Language Varieties - Occupation Flashcards
Language and Medicine - MEDICAL JARGON
Medical terms enter the language because new diseases, treatments are discovered.
INCLUDES:
1) Initialisms – MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)
2) Eponyms - medical terms named after the person who discovered the disease e.g. Tourette syndrome
Language and Medicine - EUPHEMISMS & ANTI-LANGUAGE
EUPHEMISMS INCLUDE:
1) Hard of hearing – deaf
2) Long illness - cancer
ANTI-LANGUAGE INCLUDES:
1) ‘10th floor transfer’ instead of ‘dying’
2) ‘killing fields’ means the ward where patients go to die
Language and Medicine - THEORIES
DAVID CRYSTAL - initialisms and acronyms in the workplace are linguistically economic as they allow employees to get work done quickly –> especially useful in high-stress, low-time occupations (e.g. doctors + MRI)
POLITENESS: 2019 study by Canadian Centre of Science and Education:
1) Most of the patients’ annoyance and complaints are observed due to the communication gap found in the doctors-patients discourse
2) 3h convo was recorded with 30 participants of doctors and patients
3) Study found that doctors like to exert their power and dominance through using technical jargon which showed complaints from patients due to communication gap WHEREAS there was more satisfaction from patients when their doctors used informal language instead of jargon
Language and Military - MILITARY JARGON
Human intelligence - intelligence gathered through people
Ambush - carrying out a surprise attack on an enemy
Scuttling - the deliberate destruction of a ship to prevent its capture and use by an enemy.
Language and Military - MILITARY SLANG
The conditions within the military are a perfect breeding ground for slang:
1) Chest Candy – Slang for ribbons and medals worn on a uniform
2) Dear John– Common term referring to a significant other breaking up with a service member through a letter.
3) Long Pig– Slang for when a human being is used as a source of food.
Language and Military - THEORIES
SLANG IN ARMED FORCES, COLEMAN 2012:
1) They use slang as they are all living under shared circumstances of inferiority and uniformity therefore it gives them a sense of group identity as well as self-expression
DIGLOSSIC COMMUNITIES, CHARLES FERGUSON 1959:
1) the coexistence of two varieties of the same language throughout a community –> military is seen as a diglossic community
Language and Law - FEATURES OF LEGALESE
Lexis borrowed from Latin – quasi, bona fide
Archaic lexis – herewith, hereinafter, hereby
Complex sentence constructions - null and void
Euphemisms – act of God
Language and Law - THEORIES
DONNA BAIN BUTLER –> claims that poor legal writing is cluttered, wordy, indirect and uses unnecessary technical words and phrases
WILLIAM O’BARR AND BOWMAN ATKINS:
1) language differences are situation-specific, relying on who has the authority and power in a conversation, rather than the gender of the people involved –> E.G. a female judge would have authority over male victim
