Group items tagged

This article discusses the use of scientific jargon in scientific research, and specifically how it can be a detriment to the effectiveness of a paper. The article argues that although jargon serves the purpose of conveying meaning with precision, for most people, other scientists included, the use of excessive jargon an be an obstacle to communication. In a study focused on the jargon-heavy field of cave science, two researchers found that highly-cited papers did not have jargon in their titles, and used less than 1% jargon in their abstract. This was used as evidence that using less jargon indicates that your paper is likely clearer, meaning more people will understand the information, and ultimately, the paper is more effective.

The grass roots are at war with astroturf . Yellow Dog Democrats become boll weevils and then Blue Dogs. Beltway bandits troll Pennsylvania Avenue in search of earmarks and extenders . Say what? Every subculture has its lingo, but few add secret code faster than the American political class.

Psychological research shows that jargon kills attention, comprehension, retention and motivation.

"Now in the 21st century, with sophisticated text-crunching tools at our disposal, it is possible to put Bridgman's theory to the test. Has a vernacular style become the standard for the typical fiction writer? Or is literary language still a distinct and peculiar beast?"

This article by Molly Young discusses the preponderance of corporate jargon or "garbage language." Why the metaphor? According to Garbage is what we produce mindlessly in the course of our days and because it smells horrible and looks ugly and we don't think about it except when we're saying that it's bad. But unlike garbage, which we contain in wastebaskets and landfills, the hideous nature of these words - their facility to warp and impede communication - is also their purpose. Garbage language permeates the ways we think of our jobs and shapes our identities as workers. It is obvious that the point is concealment; it is less obvious what so many of us are trying to hide.

Fascinating look at the subcultural language of hospitals! The article provides several examples of "argot," the formal name for slang or jargon. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines "argot" as "an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group" [1]. According to its stated definition, argot permits those in the know to 1. share complex pieces of information without bystanders understanding what they are saying. 2. create or reinforce a bond between users. 3. give some emotional distance between the speaker and the event and its impact on patients and family members. 4. permits those in the know to express regret or even revulsion at having to deal with unpleasant situations. "Code brown," which refers to a conspicuous episode of fecal incontinence, is an example frequently used in the hospital setting.

Euphemistic language is the timeless enemy of anyone concerned with clarity. While everywhere, they tend to cluster within taboo subjects such as death, sex, and drugs - and giving people the axe, as no corporation would say. Few topics have accumulated as many euphemisms as the action called downsizing, making redundant, laying off, demising, and even absurd, clunky phrases like

The New England Journal of Medicine has a first-person article about the consequences of the language of economics in the doctoring biz . From the article, "A decent medical-care system that helps all the people cannot be built without the language of equity and care. If this language is permitted to die and is completely replaced by the language of efficiency and cost control, all of us - including physicians - will lose something precious."

In The Hidden Language, Nat Towsen interviews an insider of a particular subculture in order to examine the terms and phrases created by that subculture to serve its own needs. This is language innate to an insider and incomprehensible, if not invisible, to an outsider.

This article (and the other articles posted in Vice's "Hidden Language" column) lists a sample lexicon of terms that reveal the character of the subculture being studied--some nice examples of professional jargon/insider terminology and the way that professions/social groups shape language.

Words like potlatch, saltchuck, kanaka, skookum, sticks, muckamuck, tyee and cultus hail from a near-forgotten language, Chinook Wawa, once spoken by more than 100,000 people, from Alaska to the California border, for almost 200 years. Known as Chinook Jargon or Chinook Wawa ('wawa' meaning talk), this was a trade, or pidgin, language that combined simplified words from the First Nations languages of Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Chinook and others, as well as from French and English. It was used so extensively that it was the language of courts and newspapers in the Pacific Northwest from about 1800 to 1905. Chinook Wawa was developed to ease trade in a place where there was no common language. On the Pacific Coast at the time, there were dozens of First Nations languages, including Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Haisla, Heiltsuk, Kwakwaka'wakw, Salishan and Chinook. After European contact, which included Captain Cook's arrival in 1778, English, French, Spanish, Hawaiian, Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese were gradually added to the mix. While pidgin languages usually draw most of their vocabulary from the prestige language, or colonising culture, unusually, in the case of Chinook Wawa, two thirds of the language is Chinook and Nuu-chah-nulth with the rest being made up mostly of English and French.

In my humble opinion? In my honest opinion? Alexis Madrigal, the author, suggests how the dueling dual definitions came to be: "I'd say that IMHO, which developed as a way to reduce miscommunication through the indication of a lighthearted, ironic tone, became itself a form of miscommunication, as those unfamiliar with the original meaning backed into one, inserting honesty where humility once stood. IMHO, there is no debate. But it's the internet, so of course there is a debate."

With police brutality recently becoming a prominent topic in the political world, linguists are trying to find the link between police language used during these incidents and the incidents themselves. In the study, they analyzed police scanner transcripts and examined police communication ramifications. The goal of this ongoing study is to infer what the police officer is thinking and assuming at the time of the incident.