The Language of Organizations: The Case of the Navy,

Abstract

On the surface this is a paper about the Navy. More fundamentally, however, it is about language and the role it plays in generating and maintaining organization. The author explored some ways in which one particular organization (the U.S. Navy) uses language that is unique to that organization. There are words, symbols and modes of discourse that characterize this organization and which are unintelligible outside the organization. The thesis is that every organization, task/activity and social group has its own language (lexicon, sign system, mode of discourse). The facts of linguistic differentiation are apparent, but the determinants of, reasons for, and functions of this fact remain obscure.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 30 citations exist upstream.