DIFFUSENESS OF THE STATE REGISTER OF PENTAGON’S MILITARY LINGO (AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE VIETNAM AND PERSIAN GULF WAR PROFESSIONAL JARGON)

Abstract

The article presents a linguistic and cultural analysis of the lexical and semantic features of the state register of the professional sublanguage of the US Army servicemen. It is the military sub-language as a certain form of the existence of the national language that not only serves the communicative needs of the army subculture, but is also often used as a tool of linguistic manipulation. The state register is normative and has mainly a written form of implementation. The language of the Pentagon's military bureaucracy is marked by an abundance of acronyms and ponderous definitions. In addition, the official register of the military sublanguage is often characterized by diffuseness. In most cases, the deliberate use of euphemisms, synonymic series, professional jargon, semantically impenetrable acronyms and backronyms serves the communicative purpose of concealing the true subject of conversation and thought. The sublanguage of military service as an original lexical subsystem of the American version of the English language is chosen as the scope of scientific research. The object of the study is represented by diffuse lexical and phraseological units of the register of official communication of the US Defense Department. The work is addressed to linguists, translators, teachers and a wide audience. It is noted that the phenomenon of doublespeak, consisting of demagoguery, lengthy and ambiguous wording, in the military sublanguage was clearly manifested during the Vietnam War: the language of official messages hid the true state of affairs in the world, “lulling” the attention of the American public. It is demonstrated that when covering the war in the Persian Gulf, there emerged sayings designed to turn the tragedy of the war into something abstract and devoid of emotions.