Language, Military: Informal Speech
Language, Military: Informal Speech.Through language, groups of individuals form what can be termed discourse communities. By using slang and jargon unknown to the outsider, individual members of specific groups form bonds of identification with one another. The language used within a given community serves both to construct a vision of the world into which initiates are socialized and to draw a line between those in the group and those on the outside. In official language, this occurs through the use of technical terms—acronyms and jargon. In informal language, it is accomplished by knowledge of terms whose meanings are not available except through direct participation in the group—meanings that appear in no formal glossary.
Informal military language reinforces a service member's primary identity as being part of the group, along with those who share his or her language. Beyond that, informal language constructs a vision of the world that...
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