{{Short description|Language that sounds official}} {{Distinguish|official language}} '''Officialese''', '''bureaucratese''',<ref name="Stockard2011"/><ref name="Gupta2003"/> or '''governmentese''' is language that sounds official.<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/> It is the "language of officialdom".<ref name="Garner2001"/> Officialese is characterized by a preference for wordy, long sentences; complex words, code words, or buzzwords over simple, traditional ones; vagueness over directness; and passive over active voice<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Bryan A. Garner|author-link=Bryan A. Garner|title=Garner's Modern American Usage|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sd3byNeBdR4C|access-date=21 March 2013|edition=3rd|date=28 July 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-987462-0|pages=370–71|chapter=Formal Words}}</ref> (some of those elements may, however, vary between different times and languages<ref name="Renkema2004"/>). The history of officialese can be traced to the history of officialdom, as far back as the eldest human civilizations and their surviving official writings.<ref name="Fischer2004"/>
Officialese is meant to impress the listener (or reader) and increase the authority (more than the social status) of the user, making them appear more professional.<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/><ref name="Garner2001"/> Ernest Gowers noted that officialese also allows the user to remain vague.<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/> It can be used to make oneself understood to insiders while being hard to decipher by those unfamiliar with the jargon and subtexts used.<ref name="Czarniawska1997"/> Its use is known to put off members of the general public and reduce their interest in the material presented.<ref name="Hoppmann2010"/> Officialese has been criticized as making one's speech or prose "stilted, convoluted, and sometimes even indecipherable";<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/> or simply as the "cancer of language".<ref name="Gupta2003"/> It is thus more pejoratively classified as one of the types of gobbledygook.<ref name="Stockard2011"/><ref name="Manser2011"/> Its use can also result in unintended humorous incidents, and has been often satirized.<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/>
Several similar concepts to officialese exist, including ''genteelism'', ''commercialese'', ''academese'', and ''journalese''.<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88"/> The existence of officialese has been recognized by a number of organizations, which have made attempts to curtail its use in favour of plain language.<ref name="Manser2011"/><ref name="Fischer2004"/><ref name="Williams2007"/>
==See also== * Bureaucracy * Business speak * Fedspeak * Legalese * Manual of style * Humphrey Appleby – a fictional character noted for his extremes in officialese * Wooden language
==References== {{Reflist|30em|refs=
<ref name="Czarniawska1997">{{cite book|author=Barbara Czarniawska|title=Narrating the Organization: Dramas of Institutional Identity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etpQwTA0bdoC&pg=PA152|access-date=29 August 2012|date=15 April 1997|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-13229-7|page=152}}</ref>
<ref name="Fischer2004">{{cite book|author=Steven Roger Fischer|title=History of Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5i1Ql7QQy0kC&pg=PA193|access-date=29 August 2012|date=3 October 2004|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-080-1|page=193}}</ref>
<ref name="Garner2001">{{cite book|author=Bryan A. Garner|title=A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00garn_0|url-access=registration|access-date=29 August 2012|date=17 May 2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-514236-5|page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofmode00garn_0/page/615 615]}}</ref>
<ref name="GarnerGinsburg2009-88">{{cite book|author1=Bryan A. Garner|author2=Ruth Bader Ginsburg|title=Garner on Language and Writing|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9_PdSrVNTUUC&pg=PA88|access-date=29 August 2012|date=31 March 2009|publisher=American Bar Association|isbn=978-1-60442-445-4|pages=88–94|chapter=Genteelisms, Officialese, and Commercialese}}</ref>
<ref name="Gupta2003">{{cite book|author=V.S. Gupta|title=Handbook Of Reporting And Communication Skills|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8CX9cY8WgMC&pg=PA8|access-date=29 August 2012|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-043-3|page=8}}</ref>
<ref name="Hoppmann2010">{{cite book|author=Talke Klara Hoppmann|title=Citizen Perceptions of the European Union: The Impact of the Eu Web Site|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3UM-DLOmvBwC&pg=PA411|access-date=29 August 2012|date=18 March 2010|publisher=Cambria Press|isbn=978-1-60497-675-5|page=411}}</ref>
<ref name="Manser2011">{{cite book|author=Martin Manser|title=Good Word Guide: The fast way to correct English - spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6142OlLz2q8C&pg=PT451|access-date=29 August 2012|date=28 August 2011|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-4081-2332-4|page=451}}</ref>
<ref name="Renkema2004">{{cite book|author=J. Renkema|title=Introduction to Discourse Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9KJXnCaADykC&pg=PA152|access-date=29 August 2012|year=2004|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=978-1-58811-530-0|page=152}}</ref>
<ref name="Stockard2011">{{cite book|author=Olivia Stockard|title=The Write Approach: Techniques for Effective Business Writing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIgw7Q77ql4C&pg=PA62|access-date=29 August 2012|date=8 June 2011|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing|isbn=978-0-85724-831-2|page=62}}</ref>
<ref name="Williams2007">{{cite book|author=Christopher Williams|title=Tradition and Change in Legal English: Verbal Constructions in Prescriptive Texts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwF3XIuLflYC&pg=PA177|access-date=29 August 2012|date=30 June 2007|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03911-444-3|page=177}}</ref> }}
==External links== * J Renkema, [http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=46591 On functional and computational LSP analysis: the example of officialese] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023071812/http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=46591 |date=2013-10-23 }} * More about Gobbledygook, Rudolf FleschPublic Administration Review Vol. 5, No. 3 (Summer, 1945), pp. 240–244, https://www.jstor.org/stable/973061
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Category:Political terminology