FFF

B5 - The frames and functional concepts of urine diagnostics from medieval to modern times

Based on the hypothesis that it is possible to determine and visualize the structure implicit or explicit in medical texts by applying Barsalou’s concept frames, the project intends to establish and standardize a method for examining shifting concept frames in the history of uroscopy and urine analysis from the 12th to the 19th century. The development of concepts, techniques, and practice will be investigated on both the lexical and the cognitive level comparatively for Latin, French, and German. The coexistence of concepts and concept shifts will be reconstructed from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The influence of language and mechanization on the ontology of scientific paradigms in medicine will be analyzed by explicating concepts underlying texts with reference to their representation in the frame format.