The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research Volume 19 Article 7 2018 Newspeak Warrants New Thought: Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Linguistic Determinism in Nazi Language Barry Rogenmoser St. John Fisher College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur Part of the Literature in English, British Isles Commons How has open access to Fisher Digital Publications benefited ou?y Recommended Citation Rogenmoser, Barry. "Newspeak Warrants New Thought: Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Linguistic Determinism in Nazi Language." The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 19 (2018): -. Web. [date of access]. <https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol19/iss1/7>. This document is posted at https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol19/iss1/7 and is brought to you for free and open access by Fisher Digital Publications at St. John Fisher College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Newspeak Warrants New Thought: Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Linguistic Determinism in Nazi Language Keywords Nineteen Eighty-Four, Newspeak, Nazi, Language, Linguistic Determinism, Orwell, 1984 This article is available in The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/ vol19/iss1/7 Rogenmoser: Newspeak Warrants New Thought Newspeak Warrants New Thought: Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Linguistic Determinism in Nazi Language Barry Rogenmoser Introduction native people’s ability to conceptualize thoughts of opposition and autonomously “By 2050 earlier, probably -- all real express themselves. Although Nineteen knowledge of Oldspeak will have Eighty-Four is not a colonial text, the disappeared. The whole literature of the past language imposed by the authoritarian will have been destroyed. Chaucer, government functions in the same way that Shakespeare, Milton, Byron -- they'll exist the language imposed by a colonial force only in Newspeak versions, not merely does: it limits the ability of the people to changed into something different, but express themselves. Although Nineteen actually changed into something Eighty-Four is frequently read as a warning contradictory of what they used to be. Even against a future that may one day reach the literature of the Party will change. Even fruition, Orwell’s Newspeak mirrors the the slogans will change. How could you linguistic influence of the Nazi party that have a slogan like "freedom is slavery" existed during the early twentieth century. when the concept of freedom has been By analyzing Newspeak terminology and abolished? The whole climate of thought paralleling the function of language within will be different. In fact there will be no Oceania and Nazi, Germany, Nineteen thought, as we understand it now. Eighty-Four looks less dystopian and more Orthodoxy means not thinking -- not satirical. needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness” (Orwell 53). The Principles of Newspeak Language has a tremendous influence on Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s thought-processes and power over behavior, swan song to literature, depicts the tragedy and the linguistic limitations that control the of Winston Smith as he attempts to citizens in George Orwell’s dystopian novel undermine an oppressive regime. He lives in Nineteen Eighty-Four demonstrate this the totalitarian superstate of Oceania, which effect. Although Orwell created the fictitious is controlled by the Inner Party and their language of Newspeak exclusively as an advanced surveillance techniques, called Big authoritarian control method in the novel, Brother. In an effort to live an individualistic this is not a concept that exists exclusively and pre-Revolutionized life, Winston begins in Orwellian fiction. Language curtailing to write in a diary, engages in sexual and linguistic alteration designed to restrain relations for pleasure, and joins the individuals existed in the early twentieth Brotherhood, which are all severely century, particularly in extremist and punished crimes in Oceania. He eventually totalitarian political parties during the early discovers that he was monitored by a nineteenth century. Colonial theory suggests telescreen all along, and O’Brien, a member that the presence of an outside conqueror of the Inner Party, psychologically torments leads to the imposition of a new language, Winston to the point where he no longer can which oftentimes results in limiting the will himself to defy Big Brother. Published by Fisher Digital Publications, 2018 1 The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research, Vol. 19 [2018], Art. 7 Newspeak is the fictional language in the be needed will be expressed by exactly novel, and although it has not yet been fully one word, with its meaning rigidly adopted by the characters in the novel, it is defined and all its subsidiary meanings designated as the official language of rubbed out and forgotten. (53) Oceania. The eventual antagonist, O’Brien, asserts that Newspeak will completely Not only are the words with multiple replace Oldspeak, or traditional English, by definitions going to lose their secondary the year 2050. Not much is revealed about meanings that are deemed frivolous and Newspeak within the narrative of the novel; oppositional to the party, but every idea will however, Orwell includes an appendix be boiled down to only one word. Synonyms chapter titled, “The Principles of and colorful expression will be eradicated in Newspeak,” which outlines the grammar, order to eliminate the ability to think about semantics, and pragmatics of the language. antagonism or revolution. Newspeak advocates intend to remove undesirable words, eliminate unnecessary After Newspeak is accepted, there will only secondary definitions, include blanket terms be three types of vocabularies: the A words, that shroud specificity, and shorten words in which are needed for everyday business; the order to reduce inherent biases and diminish B Words, which were invented for political the range of thought. purposes; and the C Words, which are specific to science and technology. Within “The Principles of Newspeak” supplements the B Words are terms that have “highly the primary text by revealing exactly how subtilized meaning, barely intelligible to Newspeak is designed to limit thought and anyone who had not mastered the language suppress individualism. The first objective as a whole” (Orwell 307). These words have of Newspeak is to eliminate secondary political intentions, so they are never definitions of words that allow for ideologically neutral. Each term or phrase is intellectual independence. The example that reduced to the smallest number of syllables Orwell gives of this definition reduction is that can keep the derivative words. An the word “free.” The word “free” has two example of this is “sexcrime,” which is any definitions in the traditional English sexual act that is prohibited by the language: to not be under the control of government in Nineteen Eighty-Four. This another power and to rid of something. In includes all sex that is not exclusively Newspeak, the first definition is abolished; intended to be for procreation, including therefore, political participation and intercourse for pleasure, homosexuality, and intellectual freedom no longer exist as adultery. The appendix is concluded by the concepts, and the range of thought is unknown narrator revealing that important shortened (305). Within the narrative of the literature is in the process of being translated novel, this is expressed by Syme, who is into Newspeak, which would render the Winston’s coworker. He says to Winston: original texts unreadable. Orwell writes, “Each reduction was a gain, since the Don't you see that the whole aim of smaller the area of choice, the smaller the Newspeak is to narrow the range of temptation to take thought” (311). If crimes thought? In the end we shall make against the Inner Party become unspeakable, thought crime literally impossible, they become unimaginable, and would no because there will be no words in which longer be committed. to express it. Every concept that can ever https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol19/iss1/7 2 Rogenmoser: Newspeak Warrants New Thought Self-perception and the understanding of an that it critiques the society that Orwell individual word stem from the vocabulary writes within. tools that are accessible. The construct of equality vis-à-vis egalitarianism is not Jean-Jacques Courtine and Laura Willett perceivable if this particular definition of argue that the Revolution that occurred equality is eradicated. The Declaration of before the events depicted in the novel is Independence, which states, “All men are actually starting to happen as a real-world created equal” would then be understood to conversion from Oldspeak to Newspeak say that all men are exactly the same, which takes place. Language has the power to would be perceived as an impossibility and control thought and provide a space for would be rendered illogical. Just by emotions and inner resistance to propagate; eliminating one definition of a word, Orwell therefore, totalitarian powers have a stake in theorizes that it would invalidate a document controlling language. The process of as important as the Declaration of language truncation has already begun in Independence, and the cultural values of the contemporary society with the translations society would shift resultantly. of Shakespeare and Milton, and this is demarking the commencement of a real-life Nineteen Eighty-Four as a Satirical Text Orwellian insurgency. In Nineteen Eighty- Four, O’Brien says, “Has it ever occurred to The existing scholarship tends to view you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the Nineteen Eighty-Four as a text that is very latest, not a single human being will be predictive of a future that contemporary alive who could understand such a society is getting dangerously close to. Jean- conversation as we are having now?” (53). Jacques Courtine and Laura Willett in their O’Brien is illustrating that in the fictitious article, “A Brave New Language: Orwell's Oceania, language will be completely Invention of ‘Newspeak’ in 1984,” address unrecognizable in less than seventy years.