The Destruction of Language
Language plays a vital role in society. It is the outline of culture, behavior, and communication. Although it is so important, just shortening the vocabulary of the people will not narrow the range of thought enough to eliminate the possibility of rebellion and disobedience. In the book, 1984, this idea is experimented with to help the reader better comprehend how powerful words can be, and that people with smaller vocabularies would not necessarily think less, but have to try harder to express their feelings.
It is in human nature to freely express who you are and do what you want, but there are ways to do this other than just speaking and using language. People show their feelings through painting, dancing, singing, and even acting. They can even use colors, shapes, tastes, and smells that can reflect how they feel. A person is created to do things naturally, and a government cannot affect the ability of natural instincts in someone. This illustrates the idea of expression not coming directly from the tongue, but from ways which involve no speaking at all. It doesn 't matter if someone has a small vocabulary to
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Minimizing the vocabulary of people is not going to take their thoughts away, only the ability to express them. An individual will still know that something is wrong whether it is described as horrific or just bad. For example, when you are sad, but you don 't know the word "sad" to express your feeling; at that time you might cry to show your emotion. Without the normal use of language, things will come down to the morals within someone. Morals that humans are born with, and morals that cannot be washed away through time and generations. These morals will allow thoughts to make more sense. They will allow a person to understand others, express their thoughts abstractly, and comprehend what others are trying to
1984 George Orwell’s 1984 created a society that created men that work like machines, this allows for anyone to be submitted to do the unthinkable. George Orwell captured this concept by forming unusually long sentences to give the audience a true understanding of how machine like the people of Oceania are by explaining ideas so in depth. Also the use of connotation and specific diction, gives the reader a chance to really see how different the views and responses of the people of Oceania are, compared to the views and responses today. Along with diction, connotation, and unusually long sentences, George Orwell utilized periodic sentences to help the audience understand how a character was feeling or describe a situation in ‘layman's terms’
In pages 166-167 in part 2, chapter 7 of George Orwell’s 1984, he uses diction and imagery in order to create an earnest tone to vividly illustrate Winston’s love for Julia. In this passage, Orwell creates an earnest tone by using diction in order to show Winston’s affection for Julia. In this section of the book, Winston and Julia are discussing what they would do if they were caught by the Thought Police. Winston says that they will try to break them and force a confession out of them, however, he says that the only thing that really matters is that they should not “betray one another” (Orwell 166).
When talking to him, Syme, his good friend who works in the dictionary department, said that they were not creating any words, but that “We’re destroying words—scores of them, hundreds of them, every day.” This mass decrease in the dictionary will mean that people will not be able to communicate with each other properly, or rebel for that matter, as there would no longer be any words to express it
Agreeing with James Baldwin point on the importance of language, how someone talks continue in determining their level of lifestyle, but also contributes
The spoken word can influence and impede life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Every word possesses a specific denotation, connotation, and has varies in meanings in particular situations. Individuals use the varied meanings to influence surrounding people. Speakers utilize language to evoke emotion
In 1984 that is taken away by Newspeak. This creates a country with lack of languages. In Oceania there is no negative phrases. As Syme said to Winston ‘“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.
Language: “The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall.” (2) “Day and night the telescreens bruised your ears with statistics proving that people today had more food, more clothes, better houses, better recreations... Not a word of it could be proved or disproved... It was like a single equation with two unknowns” (74) L(1) George Orwell, the author of 1984, uses figurative language within this quote with a perfectly crafted simile.
Language is used everyday in lives. We use it to communicate with each other to show how we feel or think. Comfort can drift away from us if we do not have the ability to communicate with others. Barriers can present themselves when trying to communicate inhibiting language. In the short story Out of All Them Bright Stars by Nancy Kress, she puts an alien in a normal dinner and everyone is uncomfortable with his presence there except his waitress.
Language is a major themes in both novels “1984” by George Orwell and “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwool. Language are heavily reshape in both novel in order to crave a goal to control individuals. “1984” creates authority over citizens through altering and reducing the English language to its most basic form. To “return” to the root of English, the Party have to eliminate the complexity of the language - synonyms and subtle meaning of words -from the existence of the people minds in the apparent belief that there is no justification from antonyms and ‘shades of meanings’, and only one concept should only subsist . However the true purpose of simplifying language and destroying words is to eliminate concepts that might led to the idealism of rebellion and disobedience; The Party does not want the thoughts of rebellion and disobedience to exist therefore they have to destroy and simplify to a huge extent.
By limiting the vocabulary, Newspeak is essentially “unintelligible” and hence controls the people’s understanding of the real world. Orwell emphasises that language is of utmost importance as it structures and limits the ideas individuals are capable of formulating and expressing. In 1984, language is used as a ‘mind control tool’. The party slogan, “war is peace, freedom is
Language and thought were always seen as two different processes, where thought was always taken as the main process. Language was just seen as means of communication, a process of expressing our thoughts to other people, and so, a thought came first, which means that language was developed as that thought was put to words. But then, we later realized that the way a person speaks affects the way they think, and that people of different languages think in different ways. That is why in George Orwell’s 1984, the INGSOC Party used language to manipulate and eradicate personal thought for political purposes; they developed a new language called Newspeak, with the intention and aim of obtaining total control and make any other thought impossible. The Party’s replacement of Oldspeak by Newspeask made many thought words impossible and was therefore used as a mechanism of control.
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is quoted as saying, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world,” a sentiment heroically displayed in the novel 1984, written by George Orwell. Within the confines of the story of Winston, a man living in Oceania under the complete and total control of the Party, Orwell accurately displays the limited language forced upon the citizens and explains the inexplicable way the party destroyed the past in order to completely control the future of its members. Furthermore, Orwell intricately examines the devolution of language and the subsequent effects on the intellect of citizens and their personal belief systems. Upon reviewing and examining Old English and Middle English prose, it has become blatantly
On the one hand, some argue that language constructs our thoughts. From this perspective, Deborah Tannen, from the language constructs thought community, states that “This is how language works. It invisibly molds our way of thinking about people, actions, and the world around us” (Tannen 14). On the other hand, however, others such as Richard Selzer, might say that language is used to represent our thoughts, but it can fall short. One of his view’s main proponents are, “these extremes of sensation remain beyond the power of language to express” (Selzer 28).
Words and languages spoken affect human perception of things. Words are weapons mightier than swords that can change the entire human psyche. In a world where humans co-exist surrounded by social activity, language becomes one of our main mediums of expression. Emoto’s water experiment observed the power of words, as water stamped with positive words created far more aesthetically pleasing crystalline molecular structures, than did the water stamped with negative phrases. (High Existence)
Language is an important part of our life. Language and communication cannot separate. People use the language as a means of communication to express their ideas and feelings. They communicate either with each other using language in every social interaction; communicate with others directly or indirectly in the spoken and written form. Therefore, language is an important thing of communication in social life.