Jargon: Its Uses and Abuses(Language Library)

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface.Part I:1. Introduction.2. A Jargoning Taxonomy.3. Elements of Jargon.4. Building the Repertoire.5. Jargons of Production.6. "Emerging Blankness." 7. Jargon and Literary Creativity.8. Movers and Shakers. Notes. Part II:Postscriptual and Biographical Note.Index.

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.

Review :
"An essential companion for those whose bottom line is a whole raft of shop soiled cliches which at the end of the day leave a credibility gap." Sir Randolph Quirk "Nash has good communication skills, a relevant and valid approach in terms of his conceptual framework, and as such, at this moment in time, he has authored a book that blows the whistle on the credibility problem of language abuse, and used humour-driven discourse to help define a totally accessible level playing field with no barrier to entry. What more could anyone want?" The Independent "Nash's elegantly performed dissection is difficult to summarise, since he often strays (profitably) into the by-ways that diverge from his three main itineraries. But a good half of his book is devoted to a select glossary for those who prefer concrete example, precisely parsed, to theoretical analysis. Pulses with vulgar life." Irish Times "A delightful yet informative book.""This book has a light-hearted, witty tone that makes it enjoyable to read, but it will prove informative for both the layperson and the professional. Essential for undergraduate libraries and highly recommended for all other libraries." American Library Association