Newspeak

Introduction

Similarities

What is Newspeak?

Newspeak is used in 1984 to limit the thoughts of the people and shorten language. We can relate to Newspeak in today's society with texting, people can type a simple message and shorten the words. For example, " I'll get back 2 u."

- Newspeak was a language created in the book "1984".

- The purpose of Newspeak was to make vocabulary as exact and simple as possible

- This makes it easier to hear the real message behind what is being said (The party used it to control thoughts/thought crime.

- "Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought.. by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum" (page 300, 1984)

- It limits the freedom of thought.

- "Orwell lays out in detail how language can be (mis)used to deceive and control the masses. In the real world today, political correctness and euphemism are both pervasive and pervasively derided. " (Webpage: policy.mic.com; 4 Predictions From Orwell’s '1984' That Are Coming True Today)

- Political Correctness is considered to be the same as Newspeak

- Newspeak had shortened the vocabulary of English, today's texting is being shortened too. (Ex. "how r u?")

The manipulation of language in 1984

One of the main points in 1984 is the way how the government manipulates and shrinks language. For example, Newspeak's new edition in the dictionary minimizes language by eliminating synonyms and antonyms and simplifying the word.

"If you have a word like 'good', what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well- better, because it's the exact opposite, which the other is not" (Orwell 51).

With the simplicity of the language, the citizens can't express themselves and their thoughts are shortened. Newspeaks goal is to eliminate the thought crime. They have no words to express themselves.

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there would be no words in which to express it" (Orwell 52).

Falsifying Language in 1984

How does Newspeak relate to this generation?

Winston's job in 1984 was to take old documents and re-write them to be up to date with the present. Since everything was lies then everybody,course believed in the lies. So eventually the lies became the truth. This is where Doublethink comes in. Doublethink is getting two contradictory beliefs and accepting them.

The reasons for falsifying language in 1984 was for the people not to question or have "rebellious" thought against the Party. The less they know, the better for the Party.

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became truth. "Who controls the past," ran the Party slogan, "controls the future: who controls the present controls the past." And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak, "doublethink."

- Newspeak is similar to texting in this generation

- The purposes of Newspeak and language through text are different

- But the idea of the shrinking of the English language is very similar with the idea behind Newspeak in 1984.

Differences

Conclusion

- Newspeak was created to be able to control thoughts and eliminate thoughtcrime.

- They shortened vocabulary incredibly. They completely simplified the English language

- The way we text is for faster purposes and laziness

- Newspeak is a very straight-forward language and with texting there can be so many different meaning to a phrase. It can be very complicated.

Citations

- So, Newspeak and English in this generation do have some similarities but they don't necessarily have the same intentions/purpose. But the whole idea of simplifying language is the same as Newspeak and it has people questioning it and writing articles about the subject.

-The manipulation of language and the falsification of it played a major impact in 1984. Newspeak was trying to shrink language in order for people to stop having thoughts and for them not being able to express themselves. Falsifying documents allowed the Party to control the past and restrict people from researching about it. They wanted to create this propaganda that the society that they were living in now is better than before. Thoughts are what makes us human and in 1984 the Party wanted to restrict them from that and basically make them robots.

Denvil, Alasdair. "4 Predictions from Orwell's '1984' That Are Coming True Today." Policy.Mic. Mic.com, 18 June 2013. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.

Mosley, Harry. "Political Correctness Is Today’s Newspeak." <i>Thesouthern.com</i>. The Southern, 12 Oct. 2010. Web. 26 Aug. 2015.

Orwell, George, and Erich Fromm. 1984: A Novel. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1961. Print.

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