As regular readers know, business jargon, aka ‘management speak’, and corporate buzzwords are favourite themes of this blog. So this recent publication (mostly in French) was of great interest. Hope you agree!

Pubisher’s synopsis: When people work together in companies or any other sort of organisation, sooner or later, they realize that they need to understand how their inhouse use of the language has shaped the words they use. This need has been amplified in present-day society where data, information and knowledge in general is all growing at an exponential rate, so that expressions formed in one group need to be clarified to make sure they can be readily understood by all.

This book aims at exploring current perspectives in terminology and its applications, coupling research with hands-on experience. From sales staff to customers, from cocoa beans to spare parts, from climate to Covid-19, what terms are actually used? How can they be identified? What happens when they need to be translated?  These are just some of the issues addressed by the contributors to this book, aiming at a very broad readership from linguists, terminologists and translators on the one hand to managers and all those interested in specialized vocabulary on the other. Terminology is an open invitation to explore many and varied language issues.

Résumé de l’éditeur : Les organisations, les entreprises, toutes les communautés de travail ont besoin de comprendre les usages de leurs propres mots, de ces mots qui relèvent des jargons professionnels. Dans une société où les données, les informations, les connaissances s’accroissent de façon exponentielle, les expressions des uns et des autres ont parfois du mal à converger, et le besoin de précision s’impose.

Cet ouvrage se propose d’explorer les horizons actuels de la terminologie et ses applications en articulant recherche et retours méthodologiques. Du commercial au client, du cacao aux pièces automobiles, du climat au covid-19, quels sont les termes en usage ? Comment les repère-t-on ? Que se passe-t-il lorsqu’ils doivent être traduits ? Ce sont des questions auxquelles s’emploient à répondre les contributeurs de cet ouvrage. Accessible à un large public : linguistes, terminologues, traducteurs, mais aussi managers et tout lecteur intéressé par la question des vocabulaires spécialisés, on verra que la terminologie invite à réfléchir à des problématiques de tous niveaux linguistiques.

To find out more, see the website of Les Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle. The book is keenly priced, which should assist with its stated aim of attracting a wide audience across academia and practice. ☺️

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Hat tip to Professor James Archibald at McGill University who made me aware of this publication.