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1984

‘Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we will make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it’ (Orwell, 1949, p.49)


The concept of thought being limited by language is an idea that surfaces in George Orwell’s book ‘1984’. Since this book’s release in 1949 many people have debated Orwell’s idea of ‘newspeak’ and countless books and papers have been published on the topic. Newspeak is a politically correct language that fits in with the fundamentals of English socialism also known in Orwell’s book as ‘Ingsoc”. This idea of thought being limited by the extent of words available within a language, raises many questions; how can a concept be created without the words to explain it; how can certain things be thought of without the words to create that thought; this leads onto the question of how can people communicate their ideas to others with out the words t...

Posted by: Gelinde Cobbs

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