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Officialese

Language that sounds official

Language that sounds official

Officialese, bureaucratese, or governmentese is language that sounds official. It is the "language of officialdom". Officialese is characterized by a preference for wordy, long sentences; complex words, code words, or buzzwords over simple, traditional ones; vagueness over directness; and passive over active voice (some of those elements may, however, vary between different times and languages). The history of officialese can be traced to the history of officialdom, as far back as the eldest human civilizations and their surviving official writings.

Officialese is meant to impress the listener (or reader) and increase the authority (more than the social status) of the user, making them appear more professional. Ernest Gowers noted that officialese also allows the user to remain vague. It can be used to make oneself understood to insiders while being hard to decipher by those unfamiliar with the jargon and subtexts used. Its use is known to put off members of the general public and reduce their interest in the material presented. Officialese has been criticized as making one's speech or prose "stilted, convoluted, and sometimes even indecipherable"; or simply as the "cancer of language". It is thus more pejoratively classified as one of the types of gobbledygook. Its use can also result in unintended humorous incidents, and has been often satirized.

Several similar concepts to officialese exist, including genteelism, commercialese, academese, and journalese. The existence of officialese has been recognized by a number of organizations, which have made attempts to curtail its use in favour of plain language.

References

References

  1. Bryan A. Garner. (28 July 2009). "[[Garner's Modern American Usage]]". Oxford University Press.
  2. Barbara Czarniawska. (15 April 1997). "Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity". University of Chicago Press.
  3. Steven Roger Fischer. (3 October 2004). "History of Language". Reaktion Books.
  4. Bryan A. Garner. (17 May 2001). "A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage". Oxford University Press.
  5. (31 March 2009). "[[Garner on Language and Writing]]". American Bar Association.
  6. V.S. Gupta. (1 January 2003). "Handbook Of Reporting And Communication Skills". Concept Publishing Company.
  7. Talke Klara Hoppmann. (18 March 2010). "Citizen Perceptions of the European Union: The Impact of the Eu Web Site". Cambria Press.
  8. Martin Manser. (28 August 2011). "Good Word Guide: The fast way to correct English - spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage". A&C Black.
  9. J. Renkema. (2004). "Introduction to Discourse Studies". John Benjamins Publishing.
  10. Olivia Stockard. (8 June 2011). "The Write Approach: Techniques for Effective Business Writing". Emerald Group Publishing.
  11. Christopher Williams. (30 June 2007). "Tradition and Change in Legal English: Verbal Constructions in Prescriptive Texts". Peter Lang.
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