this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2024
947 points (98.6% liked)

Science Memes

10454 readers
2824 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.


Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Jargon is only legitimate when it clarifies more than plain English. If it does, fine, use it.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 3 days ago

exactly, i've noticed some people on youtube can be REALLY good at this, like Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong for example. Just introduce your jargon the first time it's used and put up a little explanation every time afterward.

[–] huginn@feddit.it 2 points 5 days ago

Every single word in the original post clarifies more than plain English. It is more specific and has better nuance than a plain translation.

That doesn't make it a useful explanation because the audience of the statement is not the in-group using the jargon.

One part of my daily job is translating "technical" into "manager". The translation always loses fidelity to the original. Jargon exists because it's useful, not because there's a deliberate attempt to keep others out. Some will then use it as a shibboleth but that does not mean it's original purpose was such.

For what it's worth: that's true of all translations. I've done real time translation from Italian into English and it's always missing the nuance of the original. I've read the divine comedy in English and Italian and the English is always missing the context and nuance.

Language is an abstract representation of concepts and never maps faithfully.