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The Language of 1984. Newspeak and its influence on us. The Language of Oceania is Newspeak. The function of Newspeak is to actually limit the range of human thought, not broaden it. Words are removed from the vocabulary in order to reduce the possible ideas people can express.
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The Language of 1984 Newspeak and its influence on us
The Language of Oceania is Newspeak. • The function of Newspeak is to actually limit the range of human thought, not broaden it. • Words are removed from the vocabulary in order to reduce the possible ideas people can express. • If it is impossible to express an idea (say “protest” for example) then the idea itself becomes useless because it literally doesn’t exist.
Newspeak example (pg. 248) • The newspeak word “cold” = lacking temperate (it would never be defined like this though, it would be simply “cold” = cold). • Uncold = warm (we’re eliminating words so you don’t need cold’s antonym, just add un-). • All synonyms of “cold” are likewise eliminated: frigid, bitter, frosty, arctic, bleak, chilly, cool, freezing, frozen, icy, wintry, indifferent, passionless, reserved, stoical, unconcerned, unfeeling, etc. • If you would wish to modify the word to express levels of coldness, you would simply add prefixes: • Pluscold = very cold, doublepluscold= excessively cold • You could also use prefixes like ante-, post-, up-, down-. • All aspects of cold and warmth can be satisfied by one word: COLD
Newspeak continued… • We do something very similar in our culture. • We use euphemisms. • Euphemisms are words meant to hide the true meaning of the ideas or actions they are actually about. (Ex. He passed away. She checked out.) • Oftentimes they are complicated phrases for rather simple ideas or actions.
Try figuring out what these Euphemisms are. They come from real world sources. • Front leaning rest exercises. • Answer: push-ups (military speak) • Preemptive counter-attack • Answer: Invasion (this is now American policy in the war on terror.)
Euphemisms continued… • Air support • Answer: Bombing (As in, we need air support covering that structure.) • Servicing the Target • Answer: Killing the Enemy (American soldiers servicing the target were successful today as…)
Euphemisms continued… • Wooden interdental stimulators • Answer: toothpicks (This is the term the Pentagon used in their budget to Congress as they spent $300 million on this item.) • Collateral Damage • Answer: civilian casualties or deaths
Euphemisms continued… • Tactical Redeployment • Answer: Retreat (As the enemy advanced on our positions we had a tactical redeployment in the direction of our former base of operations.) • Disruptive reentry system • Answer: Nuclear bomb (This was how it was described in military invoice lists.)
Euphemisms aren’t limited to government or military uses. • Career scanning professional • Answer: cashier • Social expression product • Answer: greeting card • Non-performing assets • Answer: bad loans or poor stocks • Controlled flight into terrain • Answer: plane crash • Environmentally destabilized • Answer: polluted
More euphemisms… • Energetic disassembly • Answer: explosion • Sub-standard housing • Answer: ghetto • Revenue enhancement • Answer: taxes • Poorly buffered precipitation • Answer: acid rain • Period of accelerated negative growth • Answer: watch your job cause we’re headed for a RECESSION!
Why do these euphemisms work? • The human brain, for whatever reason, is poorly equipped to notice negatives. • In general, most people in a weird way, think positively. • So to trick us, advertisers, businesses, the military, lawyers, the government and anyone else who wants to hide the real meaning from us, couches their ideas in positive phrasing.
Why euphemisms work…continued… • Look at some of the positive words used previously: • Pre- • Support • Redeployment • Reentry • Performing assets • Controlled flight • Stabilized • Assembly • Standard • Enhancement • Buffered • Accelerated growth
Euphemisms continued… • Now, what negatives were used with those words? • Disruptive • Non- • De- • Dis- • Sub- • Poorly • Negative
Psychologists avoid using negatives. • A golf coach would never say the following: Don’t hit it in the water! Did he say “hit it in the water”? SPLASH!!
So in conclusion…Newspeak serves the same function as euphemisms. • Activity: Write a brief paragraph describing yourself, in glowing terms, like you would for a newspaper caption about your graduation from high school. • Now rewrite the paragraph by getting rid of all words that are synonyms. Boil those synonyms down to one word (ex. Fabulous, tremendous, outstanding, nice, all become GOOD). Use abbreviations whenever possible (Curwensville High School graduate becomes Curgrad). Make it as short as possible. No complicated ideas. • Congratulations: you now get Newspeak and have effectively murdered the English language!
