Language Changes

In 1984 there is a language called Newspeak. From examples of this in the book it seems for the most part they just combine words together to form new words. There is also a large process of the destruction of words. Winston's "friend" Syme is one of the people who works on the dictionary. He explained that there is no need for synonyms or antonyms. The example used in the book was good. If something is good, you simply use the word good. If it's better, you say plusgood, and if it's bad you say ungood. This would eliminate the need for excess words like outstanding, great, and keen. This may seem like a good thing and that it would make things simpler, however, it would be much harder to express emotion and intelligence. This would be good for Oceanea's purpose, but it is so destructive to the way we think and express ourselves. Sometimes we can make ourselves feel smarter and express our intelligence through the words we use. I disagree with Newspeak because it takes away our freedom of thought and knowlege. This is what Oceanea is aiming for. They have tried their hardest so far to take away peoples' freedom, and with the new dictionary I believe they could succeed in doing so. There may not be enough words to express their thoughts, therefore they could not hate Big Brother. In the book it says that orthodoxy is unconciousness. If you are not thinking, I suppose you could be considered unconcious. All of this is so hard to comprehend, because most humans have never thought of it and don't even know how to not think.This is why I think the destruction of words could be so dangerous. Words are a wonderful thing and should never be destroyed. We create new words all the time. It may be a word that will soon become know nationwide, or just some silly, meaningless word someone thought of one day. Words are so important and we would be nothing without them today.