Michael Billig om komplexa ord och originellt tänkande

What I do contest, however, is the assumption that, in order to have original thoughts, you must inevitably create new nouns — or, correspondingly, if you create new words, you are being original. Those assumptions are historically unjustified, for in the past there have been outstandingly original thinkers who have used existing words. […][Wittgenstein’s] work shows that it is possible to use ordinary language originally, even using it to show how we ordinarily use ordinary language. […] The example of Wittgenstein suggests that big, technical words can restrict, rather than aid, our understanding. This is especially so in current times when self-declared experts can commercially market big new words as big new ideas. Academics, too, often act as if we cannot have a new approach, theory or insight, unless we have a new noun to promote.

Billig, Michael (2013), Learn to Write Badly. How to Succeed in the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, s. 10-11.