Whatever aviation professionals’ mother tongue may be, there is no doubt that the English language will be of most crucial importance to them. Ever since the 1940’s, Airlines in the United States had an average of two million passengers a year. According to Crystal (2003: 99), the claims to impose a “língua franca” on aviation were obvious, and even more obvious that this language would be English, for either allied war leaders and the main aircraft manufactures as well as most post war pilots were speakers of this language.

In terms of publications which dictate procedures, regulations and the horizons that conduce operations ever since the end of World War II, the English language collects the aviation terminology (BOCORNY, 2011: 968).

As a cabin crew member and teacher of English as a foreign language, I could empirically realize Aviation professionals in Brazil have some difficulties in dealing with certain aspects of language variations. When managing the subject of “segurança” which in English, due to cultural aspects, has two equivalents (safety and security), it drew my special attention, for, to some groups of professionals as well as to translators, using one form or the other seemed to be confusing and required a closer look, in order to provide evidence leading to accuracy.

When addressing Portuguese and English as a linguistic pair, the frequent use of English loan words is perceived among aviation professionals (Foreign English users), as well as common mistakes, doubts, and ambiguities², in the sense of “a situation or statement that is unclear because it can be understood in more than one way” (CAMBRIDGE, 2021) which justified the referred terms as object of study. With regards to ambiguities in Terminology:

Considering the need to observe and identify the concepts of the studied terms, based on communicative aspects, the research proposal lays in obtaining data to contribute to a better understanding of these similar terms by examining their collocates, in the safety and security subareas, directing professionals of the field and translators, regarding eventual translation problems in the Portuguese to English translation direction.

Monolingual dictionaries of English or bilingual dictionaries of English-Portuguese, Portuguese-English, in general, approach the words “safety” and “security” as synonyms, bringing important information, although not sufficient to disguinguish them, as in the case of the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (2021):

In consultation on a bilingual production, both words are translated into Portuguese as “segurança” (HOUAISS, 2002) and it does not seem to offer evidence to help the language user with which one to choose, since they are presented in a similar way.

The limitation and vagueness about the demonstrated definitions may cause interferences regarding the accurate comprehension, and point out to a linguistic research viability, towards qualitative understanding of the contextual real use of the referred items observing their collocations, in order to avoid mistakes, concerning their senses, due to the fact that in English, the theme “segurança” is expressed by two different forms.

The translation act should take into consideration the involved cultures, the translation direction, and it is dependent on the communications intended, as well as other aspects. The very own nature of each linguistic code results in different solutions, unparalleled and not mirrored, according to the direction of the translation act in question (AUBERT, 1993: 34). Each case is an individual situation which demands an individual solution, once language pairs may not be compatible with one another in some or several aspects, in terms of lexis, grammar and other variations.

In the matter of the languages involved in the translation activity:³

Taking into consideration the scholar’s view, in the domain of Portuguese and English as a linguistic pair in translation, the world perspective which is in the English language, regarding the safety and security themes, is distinct and seems to be more complex (in terms of quantity) than the world perspective in Portuguese, once the translation is expressed through a single polysemic term, in the case of Portuguese and in two terms, in the case of English.

Additionally, according to Azenha Junior (2010: 46), “terms involve perspective movements which vary from culture to culture"⁵. Thus, we may assume that as such, the terminological case of the cultural distinction between the pair we are dealing with, with regards to the concepts involved, should be treated and analyzed based upon the set of perspectives observed in the source culture where the referred terminology occurs.

In this section, we present the theoretical bases we adopted in order to build this study. We refer to conceptual units in Terminology, the concept and categories of collocations, and the Corpus Linguistics to obtain the data for our analyses.

While searching for conceptual units in specialized languages, we should not disregard the fact that words and terms are all connected not only to one word on each side, but also to many others. It is imperative to widen our horizons and expect the units of meaning (and concept) to be more extensive and varied than it is realized in a single word (SINCLAIR, 2004: 39). Although simple terms are a reality, concepts are acquired through combinations which have the node as a starting point, connects to collocates and end up compounding terminological units.

In this study we used two comparable corpora, one in Portuguese, and another one in English. The material used in the Portuguese language corpus was captured from the National Civil Aviation Agency in Brazil and from the Brazilian Air Force. For the English language corpus, the texts were extracted from the International Civil Aviation Organization.

In order to maintain temporal and length balances, the texts were collected from 2005 to 2015 and the corpora had about 120,000 words each.

The research focused on a specific section of aviation language, thus, in order to acquire texts in the desired area, the following key terms were searched in the websites: “segurança” as for Portuguese, “safety” and “security” as for English. For the English corpus, both terms and their texts were considered and extracted.

As an attempt to convey balance of the specialized studied languages, the selected material included aviation regulations, guidelines, news, procedures, courses and instructions.

After the compiling of the corpora, the software WordSmith Tools version 6.0 (SCOTT, 2012) was used to extract collocations and analyze data. Then we were able to observe the frequencies, and concordance lines.

We focused on the collocations and concordance lines, with the intent of providing a better understanding of the themes present in the subsection of aviation language along with the nodes “segurança”, “safety” and “security” in Portuguese and English. Thus, we could analyse the uses and senses of the terms, as well as the context in which they occurred.

In order to identify the collocates, the search included up to five positions to the left and five positions to the right. The contexts presented were extracted using the Concord tool of the software and selected according to analysis of the relevance to demonstrate the senses and uses of the terms in the studied subsection of aviation language.

The order of the elements (left or right) which collocate with the terms, presented in the tables, was displayed according to the highest number of frequencies in the corpora.

In the task of obtaining equivalents among languages, comparable corpora may be quite expressive and effective to trace “the correlations that establish the boundaries of sets of functionally complete units of meaning in the two languages” (TOGNINI-BONELLI, 2001: 133). In other words, this kind of corpora is an important and rich source of information when establishing relations of meanings across languages, due to their perspectives, which comprise evaluations of equivalents based upon natural occurring textual evidence from the viewpoint of discourse and context identified among the studied languages towards specific linguistic expressions and concepts or meanings the carry out.

In this section we present the obtained data, the analyses and the discussion of our results.

Upon additional consultation to the largest Brazilian Airlines, we learned that, since English is the “lingua franca” of aviation and used by a great deal of professionals in different positions, using the English forms as loan terms into Portuguese is frequent and conventional. In cases of translation, in their training centers, for instance, airlines tend to adopt “segurança operacional” for “safety” and “segurança de voo” for “security”. This solution seems to work efficiently to the subjects of domain which are present in each formal discipline and area of activity.

Furthermore, we considered it relevant to mention a fact about the process of compiling the English corpus regarding the theme of security. Although the material on this specific subsection seemed to be sufficient and fruitful to our purposes, the texts about security were smaller in volume when compared to the ones about safety. The subject of security itself suggests technical secrets since it is related to aspects of protective strategies and procedures which might become ineffective if publicly revealed. For example, we could mention the case of Document 8973¹⁷ which is restricted, i.e. not available for public access.

Nevertheless, it is relevant to register that concepts contained in terms are influenced by different variables, such as temporality, cognitive aspects, conventionality of linguistic communities, among others, and thus, these concepts are subjected to shifts.

In this article, we proposed an investigation of the collocates of “segurança”, “safety” and “security” in aviation language, and evidence has shown that a combination of precepts of the CTT (posing communication and context as sources of terminological data), and an evaluation of the cotext (in the sense of combinations of lexical items, as to reveal new and additional meanings) indicates effective potentialities for this kind of work. Thereby, this use of Cabré’s theory, comprehending meanings of terms are relative, and the communicative scenario as “language in use” (CABRÉ, 1999 and 2003) allied to CL, as complementary theoretical and methodological frames, to search for units of meaning, considering words, and also terms, are all connected and related (SINCLAIR, 2004).

Studying collocations shows to be positive to understand the context and discourse of specialized languages since we have the opportunity to investigate the combinations of terminological units in real authentic communicative events. The exploration of collocates is intended to add evidence to differences, similarities and contrasts about the discourse and the matter itself in Aviation Language. In addition, collocations may offer evidence to develop definitions and contextual material in practical usage, bringing data to build terminographic materials for teaching, translating and expanding the knowledge of professionals, to find equivalents, in different areas through glossaries and dictionaries.

We expect our findings may shed light to the particularities of the studied terms, and assist our readers regarding the nuances their collocations potentially add to those terms, in a relation with the observed concepts, as well as to be aware of the role of cultural aspects reflecting the usage of lexical units. In addition, our results about collocations, as a source of linguistic data to lead to a better understanding of conceptual units related, are intended to broaden the discussion regarding collocations, as a way to find out more information towards complex concepts, and may be replicated to research on other areas and terminologies.

This appendix contains an expanded version of the examples we used in order to analyse the concordance lines, which refer to the main collocates of the terms “safety”, “security”, both “safety” and “security” in complementary cases in English, and the term “segurança” in Portuguese.

a) Examples of collocates of the term “safety” in context

1- The personnel assigned to entity responsible should have knowledge of safety management, including the conduct of hazard identification, risk assessment and the implementation of appropriate mitigation strategies as well as occurrence reporting and analysis.

2- The outcomes of aviation safety may sometimes be related to occupational or workplace safety. As such, the organization should ensure that any relevant aspects of occupational/workplace safety (as with any other management systems) are integrated into Safety Management Systems SMS where appropriate.

3- The 37th Assembly Resolution 37-6 urged States to take initiatives to enhance runway safety through the establishment of runway safety programs, to prevent and mitigate runway accidents and serious incidents.

4- The task force was mandated to develop a global safety risk management framework that would make it possible to determine safe levels of operations in airspace contaminated by volcanic ash.

5- Scores refer to availability of sufficient number of qualified and trained technical staff, to carry out regulatory and safety oversight functions in an effective manner.

6- Safety culture and just culture are also leading indicators for which EUROCONTROL has developed measurement methods. Parallel to this effort and parallel to the mandatory reporting instituted by the application of a voluntary reporting scheme created at European level, known as the EUROCONTROL Voluntary Accident and Incident Reporting scheme (EVAIR), which is open to Airlines.

7- Other components of safety may also be on the dashboard including Safety Culture progress on actions. The statistical information may need to be ‘normalised’ against the traffic flow or other system perturbations (new system upgrades, etc.).

b) Examples of collocates of the term “security” in context

1- The target population will be existing personnel at the supervisory level with the potential for promotion to the managerial level, and existing personnel at that level employed by the authority or organization primarily responsible for the application of aviation security preventive measures at airports.

2- ICAO has adopted the TRIP Strategy, that was endorsed by the ICAO General Assembly in October 2013, and its strategic framework for achieving maximum benefits from future travel documents through Security and Facilitation enhancement.

3- A key finding from the 9/11 Commission Report was that “for terrorists, travel documents are as important as weapons.” The issuance and integrity of travel documents, border security and identity management remain an important and integral part of global counter-terrorism capacity-building efforts in furthering the objectives of the UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001).

4- Academia think tanks and the law enforcement community may need to explore the role that travel documents and border security play in combating terrorism and trans-border crime.

5- The documents cover many specific aspects of aviation security requirements, such as security measures for domestic operations, threat assessment, programs airport security, operator security programs, personnel background checks and selection, training and standard of performance, certification of screeners, quality control programs as well as cooperation between States.

6- The objective is to promote global aviation security through continuous auditing and monitoring of Member States’ aviation security performance, in order to enhance their aviation security compliance and oversight capabilities, by regularly and continuously obtaining and analysing data on Member States’ aviation security performance, including the level of implementation of the critical elements of an aviation security oversight system and the degree of compliance of with standards.

7- An ICAO Declaration on aviation security, unanimously adopted at the ICAO 37th Assembly, places particular emphasis on the collection, analysis and timely sharing of information, and urges States to share best practices in areas such as travel document security, fraud detection and effective border controls.

c) Complementary cases

1- States must accept their primary responsibility for ensuring regulatory oversight of safety and security, irrespective of any change in economic regulatory arrangements. In this regard, the findings of the study could be useful to help enhance the awareness of States so that appropriate preventative or corrective measures may be developed and implemented.

2- The Chicago Convention and its Annexes require each Contracting State to provide safety and security oversight for its air operators and also surveillance of foreign operators that operate in its airspace.

3- In these circumstances, the questions of responsibility and accountability for safety/security can lead to uncertainty (see Circ 269, Implications of Airline Codesharing). Also, since such arrangements allow an operator to use the name or assume the public face of another carrier (e.g. in the case of franchising), the need to safeguard reputation in terms of service/safety quality have led to some regulatory action on safety/security.

4- The Chicago Convention and its Annexes provide the legal and operational framework for Contracting States to build and maintain a civil aviation safety/security system based on mutual trust and recognition. From a strict legal viewpoint, the system is designed to ensure that international civil aviation operates in a safe and secure manner independently of the air transport policy and economic regulations that Contracting States may follow.

d) Exploring the term “segurança”

1- ESTRUTURAÇÃO E ATRIBUIÇÕES DO GRUPO DE AÇÃO DE SEGURANÇA OPERACIONAL: criar um ambiente favorável e reconhecidamente não punitivo, que propicie os relatos (anônimos ou não) de todos os assuntos ou eventos com implicações diretas ou indiretas para a segurança operacional.

2- A organização deve considerar diversos fatores na descrição do ambiente operacional no qual desenvolve suas atividades/operações, como a identificação dos processos e procedimentos organizacionais que impactam na segurança operacional, bem como suas interações (ex.: gerenciamento, comunicação, execução, etc.).

3- De acordo com o Tenente-Coronel Aviador, a proposta do simpósio teve como objetivo disseminar a segurança de voo em nível regional, incluindo a multidisciplinaridade das áreas profissionais que interagem com o mundo da aviação.

4- Ao modelar e construir sua sistemática de avaliação de desempenho da segurança operacional é recomendável que a organização estabeleça a definição de desempenho da segurança operacional mais apropriada à sua realidade e política.

5- A interação entre o operador do aeródromo, responsável pelo monitoramento da fauna dentro da área de segurança aeroportuária, e o poder público municipal, responsável pelo controle e uso do solo, é de suma importância para reduzir os riscos de acidentes provocados pela colisão de aeronaves com pássaros.

6- No Centro Integrado de Segurança e Controle, na sede da Polícia Rodoviária Federal (PRF), a presidente e 15 ministros de Estado concederam entrevista coletiva. A área de defesa e segurança foi apontada como um dos pontos fortes no planejamento do torneio.

7- Num passado recente, a aviação civil internacional experimentou momentos de insegurança, os quais se refletiram em toda a economia mundial, bem como em uma queda de confiança no setor, somente recuperada por medidas rígidas de segurança adotadas e exaustivamente praticadas pela maioria dos Estados.

8- Desenvolvido por Empresas Aéreas, Operadores de Aeródromos, Departamento de Polícia Federal e pelo Departamento de Controle do Espaço Aéreo, definindo atribuições, procedimentos e medidas para serem desenvolvidas com o objetivo de garantir a eficácia dos Programas e Ações voltados para a Segurança da Aviação Civil contra Atos de Interferência Ilícita.