Journalese

[Deleted]

I was reading the NYT grammar blog today, and it sent me along to a blog about journalese: words journalists use that people never say. I doubt that it is possible to agree 100% with all of the examples since we all have our language quirks, but this part of the blog is quite accurate:

fled on foot = ran away
high rate of speed = speeding
physical altercation = fight
verbal altercation = argument
reduce expenditures = cut costs
terminate employment = fire
reduction in service = layoff
blunt force trauma = injury
discharged the weapon = shot
transport the victim = take him/her
lower extremities = legs
officers observed = police saw
at this point in time = now
express concerns = complain
incendiary device = bomb
obtain information = ask or interview
deceased = dead
sexual relations = sex
roadway = road
fail to negotiate a curve = missed a curve
determine a course of action = consider options
vehicle = car or truck
citizen = person
individual = man or woman
commence = begin
emergency personnel = police, firefighters
utilize = use
complainant = victim
fatally injured = killed
motorist = driver
juvenile male/female = teen boy or girl
respond to the scene = arrive
precipitation = rain, snow
purchase = buy
intoxicated = drunk
controlled substances = drugs
appendages = arms, legs
contusion = bruise
head trauma = head injury
laceration = cut
provide leadership = lead
obstruct = block, get in the way
came to the conclusion that = decided, figured out
arrived at a decision = decided
reside = live

[bixaorellana]

Aren't many of those words or phrases the ones used by various professions, then co-opted by the journalists when writing their reports?

For instance, "blunt trauma" is a medical term, right? Ditto laceration and contusion.

Yeah, many of those are journalistic conventions that sound quaint. But "this point in time" is a stupid redundancy that burst upon the scene with the testimony of John Dean during the Watergate hearings and has never gone away. It's right up there with "the general consensus of opinion".

[Deleted]

There are tons of comments after the list, agreeing and disagreeing as well as adding other suggestions. I liked this one:

“Lost his life” … how careless of him!

[bjd]

A lot of those expressions sound more like police language than journalese.

[Deleted]

By copying those terms without thinking, not only do the journalists make their own work easier, they believe it makes them sound more intelligent.

[auntieannie]

I would agree that this is reportese. I am sure I have used quite a few of these expressions myself trying to write reports.

[Deleted]

The best part though is when you hear one of these' talking heads' reading some of these terms and they get it wrong,whether by mispronunciation or whatever. Some gems that my husband and I fondly recall and still laugh about are; in describing a would be corpse,a reporter said that" levity had set in" (as opposed to lividity,the correct term.)
Another gem; rigor morgus[/b] had set in. (Morgus the Magnificent was a 1960's popular local TV show.)




I guess you had to be there....

[Deleted]

My brother and I watched it every Saturday night. I will never forget the experiment where he put his arm through a meat grinder instead of a teleportation device.

[lagatta]

Evidently "vehicle" has become quite common parlance in the US, and the origin is military - it was an easy word to understand over primitive radio devices. A somewhat southern-US pronunciation of the term has come into vogue "vehicule" (I don't want to caricature anyone's accent here!!!)

Some of these are odd, as they are counterintuitive when we want to cut the word count. Short words such as "row" in English or "rixe" in French for an argument, brawl or fight.

I heard two funnies in French by Radio-Canada journalists whose mouths were in gear before their brains:

jeter le bébé avec l'eau du VIN (obviously, bain, throw out the baby with the bathwater).

La République du CONDO (Congo of course)...

[patricklondon]

Curious that it should go to the wordy, rather than short and punchy, option, whereas British journalese tends very much to favour the latter - such that someone isn't taken to hospital, they are in "a dramatic mercy dash*".

And no-one, but no-one, can be referred to or quoted in a newspaper without their age being given, and women are usually identifed as blonde (preferably "bubbly" =thick), redhead ("vivacious" =no better than she should be) or brunette ("fun-loving" =much worse than she should be).




*Someone once said the dream headline would be one that combined royalty, animals, something sexy and a drama - such as, ROYAL CORGI IN SEX-CHANGE MERCY DASH. One that really did happen was when there was a football player whose surname was Queen, and he played in a rather bad-tempered match involving the Crystal Palace team, leading to the headline QUEEN IN PALACE BRAWL.

[onlymark]

An excellent and clever headline recently remembered because of the death of the composer of the song was when a Scottish football team (Caledonian Thistle) beat another far better team (Celtic) unexpectedly.
The headline was -

SUPER CALEY GO BALLISTIC, CELTIC ARE ATROCIOUS.

[auntieannie]

LOL! yes, sometimes I wonder if papers here in the UK are in some sort of competition for the silliest headline.

[Deleted]

Every cub reporter knows that . . . fires rage out of control, minor mischief is perpetrated by Vandals (never Visigoths, Franks, or a single Vandal working alone) and key labor accords are hammered out by weary negotiators in marathon, round-the-clock bargaining sessions, thus narrowly averting threatened walkouts.

(John Leo, "Journalese for the Lay Reader." Time, Mar. 18, 1985)

[Deleted]

And if you read police or EMS reports,you will see "some dude" on a vast majority of them quoted over and over again).
( when questioned about who stabbed him,response: "some dude"...)