Jargon [French, Prob. Of Imitative Origin]

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1 Language which is inaccessible to non-specialists. Jargon entails an extended and terminologically normalized vocabulary, and correspondingly different uses of morphological rules, e.g. compounds, special prefixed forms, foreign words, technical terms, metaphor are characteristic of jargon ( catachresis). Jargon is often characterized by the nominal style and impersonal constructions in syntax as well as the explicit characteristic of structure and semantic coherence on the level of text, e.g. through connectives, recurrence, and other means of cohesion. General characteristics of modern jargon in technology, science, and government include its standardization over large regions, its exactness and economy in transmitting information and its introduction into the general language, for example into slang or advertising language.

Brennan, R.P. 1992.

Dictionary of scientific literacy. New York.

Nash, W. 1993. Jargon: its uses and abuses. Oxford.

Schröder, H. 1991. Linguistic and text-theoretical research on languages for special purposes: a thematic and bibliographical guide. In H.Schröder (ed.), Subject-oriented texts: languages for special purposes and text theory. Berlin.

UNESCO (ed.) 1961. Bibliography of interlingual scientific and technical dictionaries, 4th edn. Paris.

cliché, slang

2 In neurolinguistics, term referring to fluent but unintelligible utterances, usually those associated with Wernicke’s aphasia. One distinguishes between semantic and phonological jargon: utterances either consist of a meaningless sequence of words, neologisms, and stereotypic coinages (‘semantic jargon’), or the sound sequences themselves, though following the phonotactic rules of the language, do not form conventional sequences (‘phonological jargon’).

Wernicke’s aphasia

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