Linguistic context of functionality and peculiarities of the English military aviation terminology in professional journals (on the example of the “Rotor and Wing”)

Solovyeva Alexandra Educator, the department of foreign languages, Syzran branch of the Military Educational and Scientific Center of the Air Force of the "Air Force Academy named after Professor N. E. Zhukovsky and Y. A. Gagarin  ul. marshala Zhukova 320- 66, Samarskaya oblast, Syzran, Russia sandraS91@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Shishkina Tat'yana Gur'evna PhD in Philology Docent, the department of Theory of Foreign Language Teaching Technique, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University mikrorajon 1 45-125, g. Moskovskij, Moscow, Russia tashishkina@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

One of the most important stages in the analysis of terms of a particular professional field is the study of the specifics of their functioning in various contexts. Before proceeding to the direct analysis, we will define some key concepts.

By the context in this article we mean “the linguistic environment of this linguistic unit; conditions, features of the use of this element in speech”, “...a meaningfully completed segment of written speech that allows you to establish the meaning of a word or phrase included in it” ^[2]. The term is “a word or phrase of a special (scientific, technical, etc.) language, created or borrowed for the exact expression of special concepts and the designation of special objects” ^[1]. Separate the sphere of fixation and the sphere of functioning of the term. Following V.M.Leychik, we consider the sphere of functioning of the term primary ^[3].

Military aviation terminology can be defined as a set of military aviation language terms reflecting the conceptual apparatus of aviation and related to the operation of military helicopters. It functions in professional (technical instructions, textbooks and manuals, catalogs of aircraft products) and journalistic (articles in professional journals) texts. This article analyzes the terms and their context in the journalistic literature, namely in the publication "Rotor and Wing".

 "Rotor and Wing" is one of the most authoritative magazines in the world in the field of military aviation. It is a publication that examines the issues of technical modernization of military helicopters and their systems, analyzes the professional experience of pilots, provides an overview of new concepts and technologies in the field of production and use of helicopters. The magazine is intended primarily for pilots, but it can also be useful for other specialists (engineers, flight mechanics) associated with the production and operation of rotary-wing aircraft.

Let's consider its linguistic features. First of all, we have analyzed the archive of issues for 2018 and 2019.

From the point of view of syntax, the following is characteristic of "Rotor and Wing":

- prevalence of complex sentences over simple ones (“In 1980, a study found that HEMS crew members had a 1 in 50 chance of being in a fatal accident),

- high frequency of interrogative sentences (“So, are accidents common?”, “What about performing a desert mountain rescue when your only available helicopter has minimal payload capability?”) ^[5-15].

Grammatical features are:

- the use of verbs in all tenses of the indicative mood with the dominance of the indefinite and perfect groups (“...the Comanche had its beginning in the Light Helicopter Experimental program...”; “Comanche worked well when scaled down, but the operational prototype had issues with the main rotors...”, “...two companies will move on to build competing demonstration aircraft...”, “Airbus said that 91 newly built H130s have had CRFS since the H130's entry into service in 2012...");

- predominance of active pledge forms (“...Safran is building the hybrid electric engine for Bell Nexus eVTOL vehicles...”, “In 2009, the FAA launched ADS-B in the Gulf of Mexico...");

- high frequency of phrasal verbs (“...constant radio chatter can wear you down even before you lift off...”, “...helicopter manufacturers and operators are stepping up to install the technology...");

- frequent use of modal verbs (“The US Army will soon have to make major decisions...”, “...almost all helicopter operations must operate by visual flight rules (VFR) during the day...”) and personal pronouns (“...we bring you the invalid perspective of operators...”) ^[5-15].

The vocabulary of the magazine "Rotor and Wing" includes military aviation terminology itself, as well as financial and business terms (budget, cost, tax credit, competition, customer, company).

From the point of view of stylistics, it is necessary to note the frequent use of means of artistic expression, mainly metaphors (“workhorses”, “defiant little brother” to refer to helicopters). There are also elements of dialogic speech in the magazine (questions, pronouns you, we) to create a sense of conversation with the reader ^[5-15].

Next, we will focus in more detail on the analysis of structural, semantic and pragmatic features of military aviation terminology. First of all, we note that the Wordsmith computer processing program ^[16] allowed us to divide all the terms of the journal into three groups: the most frequent, the least frequent and occupying an intermediate position. The least frequent units are: range, turbine, FLIR, avionics, payload, fuselage autorotation, autopilot, cockpit, airframe, gearbox. The most frequent are: helicopter, rotor, aircraft, system, engine, equipment, design. The intermediate position is occupied by:ADS-B, IFR, nacelle, transponder, speed, control, drag, lift. These units are the basic terms on the basis of which both free and terminological phrases are formed.

The terms form phrases according to a number of models:

1. adjective+noun (top speed, vertical lift, conventional design, digital transponder, etc.);

2. noun+noun (turboshaft engine, attack helicopter, propulsion system, cruise speed, army rotorcraft, etc.);

3. verb+noun (to ferry helicopter, to attach nacelles, to reduce drag, to provide lift, to house gearbox, etc.);

4. noun+preposition+noun (replacement of aircraft, procurement of helicopter, etc.);

5. noun+noun+noun (helicopter night operations, rotorcraft engine updates, tail rotor enhancements, airspeed indicator system, etc.);

6. noun+noun+preposition+noun (fuel efficiency for helicopter, performance limits of aircraft, fuel consumption of engines, etc.);

7.adjective+noun+noun (analogue design program; light observation helicopter, minimal payload capacity, etc.);

8. abbreviation+noun (IFR helicopter, ADS-B avionics, FLIR aircraft, etc.);

9.  noun+preposition+noun+noun (health of aircraft components, modeling of aircraft performance, etc.);

10. adjective+noun+preposition+noun (critical pieces of nacelles, mechanical systems for aircraft, etc.);

11. adjective+noun+noun+noun (electric power generation system, critical flight control system, etc.);

12. adjective+adjective+noun (hybrid electric system, rigid main rotor, counter-rotating main rotor, etc.);

13. adjective+adjective+noun+noun (hybrid electric propulsion system, etc.);

14. verb+abbreviation (launch ADS-B, operate IFR, etc.);

15. verb+noun+noun (tweak flight control, etc.);

16. verb+adjective+noun (allow easier autorotation, etc.).

At the same time, the analysis showed that more frequent terms form phrases for a larger number of models. So, for example, 9 models are defined for the term helicopter (adjective+noun,noun+noun,verb+noun,noun+preposition+noun, noun+noun+noun,noun+noun+preposition+noun,adjective+noun+noun, abbreviation+noun, noun+preposition+noun+noun), and for the engine term, which is less frequent in comparison with it, there are only 4 (adjective+noun,noun+noun, verb+noun, noun+preposition+noun). In addition, the most and least productive models can be identified for each term. For the term rotorcraft, for example, the most productive is the noun+noun model, the least productive is the adjective+noun+noun.  Moreover, the productivity of a particular model may vary depending on the term: the adjective+noun model is one of the most productive for the terms helicopter, engine, aircraft, transponder and one of the least productive for the terms avionics, airframe, rotor.

The terms of the journal form, thus, two-, three- and four-component free and terminological phrases with verbs, prepositions, nouns and adjectives. Two-component terminological phrases formed according to the models of adjective+noun, noun+noun (fixed-wing aircraft, military aircraft, top speed, multipurpose helicopter, turbine engine, tail rotor, navigation system, etc.) make up the majority. 

Let's consider the semantic features of the military aviation terminology of the journal. The study showed that such a phenomenon as synonymy (that is, the use of several units to name one concept ^[2]) can be traced at several levels:

- the level of basic terms (helicopter-aircraft-rotorcraft);

- level “basic term-terminological phrase" (helicopter-rotary wing aircraft);

- the level of terminological phrases (reciprocating engine-piston engine, multipurpose helicopter-multirole helicopter, military helicopter-combat helicopter).

At the same time, the context of the Rotor and wing magazine allowed us to divide synonyms into absolute ones, that is, with identical meaning (reciprocating engine-piston engine, multipurpose helicopter- multi-purpose helicopter, rotorcraft-rotary-wing aircraft)  and conditional, with a similar meaning (helicopter-rotorcraft, helicopter-aircraft, rotorcraft-aircraft, military helicopter-combat helicopter). As for homonymy and polysemy (the phenomenon when one term names several concepts ^[2]), the contexts of the use of terms in the journal Rotor and Wing allowed us to establish their absence. All terms are unambiguous. Antonymy (that is, the presence of terms with the opposite meaning) ^[4] is also expressed slightly, examples of its manifestation are extremely rare (heavy helicopter - light helicopter, ADS-B In - ADS-B Out).

Next, we will focus on the pragmatic features of military aviation terminology. Pragmatics is understood as “a field of research in semiotics and linguistics, in which the functioning of linguistic signs in speech is studied” ^[4]. 

Pragmatic features (i.e. related to the situation, participants, conditions and sphere of communication)  The military aviation terms of the magazine can be defined as follows:

- they function within the framework of the “specialist-specialist” situation, the “specialist-specialist situation outside the exercise of professional activity”;

- the terms are a reference point in knowledge related to the peculiarities of the combat use of certain aircraft;

- they form an idea of the current processes of technical modernization of aircraft, as well as contribute to the transformation of the professional picture of the world of pilot specialists through the analysis of flight practice experience and new concepts in operation;

- terms accurately and unambiguously convey information, as evidenced by the absence of cases of ambiguity.

Thus, the analysis of the texts of the professional journal "Rotor and Wing" made it possible to identify the most significant linguistic features of the sphere of functioning of military aviation terms, as well as to determine semantic, structural and pragmatic features of terminology. We consider the most promising direction in further research to be a comprehensive lexicographic description of terminology related to the operation of military aircraft in general, as well as the development of English-language dictionaries and thesauruses of military aviation terms, which would reflect their pragmatic features, in particular.