769 International Journal of Progressive Sciences and Technologies (IJPSAT)
ISSN: 2509-0119.
© 2021 International Journals of Sciences and High Technologies
http://ijpsat.ijsht‐journals.org
Vol. 26 No. 1 April 2021, pp. 204-208
Corresponding Author:
Anvar Mukhtorovich Kurganov
204
The Linguaculturological And Nominative Features Of Military
Terms
Anvar Mukhtorovich Kurganov
Deputy Chief of the Languages learning Department of the Academy of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan
Abstract – The article deals with the linguacultural and semantic features of military terms in texts. As the world is growing rapidly the
technology and terminology of all sphere also growing at the same time. Here in this article we discussed some changes in military
terminological base of English language.
Keywords – Military Terms, General Scientific Vocabulary, Terminological Phrases, Armed Forces, Technical Concepts, Military
Business Texts, Military-Technical Texts, Military Environment.
Continuous development of military technology is the main cause of emergence of new military terms and terminological
phrases. According to S.A. Pavlova, terminological, as well as general scientific vocabulary as a means of expressing, storing and
transmitting information about special scientific and technical concepts develops “in direct proportion to the level of development
of science and technology” [4, 378].
Texts of military subjects also contribute to “creating the image of the armed forces within the country and abroad” [3, 123].
According to G.M. Strelkovsky, all military texts, both written and oral, constitute a group of texts of the same functional style
- the style of military speech. In terms of their functional purpose and content, two types of military texts are distinguished:
informational and regulatory. Informational texts include military-scientific, military-technical, military-informational and military-
publicistic types of texts. Regulatory types of text intended to regulate the life and activities of troops include charters, manuals,
and military business texts [6, 272].
During the 90s of the XX and the beginning of the XXI centuries, there is an increasing interest of cultural linguists,
lexicographers, specialists in other spheres of national linguistics to the problems of social dialectology and, in particular, to military
vocabulary. This is partly due to the penetration of the lexemes of the language of soldiers-conscripts into the national speech, as
well as the influence of the language of modern youth, social classes and criminal elements on the language of soldiers serving in
the army and navy. This does not mean that military vocabulary has not been previously studied. Anyway, this study was connected
with the study of the linguoculture of complete or limited freedom.
There are a number of controversial issues related to word production within the framework of the linguistic culture of non-
freedom. The identification of the main and specific methods and techniques of word formation, meanwhile, makes it possible to
compare military terms with the national language, to clarify the nature of its vocabulary. The features of phonetics, syntax, text
The Linguaculturological And Nominative Features Of Military Terms
Vol. 26 No. 1 April 2021
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205
formation in the linguistic culture of non-freedom were not investigated. No less relevant at present is the characteristic of the basic
functions of military terms in the military environment and its elements in various jargons and youth slangs.
Studying, through military terms, the worldview of conscripted soldiers helps fill in the gaps and correct inaccuracies in research
on various aspects of the life of a given society, which, in turn, is relevant both from the point of view of how to manage the soldier’s
collective from the side of the army personnel and from adaptation of demobilized soldiers to civilian life.
The novelty of the research lies in the fact that in this article an attempt was made for the first time to make a systematic
linguistic-cultural research of military terms. In the process of work, not only a wide factual material was collected, but also the
extra linguistic conditions of the origin, existence and development of military terms were studied. Military terms is considered
from systemological, grammatical and cultural studies points of view. An attempt was made to study the functioning of military
terms in various systems of the national language, and identified the main directions of the language policy of the state and the
officer corps of the army in relation to the language of soldiers.
Learning the language of the soldiers began in the middle of the XIX century. During this period, factual material was mainly
collected, which was included in various dictionaries of jargon and argo etc. At the same time, fragmentary attempts were made to
describe military terms (for example, the works of I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay, S.V. Maximov, P.P. Ilin.
From the second half of the 30s to the mid-80s of the 20
th
century, the study of military terms virtually ceased. The collection
of factual material presented a certain difficulty, as the linguist encountered unusual informants who, for reasons of their own safety,
gave knowingly false information, or did not go at all to contact with the collector.
In the linguistic culturology of the 90s of the 20
th
century, little attention was also paid to military terminology, the reason for
which can be seen in the complex tasks that linguoculturology faced during this period. In the 90s V.V. Vinogradov studied in
connection with the creation of an electronic version of the “Dictionary of modern youth slang” by a team of authors. However,
there were no special marks that referred a specific lexeme to the category of military terms. In the 90s, a lot of profanity glossaries
were published, which included military terminology. A distinctive feature of these glossaries was their weak scientific character,
the incompatibility of the modern lexicographic tradition.
In our study, we turn to military-technical texts containing a description of various devices of military equipment and weapons
and manuals for their operation.
In the study of military-technical text is also important external compositional structure, which includes the heading, section
subheadings, the sections themselves, introductory paragraphs. The main linguistic means of military-technical texts are the
presence of military-technical terminology, impersonality of statements, conciseness, clarity and concreteness of formulations,
accuracy and clarity of presentation, clear separation of one thought from another, ease of perception of information due to the
presence of drawings, lack of expressiveness of the statement.
Military terminology also includes words and phrases that do not denote military concepts, but are used exclusively in the
military environment. D.A. Maslov identifies characteristics of military terminology that distinguish it from common words and
terms from other areas:
1) the correlation of military terminology units with the concepts of military science and military affairs;
2) functioning in the military environment;
3) the fixedness of the connection of the term with the concept in the military documentation;
4) the regulation of definitions [2, 154].
The military vocabulary includes, above all the words and combinations denoting military concepts, i.e., concepts directly related
to the armed forces, military affairs, war, etc. In addition, the military vocabulary should include scientific and technical terms used
in connection with military concepts (for example,
track “tank track or any combat vehicle, on a track
”).
Further, military vocabulary may include words and combinations that, although they do not denote military concepts proper,
are used almost exclusively in a military environment, but are generally unknown or completely unknown (for example,
boondocks
“jungle”; behavior report “letter (soldier) home”; side arms “tableware”),
as well as some foreign borrowing, various jargon, etc.
The Linguaculturological And Nominative Features Of Military Terms
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Thus, military vocabulary includes both words and combinations expressing specific military concepts, as well as words and
combinations commonly used in the armed forces.
Military vocabulary in English can be divided into the following two groups:
1. Military terminology.
Military terminology in turn is divided:
a) on official terminology consisting of statutory terms;
b) the terminology of non-statutory, used in the oral speech of military personnel and in some types of military literature, but
not officially accepted.
2. Emotionally colored elements of military vocabulary.
Emotionally colored elements of military vocabulary are in most cases stylistic synonyms of the relevant military terms (for
example,
doughboy (colloquially) and infantryman (term)
have the meaning “
infantryman”
).
The above groups of military vocabulary are closely interrelated with regard to their place in the vocabulary of the language,
the sphere of use, and certain functions.
The corresponding series of words of different groups of military vocabulary, as a rule, synonymously denote the same objects,
processes and phenomena. They may have such common for both groups properties as the comparative narrowness of their use,
lack of clarity or incomprehensibility for persons not belonging to the armed forces.
Modern English military terminology is developing most intensively in the field of developing new types of weapons - primarily
nuclear-weapon and space combat systems
(orbital weapon; global missile “global rocket”; silo launcher “launching structure of
the mine type”; stratospheric fallout “Contamination of the stratosphere by radioactive products of a nuclear explosion”), radio
electronic and other technical means (beam rider guidance “guidance along the beam”; laser range finder “laser range finder”;
ambush detection device “(technical) means of detecting ambushes”; air cushy on vehicle “hovercraft”).
Aviation terminology is constantly updated, in particular, the terminology of army aviation (
continuous airborne alert; radar
picket aircraft, radar patrol aircraft; gunship; armed helicopter; copter-borne; transported by helicopters; aviation battalion;
aviation battalion; army aviation battalion; helilift “helicopter transfer
”).
Many new terms emerged in connection with the reorganization of the formations of ground forces and higher command (
strike
command “shock command”; field army support command “command of the rear of the army”; division base “common
organizational elements of divisions, division base”; logistics operations center “center rear control
”).
There are also new terms related to the change of some principal provisions (doctrines) in tactics and operational art (
area
defense “defense of the area; positional defense”; forward edge of the battle area; “safety edge” of nuclear safety; “Spoiling
attack” preemptive strike; counterattack with going beyond the leading edge; “nuclear environment” conditions of use of nuclear
weapons, “nuclear situations”
).
Especially many new words are noted in terminology, reflecting the concepts of the so-called “war by unusual means and
methods” (unconventional warfare). The terms related to various issues of the American military strategy (
balance of terror
“balance of intimidation forces”; massive retaliation “massive retaliation, massive counter-strike”; brush fire war “local war,
local war; local action”; quick -response strategy "flexible response strategy.
Many new military terms arose in connection with the American aggression in Vietnam (
enclave “coastal bridgehead; strong
point”; strategic hamlet “strategic village (fortified settlement)”; jungle canopy platform “helicopter landing pad on the crowns
in the jungle”).
It is necessary to keep in mind quite significant differences in the English military vocabulary used in the USA and England.
This is primarily due to some specific features of the organization, weapons, tactics of the armed forces of these countries, as well
as certain differences between the English and American versions of modern English. Despite the ongoing work within the
framework of NATO on the unification of English military terminology (especially in the field of tactics and operational art),
discrepancies in terminology continue to exist. For example, the terms “
compound” or “union
” in the United States are expressed
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207
using the term large unit, and in England
- formation
. The same term may have different meanings in the USA and England. For
example, the general staff in the United States has the meaning of “
the general part of the headquarters
,” and in England, the
“
operational-intelligence part of the headquarters”
. There are noticeable differences in military ranks and especially in the
terminology of the organization: the “Secretary of Defense” in the United States is called the
Secretary of Defense
and in England
the
Defense Minister
. A number of terms are used only in the United States (for example,
the Chief of Staff “chief of staff (type of
armed forces
)”) or only in England (for example,
the commandos “commando
”). Some differences in spelling and pronunciation
should also be considered.
English military vocabulary also includes a number of military terms specific to the armed forces of Canada, Australia and other
English-speaking countries.
The presence of the army is an obligatory characteristic of any modern sovereign state. A distinctive feature of the army is the
number and degree of its combat capability. The composition of the army, traditions and the attitude of society to the army are the
most important factors that influence the formation and further development of military terminology.
It should be noted that military terminology is replenished not only during various kinds of conflicts, but also during military
reforms and transformations. The secrecy and closeness of the army form the prerequisites for the emergence and development of
the military language.
The word term is derived from the Latin terminus and is translated as “limit, ending”. The main difference between
terminological and non-terminological vocabulary is its maximum abstractness, unambiguity, internationality, consistency and
semanticism. Thus, the term refers to a word or phrase assigned to a specific concept in the system of concepts of a given field of
science or technology [1, 14].
V.N. Shevchuk defines military terminology as follows: “an orderly set of military language terms that reflect the conceptual
apparatus of military science and, more broadly, military affairs and are associated with the forms and methods of warfare, with the
strategic use of the armed forces, as well as the operational and tactical use of the unions, connections, units and divisions, with
their organization, armament and technical equipment” [5, 94].
Military terms can be classified as follows:
In the field of use (different types of
troops, staff, general tactical, organizational, military topographical, command-drill
);
Terms of various types of troops - terms that are used to describe concepts in the formations of the armed forces: units,
formations, associations, institutions, establishments, organizations and control bodies, for example
artillery, infantry, radio
technical troops, air force, airborne troops.
Staff terms are terms that are widely used in military command and control bodies, for example
head quarters, staff car,
personnel
.
General tactical terms - terms that are used in solving general tactical tasks, conducting combined-arms combat and its
preparation, for example,
defense, field gendarmerie, offensive.
Organizational terms are terms that are used in various military units, for example,
unit, battalion, division, company
.
Military topographic terms are terms that are used in the study of terrain, orientation, target designation, the measurement of the
terrain, for example,
topographic map, cartography, land survey, aero photography
.
Command-line terms - terms that are used in the drill and command speech of military personnel, for example,
Arms, port!,
Weapons on the chest!, Eyes, right!, Look right!
According to the method of education (morphological word formation, semantic word formation, borrowing, abbreviations);
Morphological word formation is the main method of word formation and includes the following methods: affixation,
composition, reduction and conversion.
Affixing is a way of word-formation, which allows you to create new terms by attaching word-forming affixes to the basics of
different parts of speech, for example
maintainability, surveillance, deterrence, reunion
.
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Composition - this is a method of word formation, which allows you to form new words by combining the foundations of two
or more words, for example
aircraft, break-through, battle wise.
According to the structure (one-piece, two-part, multi-part) the basis of the military terminology of the English language is one-
piece and multi-component nominative units, which are mainly represented by substantive connections, for example,
battle - battle
field - battlefield interdiction - battlefield interdiction line - battlefield air interdiction.
Under the emotional coloring refers to the meaning of the word emotional attitude to the concept, called the word. Examples of
emotionally colored military vocabulary of the English language are the following words:
push-button war “button war”, trigger-
happy “shooting indiscriminately”, and slick ship “unarmed helicopter”
[5, 19].
It should be noted that military terms are usually represented by lexical units neutral in emotional coloring. Nevertheless, one
should cite this classification by stylistic characteristics, since emotionally-colored lexical units of the military sphere denote the
same concepts as neutral lexical units.
R
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[2]
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[3]
Murog I.A. The verbal component of the English military advertising texts // Philological sciences. Questions of theory and
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Pavlova S.А. Thematic groups of the English terminology of shipbuilding and ship repair [Electronic resource]. M .: Military
edit., 1988. 378 p.
[5]
Shevchuk V.N. Military terminology system in statics and dynamics: dis. ... dr. filol. sciences. Moscow, 1985. 160 p.
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