Corporatese

Corporatese is a sub-dialect of the English language that is used in corporations and other bureaucracies. It is not formally-defined and has no central regulatory authority, but is nonetheless in use in many organisations in the English-speaking world.

Closely related to Politically correct phraseology and George Orwell's concept of Newspeak, Corporatese is characterised by often-unwieldy elaborations of more common-or-garden English phrases and serves to dramatise or conceal the real meaning of what is being said. It can often be rich in cliché. Corporatese is a type of corporate jargon.

For example, a telephone may be referred to as a "two-way interactive communications device".

Appearance of concept in Literature

A similar idea appears in Iain Banks' novel "The Bridge", where professional jargons have become so advanced that they have become separate languages.The main character in Lucy Kellaway's novel "Who Moved My Blackberry?", Martin Lukes is a sharply-observed parody of corporate gibberish, with his ideas of Creovation and Integethics.

External links

* [http://corporatese.z-university.org/ Corporatese from A to Z]
* [http://davidcho.blogspot.com/2005/02/christian-ese.html blog mentioning corporatese]
* [http://www.bullshitbingo.net/cards/bullshit/ Satirical game that sends up the concept of Corporatese]
* [http://www.andrewdavidson.com/gibberish/ Corporate gibberish generator]

See also

* Corporate jargon
* Journalese
* Jargon
* Headlinese