Abstract
This paper outlines the pragmaterminological approach of terms in companies and organizations as an efficient way to study situated, dynamic elements conveying sense and meaning for knowledge and communication purposes in the workplace, and making up what we will call company-speak. Broadly speaking, we will define company-speak as the specific sociolect used in a specific company or organization to work and do business and reflecting the ongoing construction of its own knowledge, corporate culture, and identity. Company-speak is truly unique and every single company or organization will develop its own company-speak that competing companies or organizations operating in the same sector or branch of activity cannot and will not use. Particularly, the pragmaterminological approach aims at answering the question of what exactly has to be known to work at micro-level in work communities, and how knowledge must be shared to cope with knowledge asymmetries and ensure cooperation between experts within the company or organization.
Highlights
In the workplace, staff produce and exchange specialized messages of many kinds to accomplish work tasks
As the scientific study of terms in specific fields of knowledge, a general theory of terminology appears to be appropriate to study the nature of knowledge and communication elements needed in the workplace
Pragmaterminology aims at the study of terms that designate concepts needed in the construction of a community working knowledge, and of rules governing their use
Summary
Staff produce and exchange specialized messages of many kinds to accomplish work tasks. Meaning and communication elements making up company-speak can be part of a general language or special language of a given field, but can have fuzzy borders to these due to the heterogeneous linguistic and semiotic reality of people at work. As such, these elements can be difficult to categorize. Pragmaterminology aims at the study of terms that designate concepts needed in the construction of a community working knowledge, and of rules governing their use In other words, it aims at the study of genuinely situated words and other semiotic units at work in the workplace. One company does not speak the same way as a competitor does, and companyspeak reflects corporate culture and identity in an even more accurate manner than a given natural language normally does for the general culture of its speakers
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