Technical Language and Ordinary Language

Nullipara is a medical term.It refers to a woman who ha snever borne a child.But laity do not use it while having their usual talk.But when they use it most people do not understand what they are saying.If someone wants to show his knowledge in English,he should say that she is a poor woman as she is yet not able to borne a child.That she is a Nullipara.

Similarly If you want to talk about a woman who can’t keep her fingers away from nice handbags and cute umbrellas and all,you need not have to say that she is a kleptomaniac.You can say that she has a strong urge to steel nice things.

Actually there is no need to use any of these medical terms.

I f you want to get a route canal done you go to a dentist.You don’t have to say that you are going to an endodontist.

If u have an irregular heartbeat,that’s what u have.There is no compulsion to use it asa cardiac arrhythma.

If ur feet are swollen because of water retention,you have a swollen feet,not oedema of the foot.

Science and modern technologies develop a wide vocabulary of technical terms for the sake of precision ad accuracy.Ordinary language is fuzzy ansd frayed for scientific purposes. But the technical words of sciences are in place only in their respective sciences ,not outside their domain.Since ordinary language is too flexible it is good to use scientific language only in a scientific discussion.

Often scientific and technical terms do enter the ordinary language .These terms are mainly from mathematics and economics.

For example :-Producton is rising in arithmetic progression;prices are rising in geometric progression.The above example simply means prices are risig much faster than the production.

All the above examples reveal that mixing up of technical terms in ordinary language is really frustrating.Language is a medium for communication.It is not a medium to show one’s knowledge in that language.He can show his knowledge in that language in such a way that the other people can understand what he is saying eventhough it is a fact thatknowledge can only be expressed through language.

I cannot compell anyone not to use technical terms while speaking.But I request them to avoid its usage while dealing with ordinary people.As a layman,I am not sure of understanding all technical terms.So simplicity is good in a society,but complexity can be applied only for a complex discussion.

So,sometimes voting for simplicity is better in the above case.

Please comment to the above topic.I can be contacted at kvaswin.kv@gmail.com