So, I'm trying to start my disertation, for real, really. Really. God. Ick. Okay, here's my pickle. I'm trying to describe the problem that my work addresses in a readable manner (see "How to do things with words" for a good example of 'readable'). The polite way of talking about this is that you mustn't tell anyone that they are wrong. People reading about language design already have pretty strong opinions about what they are doing. So, let's see, a language is:

1. A set of symbol strings, as defined by some automata (from finite automata theory).
2. A mapping between 2 discrete symbol fields (from semiotics).
3. Both 1, 2, and the domain knowledge necessary to edit statements in the language (from psychology).

So I'm trying to describe this whole design problem, with minimal jargon. I know that I'm not getting out of this without some jargon (but a big part of my planned doctoral work is driving the various field's jargon towards coherence), but you can't open a book with a sledgehammer of vocabulary. You have to hold people's hands, and walk them comfortably into the context you are trying to deliver.