Military Translation Research Articles

DETERMINING QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MILITARY INTERPRETER

The theory of military translation as a special branch of translation studies does not have the stated requirements and proper definition for the military interpreter’s qualification. By analysing national laws and official government documents (national framework of qualifications, higher education standards, occupational classification, and qualification characteristics of professions), the author summarizes qualification requirements for the military interpreter. The military interpreter’s professional qualification is a standardized set of competences, recognized by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and certified by a diploma of complete higher education that allow him/her to perform linguistic support for forces. These competences are acquired to solve complex problems and tasks in the field of military management, linguistics and translation. The military interpreter’s professional qualification also contains information on the level of higher education, specialty, specialization and education program. The educational qualification of the military interpreter certifies the successful two-phase study at the first (Bachelor) and second (Master’s) levels of higher education in philology and military management. It is described in terms of learning outcomes and further specified in terms of professional competencies.

Defining the Military Interpreter’s Competence

The Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine cause doctrinal changes in the education of military professionals. It also leads to further enhancement of organizational, methodological and linguo- pedagogic approaches in forming the competence of military interpreters and translators, which constitutes one of the main tasks of the military translation theory. The military interpreter’s competence is one of the terminological units of its conceptual construct.
 Depending on current legal documents, the author offers a definition for military interpreter’s competence, and identifies types and content of the military interpreter’s integral, generic and specific competences. The author views military interpreter’s competence as a synthesis of competencies of an officer – a military professional with the tactical level of combat service support qualifications, and a civilian interpreter – a professional in the field of philology, linguistics and translation.
 Thus, the competence of a military translator is a dynamic combination of philological, linguistic, translational, cultural, general-military, military-humanitarian, and military-specific knowledge, skills, abilities, ways of thinking, views, values, and other personal qualities officially attested and certified at the level of complete higher education by a proper authority.
 It represents the military interpreter’s ability and readiness to fulfil the tasks of the linguistic support for forces, as well as perform other duty functions under normal and extreme conditions of military service.

Теоретико-концептуальні основи військового перекладу

Теоретико-концептуальні основи військового перекладу

Military-Political Translation in the Context of the Theory of Military Translation

Military-Political Translation in the Context of the Theory of Military Translation

Augmenting combat power: Military translation in China-Burma-India Theater

Despite the growing academic interest in translators and interpreters in war, there is still a need to discuss the nature and role of translation from the perspective of military principles. This paper, drawing upon the theories about combat power, defines military translation as an intangible factor of combat power involving information and knowledge, and proposes a framework to map out how translation acts upon the internal mechanism of war. Based on the relevant historical records about and memoirs by the interpreters serving in the China-Burma-India Theater, the case study was able to discover that interpreters contributed greatly to the victory of the Alliance through their bilingual services that increased tangible and other intangible factors of combat power, and aided in its execution. This paper concludes that military translation can help reshape the combat power relations between the parties involved in conflicts, and ultimately influence the outcome of the war.

Augmenting combat power: Military translation in China-Burma-India Theater

Despite the growing academic interest in translators and interpreters in war, there is still a need to discuss the nature and role of translation from the perspective of military principles. This paper, drawing upon the theories about combat power, defines military translation as an intangible factor of combat power involving information and knowledge, and proposes a framework to map out how translation acts upon the internal mechanism of war. Based on the relevant historical records about and memoirs by the interpreters serving in the China-Burma-India Theater, the case study was able to discover that interpreters contributed greatly to the victory of the Alliance through their bilingual services that increased tangible and other intangible factors of combat power, and aided in its execution. This paper concludes that military translation can help reshape the combat power relations between the parties involved in conflicts, and ultimately influence the outcome of the war.

The Contextual over the Referential in Military Translation

Dictionaries of all types, monolingual or bilingual, specialized or general, form the basic tools for both undergraduate translation students (UTSs) and professional translators (PTs). However, it is generally accepted that the difference between UTSs and PTs is that UTSs normally over-rely on dictionaries, which produces unsatisfactory results. For it is not only the lexical meaning provided by dictionaries that is important in translation, but also the contextual meaning. Hence, it is the USTs' ability to translate and use specialized terms/words appropriately within the context of situation and, by extension, within the larger world of the text, which is crucial. The aim of the article is to address issues related to Arabic military translation. In particular, it focuses on the long-standing relationship between specialized terms and translation and how terms may influence the UTSs' quality and accuracy, given that Arabic suffers from difficulties in handling and standardizing specialized technical terms. Data were drawn from translations by undergraduate students at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. The analysis shows that students faced problems at understanding technical information as well as technical terms and collocations. It was also noted that two of the better bilingual dictionaries turned out to be of little help. The examples discussed provide pointers to the challenges that would face UTSs when handling technical translation in their early careers.

Dragomen and checkpoints

Humanistic studies of translation have often taken for granted that translational activity produces cultural understanding, which in turn leads to deeper human sympathy. However, the history of military translation in the US occupation of Iraq suggests that this model is inadequate on a number of accounts, including the ways in which translation theory privileges literary translation over other translational activities. This essay surveys the development of Arabic–English translation within US military strategic thinking and the adjunct role played by militarised interpreters in the US occupation of Iraq. It then considers Arabic–English translation in terms of the lives of translators, as opposed to the textual products produced by their labour. It concludes by sketching the nineteenth-century history of the Levantine dragoman in order to draw resemblances with more recent histories of military translation.

The Translatability of Military Terms by MA Students in Translation at Yarmouk University in Jordan

This paper aimed at examining the level of students’ ability in translating military expressions from English into Arabic at Yarmouk University (YU) in Jordan. For achieving its goals, the researcher selected a random sample of (20) Master (MA) students, who are studying English-Arabic translation at the ‘Translation Department. They enrolled in the first semester (2011-2012). The researcher used a validated and reliable text; it was used previously to examine military personnel at the Military Academy in Jordan. This text includes (25) English military expressions to be translated into Arabic. Quantitatively, percentages and mean scores were computed to know the level of students’ ability in translating military expressions and phrases. Qualitatively, the analysis was set up to investigate their Arabic translation. The study recommended a number of recommendations to overcome the low level of students’ translation in translating military expressions and phrases. Furthermore, further researches in military translation were suggested.

Advancing the Mind/Machine Interface: Qualitative Simulations, Hypertext, and Natural Language Processing

Advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (Al), hypertext, and natural language processing (NLP), are transforming the Mind/Machine Interface. This presentation focuses on two large development projects underway that use these technologies in unique ways. Their use is guided by the three natural means of communication between people: saying, coaching, and showing; as metaphors for using advanced technology interfaces. The two projects are aimed at developing job and training aids for the Army. The most complete example is the Maintenance Aid Computer for HAWK–Intelligent Institutional Instructor (MACH-III). This is the largest and most successful implementation of an ITS to date (Psotka, Massey, and Mutter, 1988). MACH-III was developed by Bolt, Beranek, and Newman (BBN), to provide training in organizational maintenance of the main radar of the HAWK air defense guided missile system. Its core is a huge qualitative simulation of the radar. The complexity of the simulation and the troubleshooting problem space demand a unique hypertext interface, whose structure and function are only beginning to be understood. Some preliminary evaluation results from the U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School (USAADASCH), Ft. Bliss, Texas are beginning to show its effectiveness. The other project, Building Robust Dual Grammar Exercisers (BRIDGE), will begin to explore the architextual structure of hypertext systems within the context of advanced technologies for military machine translation and military foreign language training. From this perspective, hypertext is a bridging technology that links the existing strengths of qualitative simulations with the future power of natural language processing.