Semasiological aspects in Serbian military terminology Cover Image

Aspecte semasiologice în terminologia militară din limba sârbă
Semasiological aspects in Serbian military terminology

Author(s): Vasile Diaconescu
Subject(s): Lexis, Semantics, South Slavic Languages, Philology, Stylistics
Published by: Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti
Keywords: Serbian language; military terms; military terminology; military language; semantic evolution; elliptic sentences; truncated words; metaphoric using;

Summary/Abstract: The words or syntagmatic units, having a strict demarcated meaning within the military system and being used for expressing a notion which is specific to a certain field, can be considered military terms. Military terminology of a people contains notions accumulated along the evolution of the military phenomenon, and is continously under change. Concerning the semantic evolution some military terms have suffered certain transformations within the Serb language; some words have achieved new meanings, preserving or losing the old ones. With these new semantic and stylistic nuances, many of the words which initially designated military and historical realities, have survived to the present day, with or without military meanings; the other ones became archaisms, toponyms or elements of the onomastic background, etc. Though, a great number of military terms preserved very well their original military meaning, which is why they are of great importance in unifying and settling the special terminology in the Serb language. Like any other scientific language, the military language presents a powerful denotative character, but there are also terms or phrases with military character which have a certain connotative sense, which needs to be deciphered and adequately rendered. This is the case of drill naming and those for weaponry and military formations, where the translator has to identify the connotative meaning and transpose it in such a way, that it thoroughly satisfies the receiver‘s need for information. In tight connection to the semantic evolution of the military terms in the Serb language also stays the problem of the transfer of some of these into the political, sport and economic area by means of a metaphorising process, which is an actual trend taking place at world level. The metaphoric using of military terminology in the upper mentioned domains confers an addition of plasticity and dynamism and draws attention to the text by strengthening the content of the word. The presence of the elliptic sentences and of the ―truncated‖ words within the military language, mostly showing up in case of military words of command, which implies the quick pronunciation of longer words and being accompanied by phenomena such as bounding words together while pronouncing them, phonologic accentuation, inflexion, syllables‘ lengthening (of vowels), breaks in pronunciation, etc., all these represent particularities which must be known, in order to understand their meaning and to transpose them accordingly into the target language.

  • Issue Year: XLVII/2011
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 127-141
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Romanian