> A lot of it is probably due to humanities (and social science) types
> slavishly imitating the hard sciences -- getting really "technical" to
> prove that they are as smart and as skillful at doing "research" as the
> physicists, chemists, and biologists.
>
> Also, the academic world is by nature a small circle -- advancing your
> career is done by impressing your peers in that circle. The outside world
> has nothing to say about it.
>
> That said, there are of course a number of outstanding exceptions --
> the Chomster comes to mind.
>
>
> Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
Yah like when my epidemeologist friend uses the phrase "coefficient of expansion" instead of the more readily understood phrase "rate of expansion". Don't kid yourself "real" scientists pull the same shit too and for similar reasons. But there are reasons for using specialist languages. In everyday usage the word "exhaust" might do just fine for a layperson to indicate that she is having troubles with her "exhaust". For the mechanic, on the other hand, it is necessay to be more specific and that requires a specialist language when diagnossing, ordering and repairing the "exhaust system" in question, eg., is the problem in the manifold, O2 sensor, catalytic converter, resonator, connecting pipes, or muffler? True this specialist language can also be deployed to deliberately confuse the car owner and pad the bill, but, then, the problem is with the mechanic not the specialist language.
One of the problem is that academics are, from the time of enrollment, encouraged to adopt a specialist language and sanctioned for using everyday language. This would not be a problem if assignments were designed to have students alternate between technical and more popular language, eg., a paper on theories of poverty and then a letter to the editor of the local newspaper on the same subject. One of my constant gripes of being in the academy is that I am rewarded for academic publications and given opportunities to publish in them but not rewarded for more popular publications and given fewer opportunities to write for what is derrogatorily refered to as "grey literature". Don't make the mistake of thinking academics are united in their support of the state of the arts.
Travis