The GCSE results came out in England this week. When I took what was then the O Level equivalent I had to take an extra subject because I wanted to study law – Latin.
Fortunately this is no longer a requirement, though I did discover that in the study and practice of the law Latin phrases with a specific legal meaning were quite often used. Lawyers commonly referred in client communications to things like:
“obiter dicta” (literally translated as “something said in passing” but in the legal world that part of a judgement which is not essential to the decision and therefore not legally binding as a precedent); or
“res ipsa loquitor” (literally “the thing speaks for itself” but more grandly taken to mean that mere occurrence can imply negligence).
But how is this going to help a client understand as opposed to maybe seeking to impress them with the esoteric knowledge of the professional?
This is typified by the phrase “lorem ipsum dolor” which I saw as the title of a legal newsletter this week. Looks pretty impressive doesn’t it – those lawyers have got to be good haven’t they?
In fact the phrase is a classic example of meaningless jargon. It does not actually mean anything at all in Latin, though it is attributed in part to a passage by Cicero. Instead it is a term used to make the reader concentrate on and check layout and font, not the meaning of the words. It has been used for this purpose for four centuries.
And this is the danger of jargon. It doesn’t actually mean anything or possibly the wrong thing and in any event is not understood by the recipient, even ironically if they are a Latin scholar.
The writer Ben Aaronovitch once said “There's nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you're making it up as you go along.”
And it’s not just lawyers who are prone to the risks of jargon. I found this article The Dangers Of Hidden Jargon In Communicating Science which concludes that:
When technical definitions hide behind words we use in everyday speech, the opportunities for miscommunication abound. The expert thinks she has been clear; the recipient thinks he has understood. And yet, both could be wrong.
As Kingsman Brewster a distinguished educator and American diplomat said: Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.
Maybe as we professionals come under challenge from artificial intelligence and robotic technology we should heed the lesson and cut out jargon, Latin or otherwise. You can be pretty sure that the robot lawyers of the future which evolve from IBM’s Watson will not be using gratuitous Latin phrases.
Fortunately this is no longer a requirement, though I did discover that in the study and practice of the law Latin phrases with a specific legal meaning were quite often used. Lawyers commonly referred in client communications to things like:
“obiter dicta” (literally translated as “something said in passing” but in the legal world that part of a judgement which is not essential to the decision and therefore not legally binding as a precedent); or
“res ipsa loquitor” (literally “the thing speaks for itself” but more grandly taken to mean that mere occurrence can imply negligence).
But how is this going to help a client understand as opposed to maybe seeking to impress them with the esoteric knowledge of the professional?
This is typified by the phrase “lorem ipsum dolor” which I saw as the title of a legal newsletter this week. Looks pretty impressive doesn’t it – those lawyers have got to be good haven’t they?
In fact the phrase is a classic example of meaningless jargon. It does not actually mean anything at all in Latin, though it is attributed in part to a passage by Cicero. Instead it is a term used to make the reader concentrate on and check layout and font, not the meaning of the words. It has been used for this purpose for four centuries.
And this is the danger of jargon. It doesn’t actually mean anything or possibly the wrong thing and in any event is not understood by the recipient, even ironically if they are a Latin scholar.
The writer Ben Aaronovitch once said “There's nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you're making it up as you go along.”
And it’s not just lawyers who are prone to the risks of jargon. I found this article The Dangers Of Hidden Jargon In Communicating Science which concludes that:
When technical definitions hide behind words we use in everyday speech, the opportunities for miscommunication abound. The expert thinks she has been clear; the recipient thinks he has understood. And yet, both could be wrong.
As Kingsman Brewster a distinguished educator and American diplomat said: Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of a profession.
Maybe as we professionals come under challenge from artificial intelligence and robotic technology we should heed the lesson and cut out jargon, Latin or otherwise. You can be pretty sure that the robot lawyers of the future which evolve from IBM’s Watson will not be using gratuitous Latin phrases.
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