Jargon: Its Uses and Abuses (The Language Library) - Hardcover

Nash, Walter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 063118063X ISBN 13: 9780631180630

Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell, 1993

Synopsis

Part essay, part discursive dictionary, this is an account and critique of the presence of jargon in our culture, speech and literature. It 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, journalisitc, commercial and technical settings; and changes in useage and attitudes to useage over time. It incorporates a selective and sometimes satirical ′devil′s dictionary′ of jargon today.

About this title

About the Author

Walter Nash has taught English and Linguistics at a number of universities and colleges in Great Britain and Europe, and has particular interests in composition, usage, sylistics, and the nature of literary language.

From the Back Cover

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", 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley–Blackwell
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 063118063X
• ISBN 13: 9780631180630
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224