Language and communication in the Spanish of health care

The work is proposed as an approach to the language of medicine and health in the Spanish-Italian direction. The study begins by addressing the importance of defining, first of all, health in the context of languages for specific purposes, taking into consideration both the thematic components that identify it and its communicative dimension, which is based on the level of the participants and the communicative purposes (expert-expert communication; expert-semi-expert communication; expert-layman communication). Once Spanish has been described in the framework of languages for specific purposes, we move on to the analysis of its defining features at the lexical level, at the morphosyntactic level and at the pragmatic-discursive level. The following chapters present the ONCO_ESP_IT corpus and glossary of terminology containing texts and slogans pertaining to the field of oncology, which can be a useful tool for an audience of patients, family members, health professionals, in short, users of this specialty language. The volume is aimed at students who wish to specialize in health Spanish, as well as teachers and researchers of language and translation as a tool for metalinguistic reflection. We also hope that the contents can be of use to the educational demand of the lay public.