Jargon Its Uses and Abuses |
|
| Author:
| Nash, Walter |
| Series title: | The Language Library |
| ISBN: | 978-0-631-18063-0 |
| Publication Date: | Sep 1993 |
| Publisher: | John Wiley & Sons, Limited
|
| Imprint: | Wiley-Blackwell |
| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | AUD $120.00 |
Book Description:
|
Part essay, part discursive dictionary, this is a sharp and funny account of gobbledegook we find everywhere in our culture - in holiday brochures, menus, sports commentaries, not to mention academia. Jargon, Walter Nash shows, is a multi-coloured swap shop: financiers talk like field marshalls, educationists like stockbrokers, politicians like athletes, fast food vendors like romantic novelists.He explores the varieties of language coloured by shop-talk, vogue words, "buzz words",...
More DescriptionPart essay, part discursive dictionary, this is a sharp and funny account of gobbledegook we find everywhere in our culture - in holiday brochures, menus, sports commentaries, not to mention academia. Jargon, Walter Nash shows, is a multi-coloured swap shop: financiers talk like field marshalls, educationists like stockbrokers, politicians like athletes, fast food vendors like romantic novelists.He explores the varieties of language coloured by shop-talk, vogue words, "buzz words", slang, hackneyed phraseology and hard pressed metaphors; the origins of jargon in literary, journalistic, commercial and technical settings; and changes in useage and attitudes to useage over time. He also incorporates a selective and sometimes satirical 'devil's dictionary of jargon today.