Language barriers: universities are becoming factories of jargon and illiteracy

[David Morris]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/article.php3?table=old&section=current&issue=2003-06-14&id=3194

In his essay ‘Politics and the English Language’ (1946), George Orwell laments
the corruption of the English language in postwar society. Everywhere he finds
pompous phrases designed to sound weighty (‘render inoperative’, meaning
‘break’); Latin- or Greek-based words where simpler words will do (‘ameliorate’
for ‘improve’, ‘clandestine’ for ‘secret’); words which have lost their meaning
(‘fascism’, meaning ‘something not desirable’); padding to give an impression
of depth (‘this is a consideration which we should do well to bear in mind’);
clichés (‘ring the changes on’, ‘play into the hands of’, ‘toe the line’,
‘explore every avenue’). Words that give him particular grief include
‘phenomenon’, ‘element’, ‘objective’, ‘categorical’, ‘virtual’, ‘basic’,
‘primary’, ‘promote’, ‘constitute’, ‘exhibit’, ‘exploit’, ‘utilise’. 

Orwell continues, ‘A speaker who uses that kind of phraseology has gone some
distance to turning himself into a machine. The appropriate noises are coming
out of his larynx, but his brain is not involved as it would be if he were
choosing his words for himself.’ It is like ‘having a packet of aspirins always
at one’s elbow’. 


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