Technical Language as Evidence of Expertise

Abstract

In this paper, I focus on one argumentative strategy with which experts (or putative experts) in a particular field provide evidence of their expertise to a lay audience. The strategy consists in using technical vocabulary that the speaker knows the audience does not comprehend with the intention of getting the audience to infer that the speaker possesses expert knowledge in the target domain. This strategy has received little attention in argumentation theory and epistemology. For this reason, the aim of the present paper is not to reach any definitive conclusions, but mainly exploratory. After introducing the phenomenon, I discuss various examples. Next, I analyse the phenomenon from an argumentative perspective. I discuss the pragmatic mechanism that underlies it, the quality of the evidence offered, and its capacity to persuade.