Comments on: Jargon http://configures.sarahelkins.org/2007/01/18/jargon/ Figure it out ... with me! Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:42:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: configures http://configures.sarahelkins.org/2007/01/18/jargon/comment-page-1/#comment-8 configures Fri, 19 Jan 2007 14:30:30 +0000 http://www.sarahelkins.org/wordpress/?p=8#comment-8 "I think that jargon does compress (or compile) language and concepts" Compile as in compiling code? Evocative is a good consideration, different from the opening-perspective one I mentioned. “I think that jargon does compress (or compile) language and concepts”

Compile as in compiling code?

Evocative is a good consideration, different from the opening-perspective one I mentioned.

]]> By: Joe McCarthy http://configures.sarahelkins.org/2007/01/18/jargon/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Joe McCarthy Fri, 19 Jan 2007 06:46:36 +0000 http://www.sarahelkins.org/wordpress/?p=8#comment-7 I think that jargon does compress (or compile) language and concepts, and it does tend to create or enlarge distinctions between <a href="http://www.crew.umich.edu/publications/tr_04_02.html" rel="nofollow">in-groups and out-groups</a>. The use of specialized jargon within a complex field simplifies communication among the initiated, but at the cost of making discourse nearly impenetrable by the uninitiated (and thus leading to problems in cross-disciplinary exchanges of ideas). The prospect for a particular piece of jargon to add to the language as a whole has a lot to do with how evocative the concept -- and its particular phrasing -- is to the population as a whole. Er, I don't have high hopes (in that respect) for "kiss shot" or "hog line"... I think that jargon does compress (or compile) language and concepts, and it does tend to create or enlarge distinctions between in-groups and out-groups. The use of specialized jargon within a complex field simplifies communication among the initiated, but at the cost of making discourse nearly impenetrable by the uninitiated (and thus leading to problems in cross-disciplinary exchanges of ideas). The prospect for a particular piece of jargon to add to the language as a whole has a lot to do with how evocative the concept — and its particular phrasing — is to the population as a whole. Er, I don’t have high hopes (in that respect) for “kiss shot” or “hog line”…

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