The Didactic Presentation on The Degradation of Verbal Interchange Due to The Persistent Use of Interaction-Collaboration-Inhibiting Terminology Neesath Shah Weikang Sun Clesson AP Lang – 9 2/7/2008 Jargon

What is Jargon? “Meaningless, incoherent, and nonsensical gibberish, characterized by abstract and pretentious language” Jargon is everywhere:  Medical Science  Law  Business  Government  Publicity

Characteristics of Jargon Using many words when one will do A preference for abstract nouns Excessive use of Latin or Greek prefixes Use of stock phrases Euphemisms Clichés Use of the passive voice Noun strings

Effects of Jargon Makes people seem powerful & influential Gives false ideas Manipulates or covers the truth Will corrupt the minds of people who use it

Jargon & 1984 Newspeak: meanings of words are restricted and often changed Doublethink: accepting two different beliefs at the same time The Party: controlled the people through reality distortion

Jargon & Language Awareness Speech codes enacted, but removed due to restriction in 1 st Amendment  Jargon pushes language to its limit without violating any rights Doublespeak: language used to deceive, usually through concealment of truth  Jargon manipulates the speaker’s ideas and covers up problems

m/watch?v=5hwuOA_p fAM Jargon in Politics Politicians often use jargon  Hillary Clinton Campaign Video:Video  Used jargon to evade question  Her plan is to ask for a plan

Dentistry Dentists often say phrases like:  “3MOD”  “5OD”  “13MFD” Number corresponds to tooth Letter refers to relative position of cavity on tooth

Scientific Research “In vitro effects of macrolide clarithromycin (CAM) on influenza A virus-infected cells were examined using plaque reduction assay by treating cells either before or after viral adsorption. The significant inhibitory effect on influenza virus infection was detected only when the cells were treated with CAM after viral adsorption. The predominant inhibitory effect was observed during 4-7th hour after viral adsorption using viral production assay. CAM did not exhibit inhibitory effects on influenza virus hemagglutination, membrane fusion and viral sialidase activities. These findings indicate that CAM acts on a middle to late stage of the viral replication cycle resulting in inhibition of progeny virus production from the infected cells.” = “Antibiotics stop the flu virus from spreading in humans.”

Media & Sports Post-Match Conferences  Losing Teams: “Our defense was poor” or “we tried a few new strategies”  Winning Teams: “They played well in the first half” or “They stayed with us” Steroids  “I never used performance-enhancing drugs”

Online Messaging , IM, Text Messaging  “lol”  “g2g”  “ttyl”  “lmao” Shortcuts and poor grammar

U-High AP Chemistry Laboratory  “Partial Thermal Degradation of Mixed Saccharides with Protein Inclusions” =  “Making Peanut Brittle” Turn anything into scientific jargon

Impact of Jargon Jargon is evident in languages of all professions Language is not at fault The people are to blame The conscious effort of the individual writer will make the greatest impact on eliminating jargon