Cant (language)

A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.^[1] It may also be called a cryptolect, argot, pseudo-language, anti-language or secret language. Each term differs slightly in meaning; their uses are inconsistent. Richard Rorty defines cant by saying that "'Cant', in the sense in which Samuel Johnson exclaims, 'Clear your mind of cant,' means, in other words, something like that which 'people usually say without thinking, the standard thing to say, what one normally says'." In Heideggerian terms it is what "das Man" says.^[2]

^ McArthur, T. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-214183-X
^ Rorty, Richard (2001). Redemption from Egotism: James and Proust as Spiritual Exercises. The Estate of Richard Rorty. p. 390. ISBN 978-1-4051-9831-8.

[McArthur2-1] McArthur, T. (ed.) The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992) Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-214183-X

[2] Rorty, Richard (2001). Redemption from Egotism: James and Proust as Spiritual Exercises. The Estate of Richard Rorty. p. 390. ISBN 978-1-4051-9831-8.

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