My thanks to everybody who responded: apologies both for the principle
of cross-posting and for the practice of repeating material which
appeared on the one list and not the other. The comment that sums it up
is 'what's wrong with Plain English?'! Those with an interest in
alternative varieties of English will no doubt wish to investigate the
following web links:
www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=114069
http://www.perceptiondynamics.info/silo-mentality/silo-mentality.htm
http://www.interfacing.com/Literature/Business-Process-Glossary
I encountered 'inflexible silo-based organization' and 'silo approach'
on pp 205 and 217 of the latest issue of the Cartographic Journal (Vol
44, no.3: published by the British Cartographic Society:
www.cartograhy.org.uk), which is the first issue of that organ in its
44-year history to be devoted exclusively to Ordnance Survey matters.
The 'collapsing dual carriageways' are *not* management-waffle, but
occur in digital mapping, for converting a depiction of such highways
as several lines (outer boundaries, central reservations, etc) into
one, for smaller-scale mapping. It perhaps says something for the
poverty of use of the English language noiwadays that it should be
mistaken for management-speak! (This subtle hint was perhaps too
subtle...)
Richard Oliver
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