Linguistic and Cultural Features of Fabric Weavers’ Professional Jargon of the Bay Hien Weaving Village, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Abstract

Professional jargon is a vital manifestation of the sociality of a language, the professionalism of a profession, as well as the variety and unity of a nation's language and culture. Professional jargon not only reflects professional activities, but it also communicates people's mindsets and ways of thinking in the society while working and performing. Many old Vietnamese professions have been fading in contemporary society, and other traditional professions are also progressively disappearing, resulting in the disappearance of certain professional jargon. In this paper, we performed a survey to collect and examine jargon linked to fabric weaving. The survey was conducted in regions of textile households in Bay Hien Weaving Village, Ho Chi Minh City, from December 1 to December 25, 2021, from a language-culture viewpoint. The descriptive method was used to define the linguistic and cultural features of weaving jargon in Ho Chi Minh City in three key aspects: structure; semantics; identification and culture. The survey findings showed that linguistic and cultural aspects of a group of fabric weavers can be identified via professional jargon. The name, fabric weaving professional jargon, itself symbolizes the way perception mirrors reality, and represents the folk encyclopedic knowledge of the Bay Hien Weaving Village community.