1984 George Orwell / Newspeak: "If thought corrupts language, language corrupts thought" (and #PAWGset)

null

...
Joined
Nov 12, 2014
Messages
29,227
Reputation
4,894
Daps
46,442
Reppin
UK, DE, GY, DMV




The basic motivating principle behind Newspeak is that you can only ponder or think deeply about things that you have words for,

i.e. the absence of words leads to absence of deep thought.

Is that true?

We observe that humans always want to put a name to things and that hiding your name, or being more than a name is seen in lore / popular culture as being protection or an empowerment.

the-batman.gif


iu


words are power and the right words can inspire an army. can inspire a nation.









words are said to have power as manifested by not saying names (god, devil) of casting spells/curses, of blessings

-

so what does that say about vocabulary? both as a tool to affect others and as a tool to develop yourself?

does the man imbued with the greatest vocabulary inherit power?







"In the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), by George Orwell, Newspeak is the fictional language of Oceania, a totalitarian superstate. To meet the ideological requirements of Ingsoc (English Socialism) in Oceania, the Party created Newspeak, which is a controlled language of simplified grammar and limited vocabulary designed to limit a person's ability for critical thinking. The Newspeak language thus limits the person's ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such as personal identity, self-expression, and free will,[1][2] which are thoughtcrimes, acts of personal independence that contradict the ideological orthodoxy of Ingsoc collectivism.[3][4]
In the appendix to the novel, "The Principles of Newspeak", Orwell explains that Newspeak follows most rules of English grammar, yet is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning. The political contractions of Newspeak — Ingsoc (English Socialism), Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty) — are similar to German and Russian contractions in the 20th century, such as Nazi (Nationalsozialist), Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), politburo (Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union), Comintern (Communist International), kolkhoz (collective farm), and Komsomol (communist youth union). Newspeak contractions usually are syllabic abbreviations meant to conceal the speaker's ideology from the speaker and the listener:"




TL;DR (TLR) with no words indirectly or directly for b00tay, could you think about bootay? with no words for PAWG would #PAWG-set exist?
 
Top