Are buzzwords a reflection of our shared laziness?

The language we use greatly shapes our thinking and decision making, writes Justin Thomas

Dr Justin Thomas, assistant professor at Zayed University. Andrew Henderson / The National

Cant is a four-letter word that has all but faded from the English language. Originating from the Norman French for chanting, cant refers to a type of formulaic speech lacking in true sentiment. Cant is decorum and sobriety without sincerity. Cant is superficial jargon, buzzwords and cliché masquerading as substance. Cant is well-choreographed verbiage devoid of authenticity or true meaning.

While the word cant has fallen from common usage, the practice – canting – is alive and well. How many of us have received an email so packed with buzzwords and jargon that the true meaning is almost lost? Such messages also tend to be excessively and unnecessarily long, on account of them being so packed full of clichés and gratuitous lexical grandstanding.

A research study published in the Harvard Business Review in 2013 describes a link between CEO signature size, narcissism and poor organisational performance – the bigger the signature, the bigger the ego and poorer the performance. I suspect a similar relationship exists with email length.

But where do these buzzwords, and the motivation to overuse them, come from? The world of high fashion might have the answer. Fashionologists, those who study the sociology of fashion, suggest that clothing fashions are driven by a process of imitation and differentiation, also known as the trickle-down model. Through its clothing and accessories one section of society is said to signal its higher status. This style of dressing trickles down to the lower strata, who, in pursuit of upward social mobility, attempt to imitate it. This imitation, however, motivates the higher strata to reinvent its costumes and thereby reassert social distinction.

Like clothing styles, buzzwords, jargon and clichés are driven by the forces of imitation and differentiation. Like once fashionable apparel, words and phrases can also fall from favour as the higher strata reinvent their vocabulary. Remember the “information superhighway”, and “surfing the web”? Similarly, are people still “running ideas up the flagpole to see who salutes” and are we really still encouraging each other to “get ahead of the curve” and “think outside of the box”?

Metaphors such as “thinking outside the box” were once fresh and perhaps helped us better appreciate situations that required creativity and unconventional thinking. Over time and with overuse such phrases become trite and empty. George Orwell once referred to clichés as “dying metaphors”. Perhaps like dying stars, these dying metaphors expand extensively before finally vanishing.

There is a long list of these clichés, hackneyed phrases and buzzwords that many people would like to see vanish for ever.

The business magazine, Forbes, has set up an internet poll where the public can vote on which phrases they would most like to see retired from common use. The list includes such one-time favourites as window of opportunity, best-practice, low hanging fruit, leverage (as a verb) and synergise.

Language is what clothes our thoughts; words are like garments and the well-read are the well-dressed. A large vocabulary is a by-product of extensive and varied reading. Overreliance on jargon and buzzwords is at best lazy, and at worst deceptive. Which goes back to the original meaning of cant: using the right words but not understanding or truly meaning what you are saying.

I would like to see more of our corporate leaders embrace a plain-speaking, cliché-free and heartfelt style of communication. Length is no substitute for sincerity, jargon-dense impenetrability is no substitute for sincerity, and having a public relations specialist draft your message or using a template, is just a digital cant.

In psychology, there is an idea known as the linguistic relativity hypothesis. The basic contention is that the language we use greatly shapes our thinking and decision-making. If we pepper our discourse with empty pretentious phrases, what kind of impact is that having on our thinking?

Dr Justin Thomas is an associate professor at Zayed University and author of Psychological Well-Being in the Gulf States

On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas