The papers in this volume, introducing historical detail and empirical rigour into the field of discourse pragmatics, are somewhat haunted by two problems. The term 'jargon' is -too broadly- used to collect not only specialist languages (of trades, sub-classes, criminals etc.) but also lingua franca, slangs, pidgins and creoles, stacked against the 'vernacular'. Furthermore a jargon often means a relatively new linguistic technology, thus natural moral positionings can arise which should be treated as part of the technology, not as mere pro- or anti-positions.