The novlangue ( newspeak in English) is the official language of Océania invented by George Orwell for her novel 1984 . It is a lexical and syntactic simplification of the language intended to make impossible the expression of the ideas subversive and to avoid any formulation of criticism (and even the only “idea” of criticism) of the State. Being opposed to the ancilangue, “old language”, it is close to real the language known as Politiquement correct E.

Principles

The fundamental idea of the novlangue is to remove all the nuances of a language in order to preserve only Dichotomie S which reinforce the influence of the State. A high rate/rhythm of Syllabe S is also aimed, with the hope which the speed of the words prevents the reflection.

Moreover, if the language has the “good” word, it is useless that it has also the “bad” word. One creates the “bad” concept by adding a prefix marking the negation (that will give “inbon”). Grammar is also simplified, thus plural is always marked by an S (one says “chevals” and “genous”); the verbs combine all in the same way.

A verb must always derive from the name corresponding when there exists. In the english language version, to cut (to cross) is thus replaced by to knife (drifting of the name knife).

These characteristics of the novlangue, supposed to modify the language at ends of handling, exist in agglutinant Langues which make it possible to express all the nuances of the human thought, like the Japanese or the Esperanto. Its critic of the replacement of all the terms “bad, feeling reluctant, disgusting, execrable, repugnant…” by simple “a inbon” unflexibility for an english-speaking, but the process is used in the agglutinant languages in daily communication, and sometimes in poetry. The novlangue also surprises especially an english-speaking addressing himself to other english-speaking having them a vocabulary of: 30000 words and more. Let us note that Orwell knew Esperanto via its long stay in his/her aunt Ellen Kate Limouzin, woman of Eugene Lanti, one of the founders and main motors of working Esperanto.

One will note that if this kind of process makes the language simpler to learn, and is thus advantageous for a language of communication, in the Circle of the missing poets professor Keating precisely defends the use of " exténué" instead of " very fatigué" in the name of the beauty of the language, which according to him should not be only used to communicate but allure the opposite sex (see also the article The mating mind).

The idea subjacent with the novlangue is that if something cannot be known as, then this thing cannot be thought durably for lack of reinforcement by the exchange. The question raised by this assumption is to know if we always define the language or sums sometimes “formatted” by it. For example, can one feel the idea of freedom if we are unaware of this word? This theory is related on the Hypothèse Sapir-Whorf and the formula of Ludwig Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world”.

Examples of words

  • Miniver : (ministry for the truth).
  • Doublepensée : capacity to accept two opposite points of view simultaneously and thus to put out of critical very thought night light.
  • Plusbon: better.
  • Doubleplusbon: better.
  • Crimesex: sexual activity practiced without goal of reproduction.
  • Canelangue: qualifying an opponent: verbosity; qualifying an orthodoxe member of the party: eloquence.

The double significance of the words has the merit (for its creators) to exempt of all speculative Pensée, and thus of any germ of future dispute. Since the words change direction according to whether one designates a friend of the party or an enemy of this one, it becomes obviously impossible to criticize a friend of the party, but also to rent one of its enemies.

Let us take for example the word “to blancnoir”. When it qualifies an enemy, it expresses its argumentativeness with the facts, to say that the black is white. But when it qualifies a member of the Party, it expresses the honest tender with the Party, the aptitude to believe that the black is white, and more still, to be “conscious” that the black is white, and to forget that forever be the case (thanks to the principle of “doublepensée”).

Example of trap by the words?

I was struck to run up against the fact that the same interlocutors who, in situation of chattering, made very complicated political analyzes relationship between the direction, the workmen, the trade unions and their local sections, were completely disarmed, had practically nothing any more to say but banalities as soon as I asked them questions of the type of those which one poses in the public opinion polls - and also in the essays. I.e. questions which require that one adopt a style which consists in speaking on a mode such as the question about truth or of the forgery is not posed. The school system teaches not only one language, but a report/ratio with the language which is interdependent of a report/ratio to the things, a report/ratio with the beings, a report/ratio in the completely derealized world.

See too

References

  • the writer Robert Beauvais defined a bombastic alternative of French used in the media, which it named the Hexagonal, like a kind of novlangue of modern times.
  • See also the entitled book LQR: Propaganda of the Daily newspaper , Eric Hazan, concerning propaganda " néolibérale" , as well as the concept of Lingua Tertii Imperii known as LTI (language of the Third Reich) highlighted by Victor Klemperer.
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