Jargon and Its Siblings or You Thought One Dictionary Was All You'd Need

1 Conversation

The science and art of linguistics (and it clearly is both) notices that to every language there is the language itself and there are the results of people using it.  This is because of a fundamental and necessary characteristic of language; it must remain non-specific in order to be useful for communication.  Most of the words of any languge have very flexible meanings which can vary by usage, situation, and history.  This, of course, is the bane of every lexicographer1.  If you have any doubts go to any decent dictionary and look up the word the.2  Are you all back?  Good.

The is a very old word as far at the English language goes and it is very much a part of our speech, so it is not that surprising that it has acquired so many meanings and uses.  Of course, knowing that it was one of the most complicated words in English didn't have any influence on it being selected as an example (of course not.)  However, the word a is even more complex.  Are those of you who didn't check the definition of a on the first trip, back?  Good.

It should go without saying then, that words may not mean the same to you as they do to the person you are speaking with.  It is one of the poorly understood wonders of our day that, in spite of this, we still manage to communicate reasonably well.

If our goals are different, if we require more or less precision, or if we have special needs, every language has mechanisms that allow us to attempt to provide for that need.  Linguists recognize four main classes of specialized language use:  cant or argot, slang, dialect, and jargon.  Jargon will be our main focus here but it is important to distinguish it from its siblings.

Cant or Argot

Cant (Americans tend to use the word argot) is generally described as a class of vocabulary that is deliberately unknowable to anyone who has not been trained in its meaning.3  The classic example is criminal cant: the source for such words as gang, mob, gat, heater, caper, fuzz, copper or cop, ice, and heist.  The intent behind such cants is to permit members of these groups to be able to talk together in public without being understood by outsiders.

You may by now be saying to yourself that you already know what these words mean and that they hold no mystery for you.  This is a real problem for users of cant, as you might well imagine.  It is necessary for the meaning of the cant words to be known to the members of the group.  The cant words become part of their everyday speech.  As things progress, the cant becomes known to larger and larger groups of people, some of whom aren't criminals or, sometimes, it is deliberately exposed (as in gangster movies), and so passes into general usage, largely, one suspects, because of its novelty and, often, because it is quickly adopted as slang.

Slang

Slang, while often obscure, or even incomprehensible to those outside of the group using it, is intended to set a group of speakers apart from others.  Youth slang is by far the most common example of this sort of thing.  Children or, more often, teenagers will commonly take ordinary concepts and rename them, partially as a kind of cant, but primarily to set themselves apart from adults and to further unite themselves.

It's not at all uncommon that the choices for slang words would be made to deliberately aggravate and taunt those the members regard as outsiders or enemies.  For this reason, sources for slang words or phrases are often taken from criminal or near-criminal sub-cultures, these having been already marked out as enemies of the target culture, on the firm, if dubious, principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.4  Other sources for slang are more deliberate, chosen with an eye to wit and contrast.

Examples of slang words and phrases are hip, cool, bad, sucker, jerk, greasy spoon, butchers, and shotgun wedding. Again, all of these are probably familiar to you.  Particularly in the case of teens, it is natural that members leave the groups or grow out of them, with the result that these words naturally pass into the language as their meaning becomes more commonly known, and not without a touch of the old animosity.

Dialect

It is becoming less the case today, but in the past it was not at all uncommon for unique vocabularies to spring up in areas where communication was limited.  This can be seen where people from different cities and towns seem to have their own unique way of talking about things common in both locations.  Dialects can also be seen in situations where communication is limited because of class distinction or ethnic separation.

Classic examples of dialect can be seen in the words pancake, flapjack, griddlecake, battercake, and hotcake all of which mean the same thing but orignate in distinct geographic areas.  Some commonly known dialect word pairs are lift and elevator, spanner and wrench, biro and ballpoint, boot and trunk, on queue and in line, bird and chick, and bloke and guy all of which are or have been in common usage in the UK and the US, respectively; all of which probably started out as slang and may still be considered such in some circles.

Wherever there is a source of standardization, those standards usually lag behind common practice.  Linguists and writers, for that matter, are generally more pragmatic than lexicographers so these sorts of things often make it into the literature before they find their way into dictionaries.

Jargon

Jargon develops, partially, in the same way that slang does, that is, to distinguish a particular group, but, largely, because a need exists to talk about things in very precise ways.

For instance, lawyers or solicitors, barristers, and judges are charged with making contracts and settling very fine points of law.  They are a very learned profession and to some extent the language of the law is designed to set the legal profession apart from everyone else.  But, more importantly, it quickly became obvious to the legal profession that the ordinary language was simply too imprecise to be able to argue causes and obligations.

The result was a very carefully designed set of definitions and conventions which set forth the precise meaning of nearly every word in a legal document.  And, wherever possible, they would use standardized agreements which have already been tried and proved.  This, ideally leaves nothing to be argued but the intent and validity of contested agreements or violated laws.  Read out of context, a legal document cannot help but seem overly elaborate and unnecessarily obscure.  But, while the language of law is English, it was never intended to be conversational.

Very Nice But . . .

. . . Why should you care?  The reason is very simple.  It is perfectly acceptable and almost inevitable that the words of a particular jargon will not mean the same as the same word used in another.  And, even worse, it is not likely to mean the same as that word when it is used as part of common speech.

If you are telling yourself, no, now that you have been warned, you will take the proper precautions, you had better read on.  The rest of you, who are undoubtedly here out of an inate desire to stretch your minds, settle back and get comfortable.

Consider first a very simple example: the words crazy, insane, psychotic, and psycho, all heard commonly in daily speech.  In most dictionaries which present common usage, these words are all given substantially the same meanings, frequently refering to each other.  And, this is true . . . for common usage.  But if you are reading or if you are speaking with someone whom you do not know, you should realize that crazy is a jazz term meaning exciting, insane is a legal term meaning incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong, psychotic is a psychological term meaning that the patients emotional and cognitive functions appear to have little or no causal relationship with the world around him, and psycho is a term for a paying customer who expects specific sexual favors from prostitutes.  So, you may not be hearing what you think you are.

These are only superficial problems though because when dealing with single words in a language that is normally and essentially ambiguous, we are experienced in noticing when what we hear doesn't seem to fit the context of the conversation.

1 + 1 = 10

Another and more troubling example lies in the area of mathematics.  We have been trained in math from a relatively early age so many of us, and many dictionaries, do not distinguish between the terms that we use in daily life and the terms we were taught to use for mathematical operations.  There are times, for instance, when we might say, that one and one is two, or one and one equals two, or one plus one is two.  And by all of these we mean to say, 1 + 1 = 2.5  The odds are that in ordinary conversation we would not notice which of these expressions was being used.  So, what are you to think when you overhear someone saying that thirteen and two equals zero?  Would you instantly say, "Aha!  They are talking about the binary AND of thirteen and two!"6

To take this one step farther, imagine that you are in a discussion with a friend of yours.  She is a professional mathematician.  You have had a wide, ranging discussion over a bottle of wine when you suddenly notice that she's talking about the difference between the world viewed from both real and imaginary perspectives. that the world when viewed as complex is a very different place than when it is simply real, that when you add in the irrational, even complex things become even more difficult and interesting.

If the wine bottle is more than half empty,7 your safest bet would probably be to reply, "Erm, sure."  And, simply let it go past.  But, let's assume that the evening is early and you really want to get in on this.  Perhaps, you might say that you think the irrational or imaginary shouldn't be mixed up with the real, that they are separate ways of looking at things and should be kept that way.  You may well be on your way to a thrilling discussion till you realize that you are talking about two totally different subjects.  To a mathematician, deliberately talking at a level where a non-mathematician might keep up with her, real refers to the real number system, imaginary refers to the square root of minus one, complex refers to numbers that have real and imaginary parts, and irrational refers to numbers which cannot be described as the result, sorry, the quotient8of an integer divided by another integer.9

If you think this example is contrived, you are right.  It is, of course, to make a point.  But, if you believe that this problem is trivial then consider for a moment the definition of division.

The electronic version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary lists nineteen distinct definitions for division in eleven categories.  Only one of the definitions refers to "the mathematical operation of dividing something." The others range from the act of separating things into parts, to describing things that have been separated, to military organizational practices, to botanical usage, and, finally, to sports organizations.10  It seems clear that the arithmetical usage came long after the word was in use in English for more common activities.

Our confusion over the use and definition of these terms is further complicated because, during our education in mathematics, we were seldom told that the definitions we were being given only applied to mathematic calculations.  If we were confused, and which of us weren't, we simply filed all these things in a special category labeled Horrid Stuff, tucked it in the back of our minds till it was forced out in quizzes and tests, and ran out to play ball.11  Consider that at that tender age, you had recognized and categorized one of the first systematic jargons in your life that didn't concern itself with play.

It would not be until much later that you found some, at least, of the concepts of mathematics to be useful for what you had to get done.12

By then, you were well into the one and one is two stage and, in any case, the dictionary will seldom tell you that the word you think you know is part of a specialized vocabulary as well as meaning what you think it is.  You may very well have wondered, at some point, why the Army calls their little groupie-things after an operation in arithmetic.  The result of all this is that many of us have never been confronted with the relative nature of our language and will often argue vehemently against that concept.

This problem becomes even more of an issue when we find ourselves involved in philosophical discussions where words may be redefined at the start of every session and be progressively changed as points and discoveries are made.  People who are not familiar with this sort of ad hoc jargon creation, may begin to feel that things and concepts that they felt very comfortable with are suddenly very strange and unmanageable.  In some cases, they can become very angry, feeling that things they have understood all their lives seem to be being mocked or challenged

Two Things You should Never Discuss With Your Wife. . .

One of the areas where this may most easily be seen comes about when ordinary people sit down to discuss religious or political issues.  Assuming they avoid coming to blows, they will most likely resolve never to do such a thing again, at least not with such an ignorant bloke as that one. 

The problem lies on two levels with religion.  The first and most obvious problem is that religious matters have to do with issues of faith and faith is not rational no matter how rational the person with faith may otherwise be.

The reason that concerns us here though, is that clergy of organized religions have been discussing the issues of their various beliefs since their religion was born, created, diverged, schismed, or whatever led to the existence of that faith.  Naturally, like any experts, these clergy began to formulate a very precise jargon that permitted them to know that they were saying and to be able to say what they meant to say.  Some of that jargon, inevitably, made its way into the liturgy and lives of the practicing members.

To make matters worse, some of this vocabulary was deliberately designed to draw hair fine distinctions between their faith and another to which they were in direct opposition. This generally meant that even certain clergy could easily become confused; hence the word heretic.

Needless, to say,13 it is nearly impossible for ordinary folk to have an intelligent conversation about religion.  Most people have very little language in common that relates to religion.  What ordinary language they can use, more often than not, has been tainted by their clergy when they used it to define the meaning of the very words in dispute for their congregations.

. . . Her Mother and Your First Sweetheart

Politics presents another instance where people are prevented from holding cogent discussions by the vocabulary being used and defined by the opposing parties.  There is little point speculating whether this confusion is deliberate or not, but the fact of the matter is, that a little objectivity and good will,14 will let us proceed. 

Setting aside the issue of faith when it comes to political judgments,15 every political party wants to speak to as many of the people as it can reach and to convince that same group that its position is the only one that can get the job done.

In order to do this, the politicians are constantly looking for new, fresh sounding ways to say what they and their party have been saying since the figurative dawn of time.  They must also try to say it in such a way that they will sound reasonable to their own people but particularly reasonable to those people of the other party, who might be induced to cross the aisle, be they elected officials or voters charged with those officials elections.

It is possible to say, with only minimum malice, that there is a certain deliberate effort on politicians' part to confuse everyone involved, by redefining common words and phrases, preferably such that have been used, or are expected to be used, by the opposing party.  For instance, in the United States, this is known as telling it the way it is or, alternately, putting the right spin on it.16  When coupled with suitably obscure values for statistics whose true value won't be known for years, it becomes nearly impossible for anyone to have an intelligent conversation on the topics in question, particularly so for the political candidates themselves. 

Gimme Two Staring on a Stack Floating and Two Squealers, Dead.

In this way, it should become clear, even from these few examples, that while you may know what you were saying, it doesn't follow that the other fellow caught one word in five.  And, it isn't necessarily because you can't think in less than five syllables to the other chum's two or arsey versy.  It isn't necessary to consider only doctors, lawyers, scientists, and mathematicians.  The butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker each have a specialized vocabulary and they might forget that you can make neither hide nor hair of it.

As you walk about the streets, listen to what is being said around you, particularly when the people are dressed the same but differently than you are.  Stand outside an off-track betting parlor.  Stand near a police station. Idle near a beauty parlor, theatre, or rehearsal hall.  Really listen as your waitress calls out your order to the cook.  (Didn't you just order two eggs sunny-side up, pancakes with extra syrup and an order of sausage, well done?)

Remember that each of us uses language differently than the other because, for each of us, the language is different. It may even change while you speak, depending on what you are talking about and who you are talking to.  So, the next time you wonder how your attention could have wandered that far away from the discussion, don't be afraid to ask, 'Did you really say what I thought you just said?'

1Lexicography is the study of words and the creation of dictionaries.2Go ahead and do it, you probably never looked it up before.3Cant is, in fact, a kind of code (as opposed to a cipher) except that it is more widely known than a cryptographer would care for one to be and it is not so deliberately and totally inscrutable.

A code is a set of words or numbers which are substituted for other words by the use of a kind of dictionary.  Preferably there is no detectable reason why one word is replaced by another.  A code dictionary might direct you to replace the use of the word west with golf ball.

A cipher, on the other hand, is a set of rules which allows for the parts of a message to be replaced with others that have no connection to their meaning.  A simple cipher would be to replace every letter with the one that follows four letters after it in the alphabet.
4For that matter, these two kinds of sub-cultures often intermix for the same reason.5Note that in binary notation, 1 + 1 = 10, which may be spoken as one plus one equals two.6There will be no discussion here of the binary AND operation.  Check out Boolean Algebra.7Wine bottles are never half full, this is a fundamental rule of alcohol mensuration.8The quotient is the number resulting from the division of one number by another number.  Equally technical definitions include, a ratio usually multiplied by 100 used for evaluating test scores, and the proportional part of a share in tax law.9For excellent definitions of these math terms see Numbers.10
di.vi.sion n 
1 a: the act or process of dividing:
the state of being divided
b: the act, process, or an instance
of distributing among a number:
distribution
c: a method of arranging or disposing
(as troops)
2: one of the parts or groupings into
which a whole is divided or is divisible
3: the condition or an instance of being
divided in opinion or interest:
disagreement, disunity [exploited the
divisions between the two countries]
4 a: something that divides, separates,
or marks off
b: the act, process, or an instance of
separating or keeping apart: separation
5: the mathematical operation of dividing
something
6 a: a self-contained major military unit
capable of independent action
b: a tactical military unit composed of
headquarters and usually three to five
brigades
c (1): the basic naval administrative unit
(2): a tactical subdivision of a
squadron of ships
d: a unit of the U.S. Air Force higher than
a wing and lower than an air force
7 a: a portion of a territorial unit marked
off for a particular purpose (as
administrative or judicial functions)
b: an administrative or operating unit of a
governmental, business, or
educational organization
8: the physical separation into different
lobbies of the members of a
parliamentary body voting for and against
a question
9: plant propagation by dividing parts and
planting segments capable of producing
roots and shoots
10: a group of organisms forming part of a
larger group; specifically: a primary
category of the plant kingdom
11: a competitive class or category (as in
boxing or wrestling)
11Consider for a moment all the jargon you know that goes with your sport of choice.  How many of those terms mean entirely different things than they mean outside of the game?  How many of us have felt that we were waxing poetic when we developed an extended metaphor based around the concepts of sport and how it relates to life?  How many Brits are tired of hearing Yanks say, "Sticky wicket, eh, what?"  How many Yanks have any idea what a wicket is?12Can you remember wondering why anyone would ever want to work a story problem?13You will note that, that phrase never stops something from being said.14In short supply when it comes to politics.15Please don't laugh that loud, you'll wake the others up.  Was it faith and political in the same clause or was it the phrase political judgement?16In baseball, the pitcher can cause the ball fall, rise, or curve to one side or the other by the way he grips and throws . . . oh, never mind. Just pretend it says, Bowl him a googly!

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Infinite Improbability Drive

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