XV Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2023

Currently, the formation of terms is one of the most widely studied areas in linguistics, because the language of various subject areas is a dynamic, developing system that undergoes constant changes. Due to the fact that the terminological constituent of each professional sphere is specific, not all methods of term formation are equally used to replenish it. The structural features and models of word formation typical of the English staff terminology used in the military personnel management bodies are being considered in the article. They include words and combinations denoting military concepts, scientific and technical terms, special abbreviations and symbols.

In the modern scientific literature there are many definitions of the word «term». L.L. Nelyubin says, “The essence of the most of them is that a term is a word or phrase adopted for the exact expression of a special concept or designation of a special subject in a particular field of knowledge. Terms differ from words of everyday speech by a clear semantic designation of boundaries and the specificity of the concepts expressed [1].” In the process of reading and analyzing the staff documents and the literature about the organization and the functions of the headquarters simple (48), derivatives (71), complex terms (25), multi-component combinations (116), and shortenings (103) were identified. The total number of terms under consideration is 363. Diagram 1 represents the percentage of each type of term from the total number.

Diagram 1. – The types of the English staff terminology

The morphological structure of simple terms includes one root; they are integral inseparable words, for example, staff, corps, unit, order, etc.

Derived military staff terms in English are formed by adding affixes (prefixes or suffixes) to stems of various parts of speech. The study of the words belonging to this group has shown that suffixation is the most common method. Among the frequent word-forming elements are the suffixes -tion, -ment (denote actions, processes) and -ee, -or / -er (indicate a profession, occupation). The suffixes -ness, -ty (define states or qualities) are less commonly used. There are the following basic models of derived terminological units formation.

V + -tion: declare – declaration, authorize – authorization, activate – activation, transit – transition.

V + -ment: sustain – sustainment, deploy – deployment, assign – assignment, manage – management, move – movement.

V + ee: augment – augmentee, retire – retiree.

V + -or / -er: coordinate – coordinator, control – controller, plan – planner.

Adj + ness: ready – readiness, timely – timeliness.

Adj + ty: flexible – flexibility, feasible – feasibility.

The number of terms formed by the prefixation and prefixation-suffixation models is insignificant.

re + V: receive – rereceive, certify – recertify.

de + V + tion: mobilize – demobilization.

The quantitative analysis of the derived terms is given in Table 1.

Table 1

The type of word formation	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Affixation	71	100%
Suffixation	51	72%
Prefixation	14	20%
Prefixation + Suffixation	6	8%

Complex staff terms in English are formed by joining stems of two or more words. They are divided into hyphenated terms and one-word terms. The analysis of the military literature has made it possible to identify the following most common models of their formation:

Adj + N: large-scale, short-term, real-time.

N + Part II: ground-based.

N + N: decision-maker.

N + Prep: call-up.

N + N: manpower, battlefield, wartime.

The hyphenated compound words prevail in the analyzed examples. The quantitative ratio of the most frequently used word-formation models is presented in Table 2.

Table 2

The model of word formation	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Stem composition	25	100%
Adj + N	8	32%
N + Part II	7	28%
N + N	5	20%
N + Prep	5	20%

The English military staff terminology also includes a lot of multi-component terms. According to the number of elements, these terms are divided into two-, three-, four- and more component terms. The data about their structural types and models, as well as their quantitative and percentage ratio are presented in Tables 3, 4, 5. When analyzing the combinations consisting of two elements, the following most common models of their formation were identified.

N + N: security officer, resource management, liaison officer, supply point.

Adj + N: fragmentary order, tactical air, field artillery.

Ving + N: commanding general, warning order.

Table 3

The type of word-combinations	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Two-component terms	44	100%
N + N	24	55%
Adj + N	18	41%
Ving + N	2	4%

In the process of analyzing the three-component staff terms the following structural models of their formation were identified.

N + of + N: area of operations, Department of Defense, Director of Logistics, Department of the Army.

Adj + N + N: priority intelligence requirements, tactical control center, main support battalion.

Adj + Adj + N: tactical combat force, regimental artillery group.

Part II + N + N: combined forces command, controlled supply rate.

Table 4

The type of word-combinations	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Three-component terms	65	100%
N + N + N	20	31%
N + of + N	15	23%
Adj + N + N	13	20%
Adj + Adj + N	10	15%
Part II + N + N	7	11%

The English military staff terms can also consist of four components, but they are present in smaller numbers. The following structures are the most commonly used.

N + N + N + N: Defense Manpower Data Center.

Adj + N + N + N: Air Force Personnel Center, Tactical Airlift Liaison Officer.

Table 5

The type of word-combinations	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Four-component terms	7	100%
N + N + N + N	3	43%
Adj + N + N + N	4	57%

It should also be noted that in combat documents there are multi-component terms, which include the names and the index designations of various types of weapons and military equipment: UH-1H Huey Cobra helicopter, US Little John rocket [1].

The analysis of the multi-component terms has shown that the most common are three-component terms (65), and then follow two-component (44) and four-component terms (7).

The next type of word formation is shortenings. The use of them is explained by the tendency to save the means of expression and to speech compression. They include clippings and abbreviations. In English there are clippings of the beginning, the end, and the middle of a word. The analysis of the staff terminology allows us to conclude that the most productive type is the clipping of the end of a word. The following examples can be given: acq – acquisition, app – appendix, cav – cavalry, co – company, div – division, inf – infantry, off – officer, para – paragraph.

The less numerous are clippings of the middle of words, for example: arty – artillery, avn – aviation, bn – battalion, eny – enemy, ops – operations. The examples with clippings of word beginning have not been identified.

Abbreviations are divided into letter abbreviations and acronyms. Abbreviations are formed from initial letters of constituent words, in speech they are pronounced by alphabetic letters: SJA – Staff Judge Advocate, MDMP – Military Decision-Making Process, MFR – Memorandum for Record, AO – Area of Operation. Acronyms also consist of the first letters or syllables of words, but they are pronounced and reproduced in speech like ordinary words. For example, OPLAN [oplan] – Operation Plan, OPSEC [opsec] – Operations Security, SIGSEC [sigsec] – Signal Security [2].

The quantitative analysis of shortenings, abbreviations, and acronyms is presented in Table 6.

Table 6

The types of shortenings	The number of terms	The percentage ratio
Clippings	22	21%
Abbreviations	37	36%
Acronyms	44	43%

The composition of the military staff terminology in the modern English language is a complex combination of various elements. It includes single-component and multi-component lexical units. The analysis of the presented examples has shown that the staff terminology is characterized by the same methods of word formation as words of the commonly used English language. One-component terms include root terms and derivatives. The considered complex staff terms are a combination of two stems. Multi-component terms are phrases with two or more separate elements and are characterized by coherence between their constituent parts. It should also be noted that various abbreviations are used in staff documents to compress the volume of transmitted information preserving the overall semantic integrity and significance.

References

1. Nelyubin L.L. Translation of the USA Army Combat Documents. Moscow: Voenizdat, 1989. – 270 pp.

2. Staff Organization and operations, 31 May 1997. – 267 pp.

Код для цитирования: Скопировать