Wooden language
Encyclopedia
In rhetoric
, wooden language (calque
of the French
expression langue de bois) refers to a diverting of attention from reality by using vague and ambiguous words, such as banalities too abstract or pompous, which appeal to sentiment and emotionality rather than to facts.
Wooden language was commonly used in political speeches and newspaper articles in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the other Eastern European Communist countries.
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
, wooden language (calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
of the French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
expression langue de bois) refers to a diverting of attention from reality by using vague and ambiguous words, such as banalities too abstract or pompous, which appeal to sentiment and emotionality rather than to facts.
Wooden language was commonly used in political speeches and newspaper articles in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the other Eastern European Communist countries.
Sources
- Caparini, Marina; Fluri, Philipp (2006). Civil Society and the Security Sector: Concepts and Practices in New Democracies , LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster, ISBN 3825893642.