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LINGUO-CULTUROLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MILITARY
TERMINOLOGY OF THE MODERN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Anvar Mukhtorovich Kurganov
Deputy chief of the Languages learning
Department of the Academy of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs of the
Republic of Uzbekistan
Annotation
The article highlights the variety of linguistic features of military terminology
on the example of the combat regulations of the US Army “Ranger Textbook”. The
morphological and syntactic features of military documents were analyzed. It presents
the distinctive features of the Charter. The concept of military terminology has also
been considered.
Keywords
: military documents, “Ranger Textbook”, military materials,
military terminology.
Criminal Code of military terminology includes all words and combinations
denoting military concepts associated with the armed forces, war, military affairs. In
general, these concepts are little known or completely unknown. The formation of
military terms takes place in the usual ways of word-formation characteristic of
English: morphological and lexical-semantic methods, by borrowing from other areas
of science and technology, as well as from other languages, as well as on the basis of
word combinations.
The linguo-culturological characteristic of English military terminology is
heterogeneous. Along with unambiguous terms that have clear semantic boundaries,
there are also many-valued terms, for example, the term security means
обеспеченность; обеспечение, боевое обеспечение, охранение; безопасность,
засекреченность; контрразведка;
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armor; броня; бронетанковые войска; танки; the terms unit and command
have up to ten or more meanings; consequently, the polysemy of even one-component
terms makes it difficult for them to correctly understand and translate, the adequacy of
which fully depends on the context and situation.
Saturation with special terminology is a characteristic property of military
materials. Military materials usually include military-publicistic, military-political,
military-scientific and military-technical materials, military art materials and acts of
military administration.
Scientific and technical documents and acts of administration related to the life
and activities of the troops and military establishments of the armed forces are usually
attributed to military materials, and military-fiction literature, military journalism and
military-political materials are only military in their focus and subject matter. those
features that are inherent in all socio-political, journalistic and artistic texts.
Military materials and documents are replete with special terminology, which
is equally relevant both directly to military affairs and to various technical fields, which
is used in the army. Words in military documents are used primarily in subject-logical,
vocabulary meanings. In order to avoid inaccuracies and ambiguities of interpretation,
contextual meanings are practically not used.
The language of military orders is significantly different from the language of
business and diplomatic documents. In military documents, there are often simple
sentences with gerundial, infinitive, prepositional turns. Compound sentences with
more than its subordinate clause are rare. A characteristic feature of military documents
is ellipticity. Here, modal verbs are often omitted in the same way as other sentence
members.
Due to the characteristic communicative and functional orientation, all military
materials and documents, without exception, are distinguished by special military
vocabulary. They often use scientific, technical and military terminology, variable-
resistant phrases peculiar only to the military sphere of communication, abbreviations
and conventions used only in military materials and documents. We reviewed their
features on the example of the US Army Ranger Handbook (“Ranger’s Textbook”),
which was released in 2000 for the needs of the US Army. This book is designed both
for cadets of the rangers training brigade and for all military personnel of the 75th
infantry regiment of the rangers of the US Army.
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The book is equipped with applications that consider the organizational
structure, the basics of combat use and training units of the US Army Rangers.
The Charter “Ranger’s Textbook” is located at the junction of two
multifunctional language styles - scientific, technical, and official business; the
advantage of one of them changes depending on the topic of a particular section - from
the order of command of armies and troops to the direction of the adopted radio station.
The statute of the official business style is related to the wide use of impersonal
and imperative sentences, cliché constructions, which are expressed in infinitive and
participial turns, the use of multiple parallel constructions within one sentence, the
practical absence of tense verbs, the absolute absence of tropes. From the scientific and
technical style in the Charter one can observe a large number of highly specialized
terms, the organization and structure of the material used, the presence of techniques,
diagrams and illustrations. Without exception, all are associated with a specific
functional load that determines the military field of communication: limitations,
conciseness, accuracy and clarity of language, reliability and clarity of presentation.
The subject of the Charter is very extensive. If we compare it with the Charter
of the Russian Army, the “Ranger Textbook” has the maximum similarity with the
current charter with elements of the disciplinary charter and the charter of internal
service. The Ranger's Textbook opens with the Ranger's Oath. In terms of function, it
is similar to the military oath (oath) of the Charter of the Russian Army, but the most
extensive and, the only document of all, saturated with vivid means of artistic
expression. In the Ranger's Oath, epithets and emotionally colored elements of the
vocabulary come across: they are almost absent in other sections of the document.
The main part of the Charter consists of fifteen chapters devoted to issues such
as the basics of command and control of armies, tactical military abilities, radio
communications, movement, deviation and survival principles, provision of support
and assistance. The chapters are structured and divided into sub-paragraphs, from
within which, moreover, the exact composition of the structure is broken: more
generally, this is the introductory part, revealing the subtitle problem, and
prescriptions, drawn up in the form of a bulleted or numbered list or table.
the Charter are absent:
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1) multi-valued phrases and words. Almost without exception, phrases and
words are used in one, less often in two meanings in order to avoid a double explanation
of the text.
2) synonymous rows. The language of army documents, due to its own
pragmatic orientation, seeks to minimize the use of language means, correctness and
brevity, its synonyms are superfluous and redundant and, just as a consequence, the
Charter does not use in any way.
3) colloquial and colloquial vocabulary. Often used in the oral speech of the
military, it is completely absent in official documents.
4) emotionally colored lexical components and idioms.
The stylistic means of the lexical level include definitions (military and general
scientific or general technical), the advantage of abstract vocabulary over a certain
predetermined subject (the percentage of a certain vocabulary is much greater in the
segments devoted to radio channel modifications, weapons and ammunition),
abbreviations and abbreviations.
From the point of view of syntax, the Ranger's Oath traces a large number of
attributive and adverbial constructions, characteristic of the artistic style, complex
sentences, complicated by participial and verbal participations and inversion:
Recognizing that I’m Volunteered as a Ranger, I’m Respecting the Corps of
the Rangers. - Understanding that I am a Ranger, fully aware of the danger of my
chosen profession, I will constantly strive to maintain the prestige, honor and high
military spirit of the Rangers.
Never shall I fail my comrades I will always keep myself mentally alert,
physically strong, and morally straight and I will shoulder more than my share of the
task whatever it may be, one hundred percent and then some. – Я никогда не оставлю
своих друзей, всегда буду внимательным, сильным физически и нравственно
устойчивым, и буду выполнять не только лишь свою часть военный задачи, в
каком месте бы она не возникла, но и всю её и даже больше.
One of the most important linguocultural properties for any terminology,
including military terminology, is its systemic conditionality, namely, a certain
dependence of the terms from each other. This kind of systematicity is not typical of
Russian military terminology, but hierarchical systematicity is characteristic of all
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types of terminology, i.e. the presence of specific and generic concepts, the relationship
between concepts related to a particular field of knowledge.
Currently in the field of terminology is the process of its improvement and
evaluation. Most of the new terms are often used for other purposes and require
scientific explanation, it is sometimes very difficult to understand them, therefore, in
modern conditions while improving the statutory documents, it became necessary to
solve the problem of military terminology in order to clarify the basic linguistic
concepts and categories of knowledge systems about war and military security through
the relevant terms in the form of definitions.
Reference
1.Ranger Handbook SH 21-76: Field Manual / Field Manual Headquarters. –
Department of the Army. – Washington, DC, 2006. – 327 p.
2. Basics of word production in English military terminology // Theory and
practice of scientific research. Part II. - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky: Publishing house
KamchatGTU, 2006. - P.168.
3. Nelyubin L.L. The textbook of military translation. English / L.L.Nelyubin,
A.A. Dormidontov, A.A.Vasilchenko. - M .: Military Publishing, 1981. - C.379.
4.Jespersen, O.A. Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles. Part 6.
Morphology / O.A. Jespersen. - London, 1946. - 550-551p.
5.Shevchuk, V.N. Military Terminology System in Statistics and Dynamics /
VN Shevchuk. - M., 1985. - P.94.