Jargon
How Jargons Can Pose Barrier in Communication
Jargon is a specialized or technical language that is used in a particular context usually by a particular profession, trade, science or academic field, and may not be well understood by members of another profession or people outside the profession.
Jargon differs from verbose language, or unnecessarily roundabout expression.
It does not simply refer to any incomprehensible writing, but to the specific technical terms within a discipline.
Thus, jargon serves the purpose of allowing the author to communicate both concisely and effectively within a disciplinary audience.
In organizationsOpens in new window, when people with different patterns of speech who comes from different backgrounds are grouped into departments, they tend to develop their own technical knowledge.
The word they use in expressing such technical knowledge is what is called jargon.
Jargon can also mean clumsy language that is hard to understand. It is synonymous with gibberish.
Jargons are difficult for others to understand, for example, a person in a discipline of law may not understand a jargon used in the medical field and vice-versa.
Jargon should be avoided in any format of communication unless it is meant for the particular audience being addressed.
Examples of Jargon in Business Management
Jargon is used in the business world, some of which are as follows:
1. Accretive
This refers to earnings that result from an acquisition of a business that add to the earnings per share (EPS) as opposed to losses that would dilute the EPS.
2. Angels
Angel investors are successful entrepreneurs who are willing to invest some of their gains in new ventures. They typically also act as mentors to the founding entrepreneurs.
3. Basis point
This refers to one hundredth of 1 per unit; used in interest rates or exchange rates.
4. Bootsrapping
In business, this term refers to the process of financing a business by internally generated cash flow as opposed to “kickstarting” the company with external investment capital.
5. Bubble junkie
Those entrepreneurs who were caught up in the 1999 – 2000 euphoria surrounding internet stock deals.
6. Cramdown
This consists when investors get heavily diluted by a subsequent round of investment especially when the investment is down. It is also know as a ‘washout’.
7. Engineering economics
It is the analysis of various financial alternatives usually based on time value of money concepts and formulas, to determine the most effective solution from an economical (i.e. the lowest cost) perspective.
Jargon can be distinguished from the rest of a language based in its special vocabulary which is made up of specific words— words that convey different meanings that someone outside the group would tend to take in another sense, which often results in miscommunication.
Jargon is thus the technical terminology or characteristic idiom of a special activity or group.
This is sometimes called association or insider jargon. This helps in identifying those who are a part of the group and those who are not.
Furthermore, since outsiders may not understand the reference associated with a jargon, they are even more sensitive to the visibly exclusive social grouping based on it.
Jargon may be perceived as obscure, and the user may appear as someone flaunting style and unconnected from meaning to outsiders.