Abstract

The cognitive semantics of each nation always restructure the semantic categories in general and the choice of each semantic meaning in identifying things. For Vietnamese people, a nation undergoing thousands of years fighting against foreign invaders to protect and build the country, nationality is closely linked with the name of things, especially in military terms. In this article, we focus on the aspects of nationality expressed in Vietnamese military terminology. Beside introduction and conclusion, this article consists of 3 parts: Part 1: Ability in Vietnamizing borrowed elements. This part states that borrowing language is indispensable, but the borrowed words always follow the comprehensions of Vietnamese people. Part 2: Methods of restructuring the conceptual implication of each appellation. In this part, we center on the description of terms used in military field featuring nationality to express the method of semantic structure based on native culture. Part 3: The use of unique materials of Vietnam. We, in this part, investigate the use of the familiar words or things in military terms.

1. Introduction

Nationality – “the definition belongs to the categories of thought and beauty showing the close relationship between literature and the nation, indicated from the relatively sustainable characteristics in literary works, formed in the course of historical development distinguished from the literature of other nations” [ ¹; 289].

There are many ideas surrounding the subject of nationality, as Phuong Luu said: “There is right, there is wrong, there is progress, there are back but nonetheless gradually recorded significant achievements” [ ²; 281], which show that Vietnamese literary theories have come up with valuable findings of national principle of literature in many aspects and levels.

In the article about national identity in Vietnamese Literature (1994), Tran Dinh Su wrote: “National identity is not just simply a close attribute, separately formed from exchanges. In contrast, it is formed and fixed in exchanges. It constitutes the limit of the cultural life of one community in comparison with another” [ ³; 219].

Entering the new millennium, a seminar on National identity in culture and art held in Ho Chi Minh city on 3^rd January, 2001 with the participation of hundreds of specialists and writers confirmed: the good national identity of Vietnam and the urgent concern is how to protect and promote the national identity of Vietnamese culture in the creation of literature and art, soul…

Phuong Luu’s elaborate treatise The historical aspects and theories of nationality in Literature has systematized the theory of nationality and expanded the conceptual implication of nationality in Two aspects of "attribute" and "quality" of nationality in literature; Nationality through elements of literary works. He states that: “Nationality is both the content and the form. It is able to express all the factors in literary works.”

Between 4^th and 5^th August, National scientific seminar was held in Hoi An city (Quang Nam province) by The Central Council for the Theory and Criticism of Literature and the Arts with the theme: “Today’s nationality and modernity in Vietnamese Literature and Art”. Specialists discussing at this seminar defined nationality from every possible angle. According to them, nationality (National identity) contains the “root” that makes up the distinct features of each nation and ethnic group. It is the spirit, the national character, consciousness of the nation and national values. In addition, theses, dissertations and articles have also mentioned nationality in literature in various aspects.

According to Cao Thi Hong “Nationality is not only a characteristic but also a mean of measuring the value of a literary work. Great literary works have always been of humanity and deep nationaltity” (Military Arts Newspaper - page Arts Critism – 30^th October 2017) ⁵.

Phan Thu Soan said "Nationality can be understood as the prominent features of the community of people sharing the same territory, language, methods and political regime underwent a long historical period. Ethnicity does not explicitly and specifically manifest itself as the visible element. It deeply penetrates the emotions, the way of seeing and the means of expressing of the literary works” [ ⁶; 41].

Unfortunately, up till now, the issue of nationality in the specialized vocabulary – Military Terminology has not been given any concern yet. We want to affirm: Vietnamese military terms are not rigid words. They are flexibly used in Literature and daily life of Vietnamese people. In this article, on basis of the previous results of some researchers applied to a “class of specific terms” [ ⁷; 86], we analyze, explain and present Nationality - one of the semantic characteristics of Vietnamese military terms. We hope that definitions in this article will contribute to the enrichment of the theoretical framework of military terminology, as well as provide additional sources and semantic features of the vocabulary which are considered scientific, abstract and rigid – Vietnamese military terms.

2. Content

Nationality in Vietnamese military terms can be expressed in different aspects: Ability in Vietnamizing borrowed elements, Methods of restructuring the conceptual implication of each appellation, The use of unique materials of Vietnam.

Of 2500 military terminologies in Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms (2007) – Ministry of Defence, Center for Military Encyclopedias ⁸, we got the result:

Also in the article is the use of terminology from a number of literary works and improvised articles of the soldiers.

Vietnamized terms are borrowed terms. Vietnamese language rules are used to turn them into a mean of communication. They can be completely made of Sino-Vietnamese elements, a mixture of pure Vietnamese elements or Sino-Vietnamese-Vietnamese, Sino-Vietnamese + Vietnamese + Indo – European. Borrowing is an inevitable phenomenon in the language because no nation that wants to develop economic, politics or foreign affairs has no diplomatic relations, no linguistic or cultural interference. Diplomatic relations as well as linguistic interference may have both pros and cons. However, borrowing is not arbitrary. It is in accordance with the use of Vietnamese language in terms of semantics, structure, and word order. According to our statistics, up to 90.04% Vietnamese military terms were created by combining pure Vietnamese elements with Sino - Vietnamese, pure Vietnamese with Sino - Vietnamese and Indo – European. There is 80/112 (71.4%) samples of military terminology have the same order as Vietnamese language primary order.

The semantic structure of military terminology is both international and national. That rule occurs when the language operates naturally in the objective world. The division in different languages depends on the perception of native speakers. Military – related things are individual – specific, so, in reality, everything has it owns way of identifying. The field of military also contains many things to discuss.

Perception, the division of military reality, the appellation of phenomena in the military field often follows certain rules, ie, classifying the appellation of things into homogeneous classes having the semantic features. According to our observation, military terminology system can be divided into classes:

- The vocabulary of the general literary language

- The vocabulary of the general scientific language

- The vocabulary commonly used in military collectives

- Military-specific terminology

We attach importance to describing the class of appellation terms with national characteristics to express the method of semantic structure and grammar base on native culture. By studying terminology, we found that: The cognitive approach of military terms is extensive, gradually becomes common to people’s life as military activities are closely related to almost all the activities in our society, especially in the war years military activity seemed to be covering the entire life of the people. Therefore, the military knowledge is not restricted, military secrets in the industry but expands and disseminate to the entire society.

It is noteworthy that the range of cognition of native speakers is often based on familiar life materials, as weapons were invented by utilizing the convenience, hidden terrain areas, familiar household things... Eg: Sky horse light field mortar, lunge anti-tank mine, camouflaged field kitchen, catapult, broad-brimmed hat, bamboo spikes, rock-trap, sticks made of coral wood, three readies, three responsibilities, three silences, voluntary youth, guerilla tactics, A-trenches,….

As its name implies, the term is not only systematic, generalizing and international but also highly national. This makes the distinct ways of identification on basis of international scientific and technological achievements acquisition. Thus, Vietnamese military art always contains the fruits of ancestors’ tirelessly creativity through countless sacrifices and war challenges. This is formed through the process of building a regular, elite, modern army. Considering Vietnamese military terminology, we have identified a significant number of terms that have a different identification from the English terminology. For example:

There are some differences in identification of in Vietnam People’s Army and the British Army:

There are differences in the quantity and semantics of the 2 countries. The general ranks in English have 2 more: Field Marshal (beyond General ranks) and Brigadier (beyond Colonel and below Major General). In Vietnamese, there is no 2 aforementioned ranks but there is Colonel General. In Field Grade, there are just 3 ranks: Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel and Major and so is Company Grade with: Captain, Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant in British Army, while, in Vietnam People’s Army, there are Senior Lieutenant Colonel and Senior Lieutenant. Such differences arise from the war history and the borrowing tendency of two nations.

The English terminology is mainly derived from the Indo-European language, Vietnamese is derived from Chinese.

Definitions of nations sometimes have a coincidence of semantic and linguistic forms but sometimes a concept can be expressed in different forms of language. Eg: English combat – Vietnamese tran danh, tran chien dau, tran; arm-vu khi, quan chung, missile - dan, ten lua, hoa tien.

Many Vietnamese and English terms have similar characteristics but they are different in terms of specific content. For example:

The term campaign of Vietnam and the Soviet Union is similar in basic meaning: a form of warfare, consisting of simultaneous or consecutive battles, linked together, including major decisive battles, based on a intentional – united plan, under the leadership and unified command, to carry out specific political and military tasks. However, they differ in the specific meaning: a campaign in Vietnamese is carried out by forces from the corps level upwards in coordination with people force in various forms of fighting; a campaign of Soviet Union is conducted by army groups and fronts to gain independence.

The concepts of local war in Vietnamese and Chinese likewise have the similarity: a war that takes place over a period time and space, often carried out by imperialism in an attempt to dominate, annex independent countries and to suppress national liberation movements. Even so, China's concept of local war also points out: this is a war that was conducted in a variety of forms and humbugs, ranging from sabotages to high-form terrorism, inter-country warfare’s. Limits between strategy, campaign and tactic are not clear; they are inextricably linked to each other and do not break the fundamental long-term strategy so that political aims can be achieved. There is a convergence of power, technologically modern materials at the decisive moment to reach strategic goals. This definition does not exist in Vietnam’s concept.

The usages of linguistic sound shell synthesis are different in different linguistic thinking’s, so the objects reflected in the terminology is also unalike:

For instance:

Vietnam’s armed forces include: People's Army,Self-defense Militia and People’s Public Security.

Armed forces of the Soviet Union consisted of 5 components: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, OGPU (The State Political Directorate) and Convoy Guard

The Cuban revolutionary armed forces consist of 3 forces: Ground Force, Air and Air Defense Force and Revolutionary Naval Force

The Chinese People’ Liberation Army includes: Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force.

Or the concept of mine in Vietnam does not have torpedo while in the Soviet Union, there is.

Due to the fact that the structure is somewhat different, many military terms just exist in Vietnamese. Eg: Battlefield B, Lunge anti – tank mine, camouflaged field kitchen, for merit to the Fatherland, Padded cotton waistcoat….

The concepts of Flying bomb in German, strategic fighter, Pacific Command of the United States, the first artillery, strategic border in Chinese….do not exists in Vietnamese dictionary

Besides, there are terms having the same linguistic form but differ in meaning in different countries. For example: the US’ concept of Strategy: an art and science using a country's armed forces by using force or threatening each other with force to achieve national policy objectives. In Vietnam, this word means: The art of targeting, arranging, converging forces and offering solutions to achieve a certain purpose in the most beneficial way, creating a new development state of a field, the whole society or of the whole world in a certain period of time. Whilst, the Soviet Union defined it differently: An integral part of the military academy including the theories and practice of the nation and the armed forces of war preparation , the strategic planning and conduct of warfare’s and campaigns.

Nationality in Vietnam military terminology is also expressed in the characteristics of the Party and class. The Vietnam People's Army is under direct and absolute leadership in all aspects of the Communist Party of Vietnam and in the nature of the Vietnamese working class. Therefore, the term system, the means of language also expresses the ideology of the Party and class. This feature demonstrates the modernity of military terminology. The change in political institution and ideology has a great influence on habits, thoughts, psychology, and culture as well as affect the structure, content and style of the language. In Vietnamese, the ways of expressing the same concepts have differences due to dissimilar linguistic structures in the past and present and opposing ideologies. Of the 100 military terms with only one concept, between the Vietnam People's Army and the Saigon Puppet Troops (in the past) only 11% were identical names, the rest are different. For example:

The difference in form of language as mentioned above contains differences in positions, class views. In addition, class character is expressed in terms of the conceptual content of the term. The conceptual content of the Vietnamese military term reflects the ideas, views and military art of the Party and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This is completely different from the view of imperialism. For example, when blatantly sent troops into Vietnam, the French colonialists still used deceptive and savage tactics and used the term civilization to show the acts against the national interests of the Vietnamese. Along with France, the United States called armed intervention and brutal suppression of revolutionary movement in the South of Vietnam pacific. There is also a series of strange terms the American imperialism refers to the inhuman actions in the war in Vietnam such as starlit, phoenix program, the escalating war, the nighthawk, special war, local war, Vietnamization policy, transporting helicopter, transporting armored car....

Vietnamese military terminology does not only have class character but also popularity. These terms, derived from ordinary life into the field of military are familiar to every Vietnamese. For example: simultaneous engagements, crossness, bead, trigger, block check an advance, puncture, deep penetration, split, clump, terrain, weather, delta, bayonet, Padded cotton waistcoat, cape, break, reef, rebellion …

These are typically national terms because they are made up of unique materials from Vietnamese military. They were created in the process of military operations due to the need to name things and events in wartime. They are assets that only appeared in Vietnam. Although they accounted for only a small number of 24 terms, (7.3%) out of 2.500 terms, they showed the invaluable creativity of the Vietnamese people during the war. The way of cognition in the spirit of the nation is inside the rules of language movement

The things and events in the objective world are characterized by the richness and diversity, reflecting their distinctive features in distinction with others. People perceive them in different ways, serving their own needs. Not only an individual but also each nation, based on the habit of thinking, the traditional and modern associations, will perceive them through various characteristics and this perception is often uneven between individuals as well as a community. This has profound roots of the living environment, labor practices, the spirit of building and defending the country.

The history of the Vietnamese people is the history of 4000 years of building and defending the country. Perhaps, there is no period of time when they are free from fighting against invaders and reactionaries. Therefore, military operations become regular, continuous. Military terms have become familiar words to all the people, even as poems for children: Called “Tiny”/ But not /Know how to harvest vegetables / Brought to the mother / Know how to cook / Two meals a day/ Asked grandpa/ Mix bamboo bar / Ti sat sharpening the bar/ Gotten spikes/ Sent to border posts / To fight against invaders . This living environment is the base for the Vietnamese to associate, with emphasis on the use of words associated with daily life. The familiar and simple things are perceived to be abstract and general terms capable of carrying the function of a scientific - technical term.

Moreover, Vietnam military is rooted from the people, fight for people, to carry out the righteous war to defend the independence and freedom of the fatherland, unlike the professional army of imperialism so the close association of the army and the people is like fish with water. Today, the peasants are only hamlet, contiguous but tomorrow they are become recruiting troops. From the village, they become soldiers; the soldiers carry the spirit of the whole homeland and villages. The familiar bamboos, pineapples suddenly became a weapon that consumes enemy’s force. The term stone trap, bamboo spikes, catapult ... generated from the natural activities between people and the army.

In the early days of the resistance war against France, our forces were still weak, the revolutionary aim was difficult, technical equipment was backward, facilities were poor. To pass slippery roads and slopes, Vietnamese soldiers have to cut the broken rubber tires into rubber sandals to protect their feet and save money. The term rubber sandals came into being. Then the san image associated with rubber sandals has become a spiritual symbol in To Huu’s poem: dal became the dear thing of the soldiers walking around the battlefield. Uncle Ho's Rubber sandals, Uncle Ho’s sandals He wore from warzone home.

In order to ensure weapons for Ben Tre co-insurrection in 1960, the Ben Tre provincial committee of the Party commissioned a plan to produce self-made weapons. The Sky horse light field mortar was invented in that circumstance. It is a rudimentary weapon that resembles a sky horse, which is used to projectile metallic, glass, and crushed stones to attack enemies. The gun is made by the method of "straw pipe" (hollow pipe of steam that makes stone explosion loud). Sky horse light field mortar is one of the products demonstrating the creative intelligence and pride of the Vietnamese people in research, manufacture and self-assurance of weapons and equipment for local armed forces in the very years of war against America to overcome difficulties, hardships.

In December 1946, in response to Winter soldiers’ appeal, all Vietnamese were enthusiastically involved and actively contributed. Ho Chi Minh was the pioneer. He donated his only fabric shirt and a set of clothes to the fund. Being moved by the affection of Uncle Ho for the soldiers, a pastry shopkeeper auctioned the fabric shirt for 3500 Indochina equivalent to 200 gold currently. This action had a strong influence on the people. The Office Chief Ordnance researched and created the Padded cotton waistcoat. Everywhere in the country, people enthusiastically sewed this kind of coat. Mothers, sisters with the skillful hands sewed days and nights for soldiers. This is a poem of mothers sent to warriors to warm their heart in the cold winter: "Padded cotton waistcoat I finished sewing / Send you to wear in the forthcoming winter".

On 5th April 1964, the American Empire frenzy extends the war to suppress the North's support for the South. Responding to the call of President Ho Chi Minh "All unanimously unite, million people like one, determined to defeat US invaders, "Vietnam Women's Union proposed the movement "three undertake". The movement’s activities based on the content

Uncle Ho then named the movement "Three responsibilities", a name that is both simple and highlight the specific work of Vietnamese women. Terminologies: the fatherland’s iron bulwark, lunge anti-tank mine, camouflaged field kitchen, Three readies, Three strategic areas, Three forces, Fight stronger empires, People's war.... are also available materials formed in military practices. These are unique terms, deeply nationalistic.

The transition from the common words to the military terms is a structural way to enrich the terminology. By this way, people can create many terms with good quality, clear semantics, and familiar to everyone. In contrast, the life of Vietnamese people during 4000 years of building and defending the country is always associated with the heroic history. Thus, military terms also naturally enter people's lives as a mean of communication expressing great spiritual values. This asserts the flexibility of Vietnamese people not only in military life but also in language activities. In terms of linguistic rules, military terminology used in daily life is expressed in two basic ways:

Firstly, when changed into daily life language, military terms changed in the meaning expressing things, but remain the characteristic of symbolism. These are terms that originally refer to military-related things but also used to refer to common things in society. For example: irrigation campaign, sports squad, ideological weapon, market command, heart command, ideological front, economic front, cultural front, anti-corruption front. In terms of expressing things, the words campaign, squad, weapon, front... have differences in expressions in military life and in everyday life. Campaign as a military term refers to a form of warfare, but it refers to a form of social activity when being a usual word. In terms of symbolism, both forms above have some characteristics in common: convergence, mobilization of many people participates in a certain time, under the united leadership to obtain certain goals.

Secondly, when being switched to usual words, military terms change in symbolism but have the same expressions of things. These terms are often used in non-military style documents such as art style, daily life style…

As used in these fields, military terms are familiarized, getting closer to everyday communication of people, and understood by national meanings. For example: ambush is a tactic of warfare, with characteristics of using forces, squad layouts, objects and combat targets, but in literary works, it is used with the popular meaning of an unexpected method of fight …

Military terms when changed into usual words do not only enrich the cultural class of words, but also adds a sense of military appropriate for urgent, fierce, up-to-date activities in wartime.

In addition, military terms also become a means of entertainment, conveying the sentimental thoughts of Uncle Ho’s soldiers. Many poems were born during military life to lessen the hardships of war as well as to perform political tasks of peacetime. We selected 4 verses composed by the soldiers with a total of 160 words and 46 military terms (28.8%) used flexibly: tactics, target observation, blockhouse, and conduct of political and drill-ground plans... That was the worth of praising life of soldiers. It showed the hilarity of the soldiers and the familiarity of the terms. Let's hear the young soldiers write poems showing their love:

- I love you with tactics love

I observe the target all year long

Remember the early day making attack plans

Your doorway was the blockhouse

After a long reconnaissance, I had a thorough grasp of the area

Step by step, I carried out the plans

Stay patient until chance comes

I mustered the firepower to attack

First shot as the challenge …

Or:

- If guns shoot in proportion

You will be the long-ranged number eight target

I estimate the fire line

Decide to switch the selector fully automatic fire

Just pull the trigger the gunpowder fires quickly

Put pressure to make my love on the spin

Keep my heart in shape of the angle of fire

The first round of gunfire broke out from the lips.

- I am on military service

Long fondly to see you after one and a half year.

Politics in the morning, drill-ground afternoon

Some harsh days made me cry

I used to dream too much

Now I am holding the gun and ready to march.

- If I know you get married tomorrow

I will mobilize all the anti-aircraft artillery

Along with the armored cavalry regiment

Crush your wedding car to revenge

If I know you get married tomorrow

10 grenades is enough, isn’t it?

Pull the safety pin ring to celebrate the wedding

Explosion instead of fireworks.

Moreover, the national spirit is highly promoted in poems and literary works of great poets and writers. On the one hand, it contributes to the development of the national language to the highest level; on the other hand, it expresses the epic and romantic inspiration in literary works. In the years of resistance war, these verses spread a great power, became a spiritual force, encouraging Vietnamese people to fight bravely and win. To Huu is one of the poets who greatly contributed to the softening of the military term, making it more attractive in the hearts of the Vietnamese. According to our statistics, in 270 words of the poem 1968 Spring Song ⁹, there are 16 military terms ( accounts for 5.9%), for example: catapult, spike, attack, broad-brimmed hat, bomb, revolutionary heroism…

For another example, Nguyen Tuan is a talented writer. One of his erudite features is the ingenious use of military terms in his works. Typically, military terms rarely exist in literature, except for those on the subject of war. However, when writing about the subject of building socialism, praising modern people, the pure gold characteristic of the Northwest, Nguyen Tuan pushed the national voice to the pinnacle of the art of word use. He described the sea battle on the Da River as extremely fierce, between a gifted waterman and a cruel Da River. The total number of military terms is 11/127 accounting for 8.7% in the following paragraphs with military characteristics such as hit, shoot, blockage, flanking maneuver, submersible bunker, floating fortress, living gate, deadly gate,... were used skillfully in the short following paragraph:

"Nevertheless, Da River seems to have assigned task for each rock on the river, forming a rock-trap. Rocks, stones divided into three rows, eager to swallow the boat, which was solitary, having no way to avoid a hand to hand battle with a squad of stones. In the midfield, there are two stones barricading a door look like weak spots, but the two take the role of enticing the opponent into the middle and then continuously hit from side to side. If the guerrilla boat can penetrate through the second line, the missions of all the submersible bunkers and floating fortress in the third line are to smash it and kill all captains, sailors at the foot of the waterfall... " [ ¹⁰; 12].

When take terms’ semantics into consideration, researchers agree that terms in general and military terms in particular, often have one meaning. It means the one to one relationship between the semantic and the form of a word, a phonetic form is equivalent to a concept. The meaning of a military term must not be expressive but precise to express the meaning of a military concept. However, in some specific situations, the correctness, uniqueness, and abstraction of the term are also softened in poets and literary works of Vietnamese people. This is the creativeness showing the rapid improvement in the thinking them.

3. Conclusion

It can be said that the study of nationality in Vietnamese military terminology is one of the new issues. This poses a lot of difficulties for the researchers. However, with national spirit and the ambition to bring about a class of words that is considered to be arrogant to ordinary people, we have tried to collect realistic documents, illuminated by the theoretical system to show the interesting semantic features and flexibility of Vietnamese military terminology. We affirm that Vietnamese military terminology does not only one-to-one relationship, id est, a form of sound is equivalent to a meaning, but also have derivatives carrying the soul and spirit of the Vietnamese. These semantic derivations were first reflected in the process of creating military terms through building and protecting the country time. These are the words that arose from military activities, attached to the urgent tasks of war such as Padded cotton waistcoat, rubber sandal, broad-brimmed hat, Sky horse light field mortar....

Secondly, nationality in terminology is expressed in the use of materials familiar to daily life of people. These terms are forming a bridge between the army and people, the root of the national culture. This rule is not new in comparison with the process of enriching the national vocabulary. The special thing is that when choosing the meaning of a word which often turns it into a term, military terms only take the military characteristic, or turn it into a pure military meaning.

Thirdly, nationality manifests in structure, choice arrangement of symbolic meaning and conceptual meaning according to linguistic rules and military reality of Vietnam. The differences in appellation of the officer’s ranks in British Army and Vietnam People’s Army we mentioned above is one of the proof of the distinctive features of the Vietnamese literacy system.

Last but not least, nationality in the terms is also expressed in Vietnamizing with borrowed words. Turning foreign linguistic elements into national possessions is a way of enriching vocabulary in accordance with the process of economic, political and social development.

Acknowledgements

The heading of the Acknowledgment section and the References section must not be numbered.

References