语言与文风2020theatlantic.com
企业黑话：职场人假装成熟的方式
Corporate buzzwords are how workers pretend to be adults
导读
这篇文章讨论企业黑话和行话如何成为职场人“装大人”的方式，以及它如何掩盖真实意图、让表达变得模糊。对写作者来说，它提醒我们警惕用大词和套话掩饰不安全感或推卸责任，并重新思考语言与真诚、权力之间的关系。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写作前先确认自己的真实目的；目的和表达不一致时，人很容易堆砌长词和套话。
- 02
能用简单词说清楚，就不要用行话；清晰本身就是诚意的一部分。
- 03
少用“优化”“迭代”“价值”“赋能”这类抽象名词，多写具体事实、动作和后果。
- 04
注意语言的权力功能：黑话可以用来防御和反击，但也会让读者疏远；写说服性文字时尤其要慎用。
HN 评论精选
黑话可以作为一种权力策略，反过来用对方的话术包装反对意见。
我有时把商务话术当成工具，让公司内部公开讨论中反驳我的观点变得不讨喜。比如老板要推一个大家都觉得没用的强制会议，我不会用平常话抱怨，而会说：“我们的核心价值之一是让客户满意，如果我们迭代流程、优化这场会议目前占用的时间，我就能更高效地做到这一点。”例子有意简化、回应也夸张，但道理是：是他们鼓励你用这些说法，所以当你反过来用这些说法对付他们时，他们更难反驳。唯一风险是同事当场笑出声。
MatekCopatek查看英文原文
I sometimes use business talk as a tool to make countering my points unattractive when having public discussions inside the company. For example - let's say your boss decides to introduce some mandatory meeting that everyone agrees is useless. Rather then complaining about it in normal language, I would say things like "well, one of our core values is delighting clients, which I would be able to do much more efficiently if we would iterate on our process and try to optimize the time currently used by this meeting". The example is intentionally simplified and the response is exaggerated, but you get the point - they are the ones encouraging you to use those phrases, which makes it more difficult for them to push back when you do it against them. The only real risk is a coworker bursting into laughter in the middle of such an exchange.
语言模糊常源于不真诚；套话会反过来腐蚀思想。
引用奥威尔：“清晰语言的大敌是虚伪。当一个人真实目的和宣称目的之间有差距时，他会本能地转向长词和用滥的习语，像乌贼喷墨一样。……人可能因为觉得自己失败而酗酒，又因为酗酒而败得更彻底。英语语言正在发生的事也差不多：我们的思想愚蠢使它变得丑陋和不准确，而语言的邋遢又让我们更容易产生愚蠢的思想。”
vector_spaces查看英文原文
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. ... A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." https://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit
黑话多源于不安全感，讲平实语言并不可耻。
我曾短暂在 Lionbridge 工作，公司被收购后常收到全公司邮件。读完会坐着想，一个人怎么能把语言糟蹋到这种程度：明明是英语，却像外星语言，一句话里能塞进惊人的废话。我认为这些黑话的主要根源是不安全感：人们以为如果讲平实的语言（任何语言都一样），就会显得低人一等。
cosmodisk查看英文原文
I had a "pleasure" to work briefly for Lionbridge when they acquired the company I worked for. We used to get these company wide emails about various things. You read it,sit and then think how can someone rape the language to a such degree. It was written in English but felt like alien language. The amount of bullshit one manages to squeeze in a sentence is quite astonishing. In my opinion, the main reason behind all these buzzwords is insecurity. People think that if they'd speak plain English (insert any language here), they'd be inferior.
职场行为带有表演性，黑话也是一种角色扮演式的语言。
我喜欢 Matt Levine 的看法：“以我在投行的经历，我很容易相信大多数投行交易发生，是因为投行家在假装做投行家该做的事，像演《说谎者的扑克牌》里的场景，直到它们看起来像真的。我不明白投行为什么会和其他行业不同。所以没错，工作是一种伪装。”
Doches查看英文原文
I love Matt Levine's take on this: > From my time in investment banking I can easily believe that most investment banking transactions occur because investment bankers are pretending to do what investment bankers do, acting out scenes from “Liar’s Poker” until they start to seem real. I don’t know why investment banking would be different from any other industry. So sure, yeah, work is a kind of pretense.
同类还值得读
像说话一样写作
Write like you talk
这篇短文主张写作应像说话一样自然、清晰，避免装腔作势的书面腔。
语言与文风2015 · 647 分 · 272 评4 条写作要点编辑精选法律语言难懂源于写作不佳，而非专业概念
Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty with legal language
这是一项认知科学研究：法律文本难懂，主要不是因为充斥专业术语，而是因为写作者把句子写得又长又绕、修饰语层层嵌套、回指距离过远。
语言与文风2022 · 559 分 · 322 评5 条写作要点编辑精选写得简单
Write Simply
保罗·格拉汉姆在这篇短文里主张：好文章应该写得简单——用日常词汇、短句、直白的结构，不为显得聪明而堆砌复杂表达。
语言与文风2021 · 484 分 · 330 评4 条写作要点编辑精选Tortured phrases：科学写作中出现的一种可疑文风
Tortured phrases: A dubious writing style emerging in science
《自然》新闻报道了一种在科学论文中蔓延的怪现象：原本标准的术语被同义替换软件改写成了古怪说法，比如把 "cloud computing" 写成 "haze figuring"。
语言与文风2021 · 329 分 · 256 评4 条写作要点编辑精选乔治·奥威尔 1940 年对《我的奋斗》的书评
George Orwell's review of Mein Kampf (1940)
这是奥威尔1940年对《我的奋斗》的书评。
语言与文风2014 · 305 分 · 240 评4 条写作要点编辑精选