[Linganth] [External] Re: Military Standard English?

Tue Sep 10 20:16:52 UTC 2019

This is a fascinating discussion! I’m interested because the Soviet and Russian militaries are often credited with Russian language standardization, for similar reasons. I imagine it’s difficult to get permission to systematically research this in active units though, so we end up with all this enticing anecdotal evidence from our students instead.

To wit: One of my former students, an active Army officer, commented once that he favored using acronyms, and made his underlings use acronyms, wherever possible because this both foregrounds their military identity and makes it less likely they will misunderstand each other’s accents. (The former is related to something Misty Jaffe argued in an early essay on military identity and performative frames of reference, in the 1980s—although that essay was not specifically about language standardization.) So that is a bit of informal standardization, not a policy per se, but meaningful because it hints at how institutional ideologies work their way through a chain of command. I had another ex-military student who was interested in definitions of “terrorism” and how they might differ across the military and journalistic discourse, and we found a DOD dictionary that defines DOD terminology for use across the U.S. Armed Forces, including those acronyms that the Army officer insisted on. So that is a bit of formal standardization, set out neatly in a guide. It says nothing about accent or dialect or grammar—it’s just a 500+-page list of lexical items—but there are terms in there that are not exactly jargon, at least not outside the context of the military, so it shows some attempt at standardizing speech in a more thoroughgoing way (e.g., “repair,” “pass,” “ionosphere,” “code word”). As the DOD puts it, the guide “supplements standard English-language dictionaries and standardizes military and associated terminology to improve communication and mutual understanding within DOD, with other federal agencies, and among the United States and its allies.” The student in question had not seen this document while in the military but had learned most of the terms.

I’ll attach it, because it’s good for teaching and an interesting read in its own right (see depersonalized definitions of “target,” for instance).

You might also look at research on language proficiency testing within the military, although I don’t know how much of that has ever focused on English in the U.S. military.

Best wishes,
Kate

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From: Linganth <linganth-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> On Behalf Of Jacqueline Messing
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2019 2:01 PM
To: Galey Modan <gmodan at gmail.com>
Cc: LINGANTH at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG
Subject: [External] Re: [Linganth] Military Standard English?

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Hi Galey,

I have heard of Military English from an undergraduate student while I was teaching at the University of South Florida. In my linguistic anth class he wrote a brief description of communication patterns in the military when he was enlisted, explaining that the Army's goal was to "make everyone Green" and therefore not be bound by racism or racially based identity terms- this was his view. One way this was to be accomplished was standardizing certain vocabulary that new recruits acquire. I think that this could be a great class project, if you have students who are or were connected to the military. At the time I looked and did not find any academic publications on the subject. A quick google search didn't yield anything relevant today either. I will make it a point to ask my undergrad grad class this semester if anyone has any examples.

best,
Jacqui

--
Jacqueline Messing, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
University of Maryland-College Park
https://umcp.academia.edu/JacquelineMessing
Twitter @jacqmessing<https://twitter.com/>

On Mon, Sep 9, 2019 at 12:00 PM Galey Modan <gmodan at gmail.com<mailto:gmodan at gmail.com>> wrote:
Has anyone ever heard of US Military Standard English? I'm doing a section on language standardization in a class; a student of mine was talking to her grandfather about it, and he mentioned that when he was in the military, the military took an active approach to standardizing both accent and grammar so that there would be no risk of miscommunication in life-or-death situations. I guess this would have been in the 60s or 70s? I'd appreciate any leads anyone might have about this, as I've never heard of this before.

thanks a lot,

Galey Modan
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