English military aviation terminology as the object of lexicography

English military aviation terminology is a set of terms denoting concepts related to the design, conditions and features of the operation of military aircraft.

These terms are both terms-words and terms-phrases. Terms-phrases consist of two, three and four components, which are nouns, adjectives, participles and prepositions ^[12]. Two-component terminological phrases make up the majority and they are formed mainly by two nouns (for example, disc area, attack helicopter, tail rotor, turboshaft engine, etc.). Synonymy has become widespread in terminology; there are both absolute (landing gear-undercarriage, rotor head-rotor hub) and conditional synonyms (powerplant-engine, military helicopter-combat helicopter, utility helicopter-multipurpose helicopter). Ambiguity is quite rare. As for the pragmatic features of the terms, we can say that they are used both in terms of professional communication, between specialists, and in the situation of “specialist-layman".

 The logical result of the analysis of terminology is its systematization and presentation in the form of a special dictionary of one type or another. A special (or terminological) dictionary is usually understood as a “reference book containing a description of a certain layer of special vocabulary of one or more languages” ^[7]. The question of the typology of dictionaries and the methodology of describing vocabulary in them, despite the fact that quite a lot has been done in this area, is among the debatable ^[1,2]. The general rules for the development of all types of special dictionaries have not yet been established, just as there is no unity in the allocation of lexicographic parameters underlying the design of dictionaries. Thus, L.V.Shcherba identified the following parameters^[13]:

- normativity;

- exhaustibility of vocabulary description;

- the principle of vocabulary arrangement (alphabetical/ideographic);

- purpose of the dictionary (explanatory/translational);

- chronological orientation (historical/non-historical).

Later they are added to:

- orientation to a certain layer of vocabulary (dialect dictionaries, slang dictionaries, etc.);

- orientation to certain sources (dictionaries of quotations);

- thematic orientation (multi-industry, industry and narrow-industry);

- targeting specific user groups .

B.Y.Gorodetsky identifies 20 parameters, including a set of stylistic litters, the type of interpretation, the availability of information about the context of the use of units, the availability of metalinguistic information, etc. ^[5,6].

The list of Y.N.Karaulov has 68 parameters ^[11]. It is hardly possible to implement them all within one dictionary. At the same time, for a comprehensive assessment and description of various types of dictionaries, a detailed inventory of parameters is absolutely necessary.

Lexicographic parameters, which are generally understood as “methods of lexicographic interpretation of certain structural elements or functional phenomena of the language” ^[7], are the basis of the composition of the dictionary.

The composition of the dictionary is “the choice of the composition and location of the main and auxiliary parts of the dictionary, determining the order of the units of description, the location, content and design of dictionary entries, allowing the author of the dictionary to organize various types of information about the special vocabulary of the selected or subject area of knowledge in accordance with his plan” ^[7,9].

The composition of the dictionary has a macro and microstructure. The macrostructure (or general structure) includes:

- the author's installation of the dictionary (thematic, temporal, linguistic, address, aspect orientation; purpose; function; the principle of vocabulary selection; selection of sources);

- the principle of following articles (formal, thematic, thematically alphabetical);

- composition of auxiliary sections (subject indexes);

- principles of the presentation of phrases (in the nest of the reference word; separate articles; direct, inverse or mixed order);

- principles of presentation of homonymy (polysemy) (in one article/in related articles) ^[7].

Microstructure refers to the format of dictionary entries and the nature of its filling. The microstructure parameters can be represented as follows:

- registration (article number, date of registration);

- formal (graphic (form, term length), phonetic (stress, transcription), grammatical (part of speech, gender, number) information; data on variability (areal, phonetic, syntactic variants, full/short forms);

- etymological (date of appearance, changes in meanings and forms, sources of borrowing);

- attributive (thematic (field of knowledge, semantic field), lexical (term, protothermin, quasi-term), areal, stylistic (term, professionalism, jargon) attribution);

- interpretative (definition, interpretation, illustrative, contextual definition);

- associative (generic/specific terms, homonyms, lexical compatibility);

- pragmatic (neologisms/modern terms/historicisms; international/regional/local term; generally accepted/author's/scientific school term; common/rare; standardized/recommended/acceptable/not recommended);

- illustrative (fragments of speech uses, drawings, drawings) ^[7,9].

Dictionary design involves choosing from the above parameters such as are best suited to the type of dictionary being created. There is also no consensus on the typology of dictionaries. S.V. Grinev gives the following classification of dictionaries:

1. by thematic focus (general scientific, multi-branch, branch, narrow-branch, highly specialized);

2. by time orientation (etymological, historical, dictionaries of neologisms);

3. by language orientation (monolingual, bilingual, multilingual);

4. by appointment (translation, reference, educational, informational);

5. by address orientation (general, special);

6. according to the level of language description (dictionaries of pronunciation, spelling, term elements, compatibility, explanatory);

7. by volume (large, medium, small, minimum dictionaries);

8. according to the order of the dictionary entries (dictionaries with formal order, thematic ^[7,10].

Within the framework of this study, we are starting from this typology. The choice of parameters when creating a dictionary of English military aviation terminology will be made from among the micro and macrostructure components discussed above.

Next, we will focus on the stages of creating a dictionary. It is customary to distinguish 4 stages ^[7].

• Dictionary design.

At this stage, the type of dictionary and its characteristics are determined: purpose, vocabulary layer to be described, addressee, scope and aspect of the description of lexical units, volume and structure, criteria for the selection of special lexical units, the order of articles, the composition of information about lexical units.

• Collection of lexical material and compilation of a dictionary.

When compiling a dictionary, first of all it is necessary to determine its boundaries and select the sources of special lexical units. This is followed by the selection, lexicographic processing of vocabulary and the direct design of the dictionary. To determine the boundaries of the dictionary, its sections, a list of thematic headings is compiled based on existing textbooks, reference books, encyclopedias.

The process of selecting sources of special lexical units is determined by the methodological setting of the future dictionary ^[3,4]. The larger the volume and thematic coverage, the more sources need to be processed. At the same time , sources can be divided into several types:

- terminological publications (dictionaries, as well as publications related to terminological problems);

- non-terminological publications (textbooks, articles, catalogs, encyclopedias, magazines);

- classification publications (lists of concepts and objects of this field) ^[7].

The direct selection of lexical units is accompanied by a number of difficulties, which are mainly related to the distribution of these units by type and determining the feasibility of including them in the dictionary. It should be borne in mind that in addition to the actual terms, there are nomens, terminoids, pretermines, quasi-terms, prototherms, professionalisms and jargonisms ^[8]. The point of view has become quite widespread, according to which the inclusion in the dictionary of all the above types of special lexical units, except jargonisms, is justified. The question of including jargonisms is determined by the methodological setting of the dictionary.

In addition to the distribution of lexical units by type, it is necessary to take into account the criteria by which these units should be included in the dictionary. These include:

- semantic value;

- frequency;

- thematic affiliation;

- consistency;

- term-forming ability;

- synchronicity;

- completeness of coverage;

- normativity;

- compatibility.

The most important criterion is, in our opinion, consistency. It is systematization that can guarantee the presence of all important terms in the dictionary, it allows you to determine the extent of coverage and reflection of individual thematic sections of special vocabulary, to establish a clear framework of the dictionary and ensure its completeness, as well as to weed out random terms. Consistency is closely related to criteria such as completeness of coverage and thematic affiliation.

• Description and analysis of special lexical units that make up the dictionary.

Depending on what type the dictionary belongs to and what its purpose is, genus-species, synonymic, associative relations are fixed between the selected units. A definition, foreign language equivalent/foreign language equivalents are selected for each term; phonetic, grammatical information is given, etc. In addition, indexes are formed; the structure and composition of dictionary entries are determined.

• Design of specific dictionaries.

At this stage, the created materials are edited, links are checked, the introduction is prepared and other activities related to the preparation of the dictionary for publication.

Next, we will focus in more detail on the features of the development of a dictionary of English military aviation terminology.

First of all, it should be noted that we proceed from the objectively existing need for lexicographic products describing English military aviation terminology, both from the professional translation community and from cadets and teachers of military aviation universities. In this regard, lexicographic work on terms should be based on the needs of three main groups of potential users: translators; cadets studying the discipline “Aviation English”; teachers leading this discipline.

The dictionary of English military aviation terminology is planned as a thesaurus, the lexical units of which are distributed across eight semantic fields:

1. The aircraft and its main systems.

1.1. Design features.

1.2. Geometric dimensions.

1.3. Engine system.

1.4. fuel supply system.

1.5. Flight control system.

1.6. Hydraulic system.

1.7. Flight instruments.

2. Aviation radio-electronic equipment.

2.1. Means of communication.

2.2. Navigation equipment.

3. Equipment for performing a combat mission.

4. Operational limitations.

5. Weight and alignment.

6. Flight specifications.

The location of semantic fields corresponds to the location of thematic sections in the operating instructions of military aircraft. We believe that such an order also has an important didactic function. At a glance at the contents of the dictionary, users get a comprehensive idea of what concepts form the field of “military aviation".

Since the English military aviation terminology is not only one-word terms, but also word combinations, the question arises about the optimal way to represent these phrases in the dictionary. In our opinion, it is better to include phrases in the dictionary entry of the main term (for example, the combinations combat helicopter, attack helicopter, multipurpose helicopter should become part of the dictionary entry on the term helicopter; the combinations main rotor, tail rotor, coaxial rotor should be placed in the article of the term rotor) ^[15]. The choice of such an arrangement principle (which in the scientific literature has been called “nest”) allows dictionary users to detect a semantic connection between terminological phrases and one-word terms from which they are formed. The nest principle also helps to save the volume of the dictionary and speed up the search for terms and phrases.

Since the study of the English terminology of military aviation made it possible to establish the presence of ambiguous terms in it, the question of presenting this ambiguity in the dictionary is also relevant. We consider it appropriate to include polysemic terms in different thematic sections.

The planned volume of the dictionary we are developing is 1000 terminological units.

All of the above can be attributed to the first stage of lexicographic work.

At the second stage, we identified the main sources of terminological units. We focused on both terminological and non-terminological publications.

The first were publications related to the problems of aviation and military terms.

Non - terminological publications include:

- textbooks and manuals for the training of military aviation specialists;

- catalogs of aircraft manufacturing companies' products;

- professional magazines;

- technical operating instructions.

It should be emphasized that our attention is focused on the terms. There are no plans to include nomens, professionalisms and jargonisms in the dictionary. When choosing terms, we are guided by the criteria set out above (consistency, frequency, thematic affiliation, etc.).

Further, at the third stage, we describe and analyze those terminological units that were included in the dictionary. In accordance with the purpose of our dictionary, the following information about terms is significant:

- genus-species and synonymic relations;

- presence/absence of ambiguity;

- pragmatic features of their use in various communicative situations (between specialists and non-specialists).

At the final stage, in addition to editing, writing an introduction and other works related to the publication of the dictionary, we are also developing an educational and methodological complex that is designed to facilitate the study of military aviation terminology for potential users (cadets of military aviation universities).

When developing a dictionary of military aviation terminology, we consider it necessary to take into account international and national documents-standards regulating the work with terms. Such documents include, in particular, the standard “Assessment and comparative analysis of terminological resources.General concepts, principles and requirements” ^[14]. It considers a model for evaluating the usefulness of terminological resources (and dictionaries are the most important of them), which includes four groups of characteristics:

• terminological data (structure, subject area, language, semantic coherence, references to authoritative sources, symmetry, volume);
• data management mechanism (validation, redundancy/duplication, regular maintenance of data/metadata);
• data output (readability, data access, data selection by users);
• data entry (convenient input format, data validation, compatibility with other structures).

At the same time, not all four groups of characteristics can be applied to every terminological resource. Thus, a printed copy of the dictionary of English military aviation terms, which the authors of this article are working on, should not have the characteristics of the usefulness of data entry and management.

In accordance with the evaluation model described in the standard, a resource characterized as follows can be considered useful:

- the data structure is extremely clear to users,

- there are indexes of subject areas related to a certain scientific discipline or professional field,

- the volume of the resource is large enough and corresponds to its goals, scope and scope of application,

- there is data that contains identifiers of the languages covered by the resource,

- terminological data are taken from authoritative, trustworthy sources,

- in a multilingual resource, terminological information should be complete in relation to each language,

- absence of cases of redundancy, that is, repetition, duplication of the same data,

- the rules of functioning of the resource are clear to its users ^[14].

The resource we are developing, that is, a dictionary of military aviation terminology, can be considered useful, since it takes into account all the listed requirements. Its structure is clear, the volume is large enough and corresponds to the goals and scope of application, military aviation terms are selected from authoritative sources, the rules for using the dictionary are clear.

In the future, as already mentioned above, it is planned to develop and create an educational and methodological complex for the projected dictionary. This complex, together with the dictionary, should become a powerful tool for the development of special terminology by future military pilots.