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Plastic words : the tyranny of a modular language
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Plastic words : the tyranny of a modular language

Auteur : Uwe Pörksen
Éditeur : University Park, Pa. : Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
Édition/format : Livre : AnglaisVoir toutes les éditions et les formats
Résumé :
"Development." "Project." "Strategy." "Problem." These words are examples of what German writer and linguist Uwe Poerksen calls "plastic words" because of their malleability and the uncanny way they are used to fit every circumstance. All told, they probably number no more than thirty or forty, but their usage is widespread. At first they seem marvelously versatile, but in reality they are slippery and elusive,
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Détails

Type de document : Livre
Tous les auteurs / collaborateurs : Uwe Pörksen
ISBN : 0271014768 : 9780271014760
Numéro OCLC : 31740313
Description : xviii, 116 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Contenu : 1. Plastic Words on Both Sides of the Elbe -- 2. Are Plastic Words a New Class of Words? -- 3. Plastic Words as Building Blocks of New Models of Reality -- 4. Experts as Functionaries Who Make Reality -- 5. The Mathematization of the Vernacular -- Appendix: Characteristics of Plastic Words.
Autres titres : Plastikwörter.
Responsabilité : Uwe Poerksen ; translated by Jutta Mason and David Cayley.

Résumé :

"Development." "Project." "Strategy." "Problem." These words are examples of what German writer and linguist Uwe Poerksen calls "plastic words" because of their malleability and the uncanny way they are used to fit every circumstance. All told, they probably number no more than thirty or forty, but their usage is widespread. At first they seem marvelously versatile, but in reality they are slippery and elusive, making it impossible to pin down their meaning. And therefore, Poerksen suggests, they are dangerous.

According to Poerksen, plastic words began as scientific terms with highly specialized meanings. Many had been imported to the sciences from the vernacular languages of English, German, Spanish, and French, but he finds that in recent decades they have migrated back into the vernacular - stripped of their specialized meanings. They displace more precise words with words that sound scientific but actually blur meaning and disable common language. In the mouths of society's experts - politicians, professors, corporate officials - they become the building blocks for plans and solutions that may seem utopian but that end up impoverishing the world. Plastic Words is a translation of the remarkably successful book first published in Germany in 1988. For the English-language edition, Poerksen has added a new preface, explaining the origin of the book and addressing the spirited public debate it has spawned.

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