Viktor Balabin. Defining the concept of "Military translation".

Abstract

The term «military translation» belongs to the basic units of the military translation theory’s conceptual construct that require proper systematization and clarification. The existing definitions of military translation are not devoid of obvious deficiencies and they do not fully disclose the essence of this concept. These definitions should reveal the ontological essence and specificity of military translation – its characteristic features and qualities, ensure ample perception and unambiguous understanding of the concept itself. They should also describe military translation logically and comprehensively by vocational terms from the domain of translation studies, be systematic, consistent, complete, and optimally concise. Moreover, we cannot ignore the definitions that were previously coined by reputable researchers, or recorded by recognized scientific and reference sources.
The author offers two types of definitions for the term/concept of «military translation». The concise definition reveals only essential features of military translation. It meets the requirements of rational brevity, which are must for all terminology definitions, and makes it possible to differentiate the concepts of military translation from other translation types and concepts. Therefore, the military translation is defined as a «special type of linguistic mediation, carried out in the armed forces for the linguistic support of forces».
The enlarged definition presents the concept of military translation as a system in which its essential features are viewed as the system’s components. According to the enlarged definition, the military translation is a «special type of intercultural bilateral and bilingual communication, which has military texts as its subject, and is carried out under normal and extreme conditions of military service in the military-political, military-technical and military-special domain of the armed forces by lingual mediation of the military interpreter».