Language has the power to give shape to thought. In George Orwell’s novel Nineteen-Eighty Four, the Party controls its citizens through language, in order to solidify its grip on power. This is done by restricting rather than broadening thought through methods such as ‘newspeak’ (Leah Beach “Language, Liberty, and George Orwell”). I will argue that the Party succeeds in doing this through application of the theory of linguistic relativity, which is a principle that holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its respective speakers conceptualize their world (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_relativity)
In George Orwell’s Dystopian novel, Nineteen-Eighty Four, Linguistic relativity and psychological manipulation …show more content…
It’s like “turning himself into a machine” (Orwell “Politics and the English Language” 1946) which emphasizes that language, in this case political language, may turn one into a machine. The person would not be aware that they are transforming into a machine since they are being controlled by the language .Orwell states that“one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy” (Orwell “Politics and the English Language” 1946) which he is trying to show that language can control one’s mentality. The Party’s aim is mainly to control the citizens by limiting their range of thought using political language such as ‘doublethink’, therefore one appears to be transforming into something that the human brain cannot control. This shows that the citizens are stuck in their own bodies, which emphasizes the concept of freedom does not exist in Oceania in the slogan ‘Freedom is Slavery’. “It was noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quaking of a duck”(Orwell 1949:63), here Orwell is basically implying the newspeak term duckspeak. Duckspeak is not speaking without thinking, just like the quack of a duck (http://forum.prisonplent.com/index.php?topic=162852.0). He uses this to show that one is not conscious of what he is doing or saying “his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words himself” (Orwell: “Politics and the English Language” 1946). The Political Language is used to make horrible events sound wonderful. One appears to be a ‘machine’ because he uses language to make lies sound like the ultimate truth yet when one thinks about it, he is being controlled by the language “ not speech in its true sense”, and not conscious on what is really happening around him. Duckspeak is used for ‘political conformity’
In George Orwell’s Dystopian novel, Nineteen-Eighty Four, Linguistic relativity and psychological manipulation …show more content…
It’s like “turning himself into a machine” (Orwell “Politics and the English Language” 1946) which emphasizes that language, in this case political language, may turn one into a machine. The person would not be aware that they are transforming into a machine since they are being controlled by the language .Orwell states that“one often has a curious feeling that one is not watching a live human being but some kind of dummy” (Orwell “Politics and the English Language” 1946) which he is trying to show that language can control one’s mentality. The Party’s aim is mainly to control the citizens by limiting their range of thought using political language such as ‘doublethink’, therefore one appears to be transforming into something that the human brain cannot control. This shows that the citizens are stuck in their own bodies, which emphasizes the concept of freedom does not exist in Oceania in the slogan ‘Freedom is Slavery’. “It was noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quaking of a duck”(Orwell 1949:63), here Orwell is basically implying the newspeak term duckspeak. Duckspeak is not speaking without thinking, just like the quack of a duck (http://forum.prisonplent.com/index.php?topic=162852.0). He uses this to show that one is not conscious of what he is doing or saying “his brain is not involved as it would be if he were choosing his words himself” (Orwell: “Politics and the English Language” 1946). The Political Language is used to make horrible events sound wonderful. One appears to be a ‘machine’ because he uses language to make lies sound like the ultimate truth yet when one thinks about it, he is being controlled by the language “ not speech in its true sense”, and not conscious on what is really happening around him. Duckspeak is used for ‘political conformity’