science

Jargonness

Jargonness is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jargonness rather than just read about it. In short: Jargonness is a piecewise mathematical function mapping the frequencies of a word's appearance in scientific and contemporary English corpora to a parameter quantifying the word's association with scientific jargon – the "jargonness" of that word. It is expressed mathematically as: j a r g o n n e s s = { l o g ( f s f g ) , f g > 0 3 , f g = 0 {\displaystyle jargonness={\begin{cases}log\left({\frac {f_{s}}{f_{g}}}\…

Key takeaways

Jargonness belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jargonness to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jargonness from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jargonness is a piecewise mathematical function mapping the frequencies of a word's appearance in scientific and contemporary English corpora to a parameter quantifying the word's association with scientific jargon – the "jargonness" of that word. It is expressed mathematically as: j a r g o n n e s s = { l o g ( f s f g ) , f g > 0 3 , f g = 0 {\displaystyle jargonness={\begin{cases}log\left({\frac {f_{s}}{f_{g}}}\right),&f_{g}>0\\3,&f_{g}=0\end{cases}}}

In the above equation, f g {\displaystyle f_{g}} stands for the frequency of a word's appearance in a general English-language corpus, f s {\displaystyle f_{s}} stands for its frequency in a scientific corpus, and l o g {\displaystyle log} is the common (base-10) logarithm.

Method of use Both the frequencies ( f g {\displaystyle f_{g}} and f s {\displaystyle f_{s}} ) must be determined and then substituted in the above equation to calculate the word's jargonness. In case a word has no mention in the general English corpus, 3 is taken as its jargonness as suggested by the second part of the equation. Noticing that the logarithm in the first part of the equation is a common one (to the base 10), this simply means that the word is assumed to be a thousand times more likely to appear in a scientific text than a non-scientific one.

Examples of corpora The corpora that have most commonly been employed to determine the frequencies mentioned above are the following:

Professional English Research Consortium Corpus (for scientific vocabulary; 17 million words) British National Corpus (for common vocabulary; 97 million words)

References

External links Professional English Research Consortium Corpus

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jargonness

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jargonness claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jargonness before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jargonness ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jargonness

In research: Jargonness appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jargonness in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jargonness is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Corpus linguistics stubs, Linguistics terminology, Metrics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jargonness outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jargonness in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jargonness means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jargonness out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jargonness in simple terms?

Why does Jargonness matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jargonness?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jargonness.