Doublespeak
Definition
Forms
Examples
D-Speak or Not?
Results
Influence
Detection
Ubiquity
Opposition
References
Links
Examples of Euphemisms
- categorical inaccuracy or terminological inexactitude: a lie
- constructive dismissal, voluntary severance, vocational relocation, or career assignment and relocation: fired or laid off the job
- senior citizen or the chronologically advantaged: old
Examples of Jargon
- organoleptic analysis: the act of smelling something
- fused silicate: glass
- distributionally conservative notions: conservative economic policies
Example of Gobbledygook
Here's a classic piece of gobbledygook from Alan Greenspan. (It's OK to laugh when you read this. As Lutz mentions, if we all laughed at statements such as these, perhaps the people making the statements would be forced to quit.)It is a tricky problem to find the particular calibration in timing that would be appropriate to stem the acceleration in risk premiums created by falling incomes without prematurely aborting the decline in the inflation-generated risk premiums.
Examples of Inflated Language
- negative patient care outcome: the patient died
- mental activity at the margins: insanity
- reutilization marketing yard: junkyard
Example of Mixed Doublespeak
Sometimes the line between euphemism, jargon, and inflated language becomes blurred, as the following paragraph taken from Lutz's Doublespeak shows: Teachers are "educators" these days, or "classroom mangers," or "learning facilitators" who possess effective "instructional delivery skills" which they demonstrate in "microteaching sessions." Teaching is called the "learning process" and learning is called "adjusted behavior." Students don't study, they spend "time on task" in their "learning environment."
Did you know that jargon and euphemism do not always fall under the category of doublespeak? Jump to Doublespeak or Not? for more information.
