The Buzzword Blog #2 : What is a Buzzword?
A buzzword is a word with a vague meaning, and which is commonly used in speech or writing to express a vague idea. The buzzword category includes words which are commonly used, and commonly over-used in bureaucratic and managerial environments.
Buzzwords give rational thinkers the impression of being used merely to impress the hearer or reader with the user's apparent knowledge.
Buzzwords should be distinguished from jargon words. All words coined for use in science, law and the arts to express a rationally explainable meaning are jargon words.
When a jargon word is inserted into a sentence merely in order to impress the reader or listener it is being used, within that strict context, as a buzzword.
For the clearest possible example of how someone might use meaningful words from a scientific jargon as meaningless buzzwords, I recommend a visit to the Chomskybot, the web's best buzzword generator.
We have already seen that the speaker-hearer's linguistic intuition suffices to account for irrelevant intervening contexts in selectional rules.
