tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9134692655110064772.post4060539342315413652..comments2015-06-24T03:10:51.317-07:00Comments on Director's Diary: Week 4: Opening Up For NHS Change Day & the UpGoer5David Foordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02594506445066736881noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9134692655110064772.post-37419817194607733552015-06-24T03:10:51.317-07:002015-06-24T03:10:51.317-07:00Incredible list of abbreviations!!
As a wonderful...Incredible list of abbreviations!!<br /><br />As a wonderful addition, Fellows of the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association are able to use the post-nominals FUKCPA... I imagine that only the disgruntled and disenchanted do, though!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9134692655110064772.post-54263501522431669522014-03-06T08:27:00.184-08:002014-03-06T08:27:00.184-08:00Wow Kirk, I'm honoured that you've given u...Wow Kirk, I'm honoured that you've given up your lunch hour for this amazing anlysis of the list. (anyone who doesn't know Kirk should know he's an Excel Guru!).<br /><br />I'm not surprised, but intrigued to read that you've found two acronyms with 15 definitions!!!<br /><br />What I didn't share from my list, as it didn't work too well in pdf form, is the third column of info. This contains a definition of the definition! On many occasions in the early days of producing the list I found that in spelling out what an acronym stood for I was left none the wiser as to what it actually meant, so I sought further definitions. In particular this was helpful for historic acronyms, for example, if you want to know what CCG stands for it may also be helpful to know that they have replaced PCTs, that PCTs evolved from PCGs, which in turn were developed from HAs, which were previously FHSAs (enough I hear you cry!).<br /><br />Thanks again for your comments Kirk, much appreciated and if you want me to mail you the full Excel version of my list, let me know and I'll send it on to you.David Foordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02594506445066736881noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9134692655110064772.post-29164725485072524142014-03-06T07:34:28.334-08:002014-03-06T07:34:28.334-08:00That amount of jargon is pretty amazing - it got m...That amount of jargon is pretty amazing - it got me thinking, and... well... you know me, I tend to think in spreadsheet format. So. In the true spirit of the open, public, crowd-sourced world of the web I'll share my thinking, so to speak!<br /><br /><a href="http://goo.gl/rur1Xd" rel="nofollow">I've saved a table made up from your jargon dictionary here</a> <br /><br />After a bit of tinkering - whiling away a minute or two over lunch, in between BBC news articles - I wondered just how confusing this 'jargon' language is compared to the English we learn at school. If we can for now set aside the fact that very few people speak Jargon (Jargonish?), how confusing is it really?<br /><br />The very first page of jargon had a few definitions for the very same letters, so I looked at how many bits of jargon have more than one definition. Seems simple enough?<br /><br />There are a whopping 1,374 bits of jargon on your list alone that have two definitions for the same bunch of letters. Nearly one in ten bits of jargon can mean two things - that's a lot? Isn't it? Surely that alone shows it's too complicated to be usable in the workplace?!<br /><br />Digging deeper...<br /><br />Homonyms and homographs are fairly common, I thought to myself - not my everyday kind of thought I must say. Thinking about it here in my seat, I reckon 1 in 10 words in English have two meanings. I know, oddly, that in the Chinese languages more than 1 in 10 words are homonyms.<br /><br />Jargonish, give or take, based on my armchair reckonings, has the same amount of confusing homonyms as some of the most common languages on Earth. Almost as though the construction of language has some common way of evolving, huh? (...cue X-Files theme music...)<br /><br />Nothing suspicious so far... My mind is put at ease. <br />But. <br />This fails the Daily Mail test - headlines of "Confusing Language Blights NHS" are flashing before my eyes. In reality, though, Jargonish doesn't yet seem any more complicated than English - setting aside, the fact you don't learn it at school, and only a small number of people speak it fluently, and there is no dictionary that people agree on - all barriers that any evolving language or Welsh would need to overcome.<br /><br />But.<br />At the other end of the spectrum two abbreviations in your list are tied at pole position with FIFTEEN different definitions each for the same few letters.<br /><br />'ARC' and 'CA' both have 15 possible definitions - the word in Jargonish is spelled the same for each of the 15 definitions so it's a true homograph. Now, I know homographs are common.... but... 15 definitions?<br /><br />I'm trying to think of a work with as many meanings but can't get above 7 with 'bow'.<br /><br />Maybe, just maybe, Jargonish does get a little complicated as a language after all.<br /><br />Anyhow, that's pretty much my lunch hour used up!<br /><br />-Kirk<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02587485221846256279noreply@blogger.com