Understanding Jargon: Types and Usage

• Jargon refers to specialist vocabularies associated with occupations, leisure pursuits, or other purposes.
• Individuals have access to multiple jargons, understood passively or used actively, based on daily life routines.
• Jargon can have a negative connotation when professionals use specialized vocabulary inappropriately to display knowledge or obscure meaning.
• Jargon is often impenetrable to outsiders, accessible mainly to those within a specific group.
• One can become a member of the group by learning and using the jargon appropriately.

Categories of Jargon

• Occupational jargons
• Sports jargons
• Religious language
• "Green" jargon

Dimensions of vocabulary variation

• Historical dimension charts the birth and death of words, but isn't a specialist vocabulary.
• Geographical dimension includes regional dialects and national varieties of English.
• Occupation dimension includes technical and scientific terms and specialized vocabularies for professions, sports, and hobbies.
• Social and cultural groups dimension includes language associated with youth culture, criminal underworld, and internet surfers.
• Formality dimension influences the style of language used (formal vs. informal).

National and Regional Vocabulary

• British and American English
• Antipodean English
• African English
• Indian English
• Other Englishes

British and American English (BrE and AmE)

• The British and American varieties of English account for around 70% of mother-tongue English speakers.
• Americans outnumber British by four to one.
• The USA's political, cultural, and economic dominance means AmE is the dominant variety now.
• Because of American films, TV, and pop music, many AmE words are understood and actively used in BrE, especially by younger speakers.

Differences between British and American English

• Words reflecting cultural differences (no equivalent in the other variety).
• Words variety-specific but with an equivalent (baggage room vs. left luggage office).
• Words with a World English sense plus variety-specific additional senses (caravan, homely).
• Words with a single sense in World English and an equivalent word in either AmE or BrE (ballpoint pen/biro).
• Words with no World English meaning but different meanings in the two varieties (flyover, public school).

Antipodean English

• Australian English was initially influenced by the convict language of early settlers from British jails.
• It also contains underworld slang.
• Australian English has approximately 10,000 distinctive words from various sources.

African English

• Immigration from Britain to Africa began in the early nineteenth century.
• 1South African English (SAE) is a distinct regional variety.
• SAE vocabulary is drawn from Afrikaans, native African languages, and adaptations of English words.

Occupational Jargons

• Medicine and allied professions use jargon based on Latin and Greek neoclassical compounds.
• Examples include -ology words (angiology, enterology, etc.) related to the study of diseased human parts.
• Also, -iatry or -iatrics words (geriatrics, pediatrics, etc.) relate to disease treatment.
• Terms with -gram or -graph (angiogram, audiogram, etc.) relate to measuring bodily functions.
• Terms with -ectomy (hysterectomy, lobectomy, etc.) relate to surgical removal.
• Psychology and psychiatry jargon, derogatorily called 'psychobabble, includes neoclassical words.

Green Jargon

• 'Green' jargon refers to terms developed by the ecology movement.
• This jargon is covered in modern dictionaries.
• 'Environment' is a key subject category with terms like acid rain, alternative energy, biodegradable, etc.

Rastafarian Culture

• Rastafarians are an African-Caribbean community who regard Haile Selassie as an incarnation of God.
• 'Rás Tafari' was Haile Selassie's Aharic title.
• Rastafarians believe the faithful will be taken from the black diaspora out of Babylon (oppressive white society) to Ethiopia.
• The movement began in Jamaica in the 1930s.
• Their language, Afro-Lingua, derives from Jamaican Creole.
• The word most associated with Rastafarianism is 'dread', from the Old Testament word meaning 'fear of the Lord', used to denote a Rastafarian.
• 'Dreadlocks' is the typical Rastafarian hairstyle.
• 'Dread' can also be an adjective meaning 'excellent.

Taboo

• Words labelled 'taboo' are extremely offensive in most contexts.
• They relate to non-technical words for parts of human anatomy and the act of sexual intercourse.