos aporten información sobre el término como unidad lingüística de denominación y comunicación. Para ello, recurrimos a las sondas de conocimiento, usando el método que mostramos en las secciones anteriores. En este caso, sin embargo, las sondas de conocimiento debían servir de señales lingüísticas que nos indicaran aquellas partes de un texto en las que los autores aclaran a su audiencia el referente conceptual del término que usan, o bien lo estrechan, amplían o ejemplifican.

La primera de las sondas de conocimiento metalingüístico que usamos fue call*, puesto que los análisis hechos hasta el momento del corpus nos habían revelado una gran variación en lo que se refiere a las denominaciones de los diferentes tipos de leucemia.¹⁵¹ Decidimos, por tanto, usar esta sonda para poder reunir los contextos en los que los autores señalan explícitamente los casos en los que se usa una determinada denominación o hacen referencia a la variación denominativa. Mostramos a continuación una sección de las líneas de concordancia obtenidas, en las que puede verse claramente la utilidad de esta sonda para la obtención de información metalingüística, puesto que indican la existencia de sinónimos de un término o la posibilidad de acortarlo por medio de una sigla:

In rare instances, the cells are too young to be classified. Such cases are called acute stem cell leukemia or acute undifferentiated leukemia (AUL).

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is also called acute granulocytic leukemia. It usually occurs in people over 25 but sometimes is found in teenagers and children.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (also called CML or chronic granulocytic leukemia) is a disease in which too many white blood cells are made in the bone marrow.

Adult acute lymphocytic leukemia (also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia or ALL) is a disease in which too many infection-fighting white blood cells called

It is less common than acute lymphocytic leukemia (also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia or ALL), another form of leukemia that occurs in children. All types of

Acute lymphocytic leukemia may be called by several names, including acute lymphoid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia (also called acute lymphoblastic leukemia or ALL) is a disease in which too many underdeveloped infection-fighting white-blood

When leukemia affects lymphoid cells, it is called lymphocytic leukemia. When myeloid cells are affected, the disease is called myeloid or myelogenous leukemia. T

Although the T cell type of disease, called T cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia, is very infrequent, it affects the skin, nervous system and lymph nodes more often

Hodgkin's disease (HD) occasionally develops in patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and has been called Richter's syndrome with HD features.

Between 75% and 85% of children with AML (also called acute myelogenous leukemia, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, or ANLL) can achieve a complete remission following

Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is also called acute granulocytic leukemia. It usually occurs in people over 25 but sometimes is found in teenagers and children.

blasts become especially numerous this may indicate a chance of transformation to acute myelogenous leukemia. This condition is called "refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation" or RAEB-t.

AML is also called acute nonlymphocytic leukemia or acute myelogenous leukemia, and is divided into several subtypes. It is less common than acute lymphocytic leukemia

Advances in the treatment of adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML; also called acute nonlymphocytic leukemia or ANLL) have resulted in substantially improved complete remission rate

Radiation therapy is used along with chemotherapy for some kinds of leukemia. Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) uses high-energy rays to damage cancer cells

Myelodysplastic syndromes are sometimes also called myelodysplasia dysmyelopoiesis, oligoblastic leukemia, smoldering leukemia or preleukemia. In only a minority of case

Myelodysplastic syndromes, also called pre-leukemia or "smoldering" leukemia, are diseases in which the bone marrow does not function normally

Otra de las sondas de conocimiento que usamos fue known, puesto que esta expresión puede indicar, sobre todo en la secuencia also known as, la existencia de otra unidad terminológica para hacer referencia al mismo concepto:

The high-level expression of recombinant gene products in the gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli often results in the misfolding of the protein of interest and its subsequent degradation by cellular proteases or its deposition into biologically inactive aggregates known as inclusion bodies.

At least four of the markers are metastasis genes -- two proteases that clear a path for the invading tumor (cathepsin D and urokinase plasminogen activator [uPA]), an oncogene (HER-2, also known as c-erbB2), and a tumor suppressor gene (p53). Ravdin agrees with Steeg's assessment that the studies of cathepsin D have not shown consistent results. Likewise, HER-2 is not useful for node-negative breast cancer patients, but appears to be a good predictor of response to adjuvant thera

ERK2 (extracellular-signal regulated kinase 2, also known as p42 mitogen-activated protein kinase) is an integral member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade that is crucial for many cellular events such as proliferation and differentiation.

Treatment of the human promyelocytic leukaemia cell line U937 with actinomycin D resulted in the activation of caspase-3 also known as CPP32. Protease activity was measured in cytosolic extracts by fluorometric analysis of the time-dependent cleavage of acetyl-Asp-Glu-Val-Asp-aminomethylcoumarin (DEVD-AMC), a caspase-3 substrate.

The abuse of smoked cocaine base, also known as 'crack', continues to be a major public health problem and to date the success of pharmacological or behavioral interventions has been limited.

Rodent biliary glycoprotein (Bgp), also known as C-CAM, has recently been shown to function as a tumor suppressor in colon, prostate, and bladder cancers.

Bicalutamide (also known as Casodex) is a type of hormonal therapy used in the treatment of prostate cancer.

Hormones are substances that occur naturally in the body, where they act as chemical messengers and help control the activity of cells and organs.

En los casos en los que la sonda known aparece en las secuencias known as y well known indica normalmente una relación genérico/específico:

However, no consensus exists on the way to manage the far more common, milder abnormalities known as ASCUS (atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance) and LSIL (low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions).

The overtreatment issue involves precancerous Pap smear abnormalities known as ASCUS (atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance) and LSIL (low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions). Experts disagree on whether to treat these conditions aggressively or with watchful waiting. The National Cancer Institute's ASCUS LSIL Triage Study (ALTS) aims to re

The inhibitory effects of these three ions were much stronger than that of UDP-N-acetylglucosamine known as a representative inhibitor of the glucosamine synthetase activity (10 microM, 52% inhibition).

The proliferation and differentiation of human mast cells (MCs) occur under the influence of the mitogenic agent known as stem cell factor (SCF). This study analyses the distribution of SCF and SCF receptor in human myometrial tissue to further the understanding of the role(s) of MCs in the uterus. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that the majority of uterine MCs are located in close proximity to myometrial

Certain changes (balanced translocations) involving 11q23 and resulting in AML are clearly associated with exposure to the class of chemotherapy agents known as topoisomerase II inhibitors. VP-16 is a member of this class, and the anthracyclines (doxorubicin, daunorubicin, etc.) also have some topoisomerase II inhibitory activity.

A new method of assessing the bactericidal activity of quinolones and other antibacterial agents, known as the bactericidal index or BI, is introduced and discussed. The BI represents total bacterial kill over a drug concentration range limited to levels achievable in vivo.

External compression or intraluminal invasion of the vascular wall of the superior vena cava (SCV) from direct invasion or from adjacent lymphnodes are well known as SCV syndrome.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is well known as a toxic gas, is produced endogenously in mammalian tissues from L-cysteine mainly by two pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes, cystathionine beta-synthetase and cystathionine gamma-lyase. Recently, we showed that cystathionine beta-synthetase in the brain produces H2S, and that

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is well known as a tumor marker of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). AFP shows micro heterogeneity because of a structural variance in its sugar chain, and the sugar chain obtained from HCC patients has a high affinity to lectins such as Lens culinaris agglutinin.

Por último, mostramos una sonda de conocimiento que puede usarse para localizar de forma muy clara la existencia de un contexto que contiene información metalingüística: la expresión the term, que suele ir seguida de una unidad léxica marcada tipográficamente por comillas. Es interesante observar que en muchos de estos contextos los autores incluyen, además, una definición o explicación del concepto al que dicho término hace referencia o indicaciones sobre las situaciones en las que un término debe ser usado y sus preferencias denominativas:

the term adenocarcinoma refers to cancer that begins in the cells from glandular structures in the lining or covering of certain organs in the body. Common primary cancer sites for adenocarcinomas include the pancreas, breast, prostate, stomach, liver, and colon.

the term "atresia" or "inspissation" should be used in cases of congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens associated with cystic fibrosis mutations, whereas the term "agenesis" should be used for cases of congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens associated with urogenital abnormalities in which regional defects occur during organogenesis.

Even if the documented effect of alternative medicine is not convincing, the effect is favourable empirically and may in itself be sufficient to give practitioners of alternative medicine an authorization. the term "alternative medicine" should be replaced by "complementary medicine".

Some scientists have suggested that the term "anemia of malignancy" should be replaced with the term "cytokine associated anemia" and the primary involved cytokine should be delineated by an appropriate subscript.

In many cancer patients, the causative mechanism of anemia is incompletely defined; thus, the term "anemia of chronic disease" is used. Defective iron utilization, the hallmark of anemia of chronic disease, is common among patients suffering from anemia of malignancy.

the term "antisense" refers to the fact that the nucleic acid synthesized is complementary to the coding (ie, "sense") genetic sequence of the target gene.

the term biologic response modifiers is used to suggest that these agents function by altering the host response to cancer rather than by direct cytotoxicity.

the term "biomarker," when it relates to cancer, usually refers to detectable molecular alterations that reflect different stages in the process of initiation, promotion, and progression of tumors.

the term blood type refers to the antigen phenotype, which is the serologic expression of the inherited blood group genes. Alloantibodies specific for the different blood group antigens may occur "naturally," in the absence of known exposure to the antigen, or in response to transfusion or pregnancy.

the term "Burkitt-like lymphoma" (BLL) has been applied to a group of high-grade B-cell lymphomas that appear morphologically intermediate between BL and centroblastic/immunoblastic lymphomas, as detailed in an accompanying paper in this issue.

the term "cervical intraepithelial neoplasia" (CIN) was coined to embrace this spectrum. The homologous term "urothelial intraepithelial neoplasia" (UIN) has been used by some authors to advocate a similar pathogenesis in bladder cancer.

There exists a great deal of overlap between many myelodysplastic syndromes and myeloproliferative disorders. This is most evident in the spectrum of disorders classified under the term chronic myeloid leukemia. These include chronic granulocytic leukemia, atypical chronic myeloid leukemia and chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.

the term "cyclothymia" is being used with different meanings. DSM-IV and ICD-10 define "cyclothymia" or "cyclothymic disorder" as a long lasting, subeffective disorder with frequent shifts between hypomanic and (sub)depressive states.

La información que este tipo de contextos puede aportarle al terminógrafo es, sin lugar a dudas, muy útil para aclarar posibles problemas de variación denominativa, sinonimia y, sobre todo, representa un fiel reflejo de las preferencias que determinados autores muestran a la hora de usar una u otra denominación para un concepto determinado.

Notas

¹⁵¹ Véase, por ejemplo, la sección 6.1.2, en la que vimos el uso de siglas en las denominaciones de los tipos de leucemia y la sección 6.1.4, en donde vimos las palabras clave que se combinan con acute y chronic.