To me the topic of jargon is a fun one to talk about. Jargon, as the book describes it on page 470, is the use of "specific slang terms".When you come to think about it, jargon is everywhere! We all have our own and many times we even have several "sets" of jargon. As college students, we may even have one for each class and subject.
For example, my course of study is accounting and it definately has its own slang. Terms such as capitalizing, present value, footing, double-entry, notes receivable, etc. are not used much outside of the finance world. Some of these words are used in other areas, but can have entirely different meanings.
For all of us, we can agree that linguistics surely has its own set of technical terms such as phonemes, morphemes, lexicon, etc. It would be hard to know what these meant if hearing them outside of the field or before learning what they meant. Therefore, we can all understand how important it is for us to understand the vocabulary of whatever it is we are doing. Perhaps that is why they say that accounting is the language of business.
An article I found that summarizes some similar ideas is found at http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/1914-/language/jargon.htm. It also contains some points on slang in general.
As a side note, I want to say on my last post that class has been entertaining with you guys. Also, thanks for your comments and for sharing other interesting topics for research. Keep up the good work in your future studies!
Every field of study has its own jargon that comes along. For example, I think i've learned more new terms in my BIO 181 class that I have learned words in my German classes. The same with my dance classes too.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, jargon is fun! It's almost a point of designating culture too. I mean mom's have their own jargon, and if someone doesn't understand what they are talking about, there's almost a feeling of superiority that another mother may have when she does. It's the same with computer jargon etc, knowing the words provides a feeling of belonging I think!
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