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Jargon |
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After
looking at this activity you may find it useful to do the
activies in 'Buzzwords' and 'Slang'. It is important to bear
in mind that these categories are not rigid and can overlap,
that a word can slip from one to another, and that they are
mainly useful in giving us ways to look at the words of the
recent past and at changing usage and meanings.
We all
need specialist vocabulary to communicate in specific areas
and this can be called jargon, especially by those
who do not understand it.
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What
kinds of jargon do you know?
They
might be musical, mechanical, culinary, scientific,
technological or many others; they might concern an
area of study, a business, a sport, a creative activity…
The list is endless.
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What would be the context for the following warning?
| If
you apply custom formats with the format menu commands
then some of the formats will be overridden if you
choose an alternative command option. |
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Sometimes numbers are part of the jargon. What is being
discussed here?
| The
manager insisted that a 4-4-2 system would provide
better results than the previous 5-2-3 formation. |
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What is the context for this piece of advice?
| By
unhighlighting the autocrossfade, you can modify
fades manually on consecutive tracks. |
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If you
felt at a loss to place any of these examples, then notice
that frustration. This is how jargon can make us feel excluded,
when we are not familiar with it. Watch out for those who
use it on purpose to conceal, deceive or exclude. The key
issue with jargon is how and with whom it is being used.
If
you would still like to know what the three contexts above
were, click on the answer button below:
Sometimes
specialist vocabulary is full of time-saving abbreviations.
An engineer has been known to say,
| 'Here
are the EPU and the MCS required for EFAT prior to the
SIT.' (meaning: Here are the Electrical Power Unit and
the Master Control Station required for Extended Factory
Acceptance Testing prior to the Systems Integration Test).
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This
is efficient and effective communication between colleagues
who understand it all. Beyond that context, the full version
is needed for meaningful communication.
Some
characters in literature demonstrate jargon effectively. When
Mr Barnacle, in Dickens' Little Dorrit, responds to
an enquiry from Mr Clennam as follows, is he trying to inform
or deter?
| 'The
Circumlocution Department, Sir… may have possibly recommended…
that some public claim against the insolvent estate of
a firm or copartnership to which this person may have
belonged, should be enforced. The question may have been,
in the course of official business, referred to the Circumlocution
Department for its consideration. The department may have
either originated, or confirmed, a Minute making that
recommendation.' |
In this
case Mr Clennam persists in his enquiries where others might
have retreated.
We have
all experienced the discomfort of having others share talk
we can only partially follow through not knowing that particular
jargon. But perhaps we all do it sometimes too?
You
now may like to visit the activities in Buzzwords
and Slang.
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