February 5, 2003

 

Jargon & Grammar

Some typical grammatical characteristics of "jargony" registers:

Complexity

Noun phrases

A "noun phrase" is a noun together with other words that modify it. (The "main" noun in the noun phrase is called its "head".) The modifiers can be of several types (adjectives, possessors, nouns, and even other noun phrases).

From the Geneva Convention

ARTICLE 4 A. Prisoners of war, in the sense of the present Convention, are persons belonging to one of the following categories, who have fallen into the power of the enemy:

(1) Members of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict, as well as members of militias or volunteer corps forming part of such armed forces.

(2) Members of other militias and members of other volunteer corps, including those of organized resistance movements, belonging to a Party to the conflict and operating in or outside their own territory, even if this territory is occupied, provided that such militias or volunteer corps, including such organized resistance movements, fulfil the following conditions: (a) that of being commanded by a person responsible for his subordinates; (b) that of having a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance; (c) that of carrying arms openly; (d) that of conducting their operations in accordance with the laws and customs of war.

(3) Members of regular armed forces who profess allegiance to a government or an authority not recognized by the Detaining Power.

(4) Persons who accompany the armed forces without actually being members thereof, such as civilian members of military aircraft crews, war correspondents, supply contractors, members of labour units or of services responsible for the welfare of the armed forces, provided that they have received authorization, from the armed forces which they accompany, who shall provide them for that purpose with an identity card similar to the annexed model.

(5) Members of crews, including masters, pilots and apprentices, of the merchant marine and the crews of civil aircraft of the Parties to the conflict, who do not benefit by more favourable treatment under any other provisions of international law.

(6) Inhabitants of a non-occupied territory, who on the approach of the enemy spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to form themselves into regular armed units, provided they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war

Sentences

Sentences in jargony registers tend to be long and to contain many subordinate clauses. See example under "pronoun avoidance" (the paragraph is one long sentence).

Pronoun avoidance
Pronoun: a word that "stands for" a noun phrase.

Singular
Plural
Subject
Object
Subject
Object
First person (speaker) I me we us
Second person (hearer) you you you you
Third person (other) he, she, it him, her, it they them

Typically we use a pronoun to refer to a person or thing that has been recently mentioned: "When Jill got home, she sat down with the paper. After she had read it, she made dinner."

Third person pronouns are inherently vague: they don't have a clear referent. Therefore, legalese in particular tends to avoid third person pronouns.

In the following passage, it would be natural (after the first mention) to refer to the television equipment as "it" and to the owners as "they/them".

The television equipment (herein referred to as the Equipment) shall remain the sole and absolute property of the Owners and the Renter shall not sell, assign, pledge, underlet, lend or otherwise deal with or part with possession of the Equipment and shall not without the Owners' consent remove the Equipment from the installation address set out overleaf or from such other address as the Owners may from time to time consent to and will protect the Equipment against distress, execution, poinding, landlord's sequestration and any manner of seizure and indemnify the Owners against all losses, costs, charges, damages and expenses incurred by the Owners by reason of or in respect thereof.

Many styles of academic writing avoid first and second person pronouns, apparently in order to sound more "objective":

Two strategies that can help with pronoun avoidance are "nominalization" and "agentless passive".

Nominalization

Nominalization means turning a verb, adjective or other word into a noun. Nominalization in English is highly irregular; there are many different suffixes (most borrowed from Latin) and other kinds of changes associated with nominalization.

Sometimes there is no change at all:

Nouns can also be used as verbs ("verbalization"), generally with no change in form:

Nominalization (especially of verbs) is useful in "jargony" registers for a variety of reasons:

That may explain, at least in part, why Saddam suddenly is challenging the no-fly zones. On Monday an Iraqi air defense installation fired at least three surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes in the northern zone, and on Tuesday, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Iraqi planes were flying in the restricted zones.

This challenge of the no-fly zones appears to be part of a broader Iraqi effort to challenge all international restrictions - from the U.N. economic embargo to U.N. disarmament demands - that stem from Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the cease-fire it signed to end the Gulf War.

Agentless passives

A "passive sentence":

Active: Jill ate the peach

Passive: The peach was eaten by Jill

(from the IGERT document):

A brief justification for funds in each budget category should be provided. For shared equipment and special materials, a particular model or source and the current or expected price should be specified whenever possible. A brief explanation of the need for each requested item and of the choice of specified models should be provided. Arrangements for the maintenance and operating expenses of requested equipment should be described. If internships are planned, the willingness to participate of the host organization and of the individual mentors (if known) should be documented.