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Adjectival Accounting

Summary/Abstract: A brief overview of the literature, textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries in the field of accounting may leave the reader perplexed. The reason for this is the multitude of adjectives preceding the word „accounting”. The author identified over seventy of them, and this is by no means a complete list. The purpose of this article is to establish whether such a large number of adjec-tives is necessary. Does this mean that there are so many types of „accounting”? If so, how do they differ? Are these names justified in every single case? Are these new names or rather merely synonyms? What are the reasons for employing these adjectives and not others? Who employs them and for what purpose? When did these adjectives start to appear and what to do with this ‘adjectival excess’? The analysis carried out by the author demonstrates that: - Taking into account the methodological bases of accounting research, it may be observed that there is just one type of accounting, and thus it is „non-adjectival”. - The employment of adjectives is the result of the complexity of business and in many cases serves the function of facilitating communication, thus constituting a specific language of business. - There is no consensus among various authors with regard to terminology, which is the reason why there are so many synonyms, such as: ecological accounting (green, environmental accounting), management accounting (managerial, deci-sion-making, prospective, ex ante accounting). - Some of the names are justified because of the nature of the field in which they are employed, e.g. commercial, agricultural, banking accounting, etc. - Some of them depend on management strategies in which they are employed, which is the case with lean accounting in the context of lean management. - Some of the names circulate in the public sphere irrespective of academic re-search, e.g. creative accounting, toxic accounting or outsourcing accounting. However, the employment of many of these adjectives seems unjustified and is due to marketing reasons, which is the case with such adjectives as e.g. colour, advanced, strategic, traditional, contemporary or modern.

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