The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is commonly discussed and used by linguists. It states that there are certain thoughts that an individual can think in one language and that can not be understood in another and that the way people think is strongly affected by their native language. Keeping this hypothesis in mind how can the influence of Newspeak affect the thoughts of the citizens of Oceania? what control would that give the authority? How does this hypothesis change your view on Newspeak? and above all what is the nature of the english language? Please react.
It is in the case of Newspeak that one can say that this hypothesis is not fully true. Personally, I disagree with it as I consider that language is only one way to communicate between each other. It is a technique that helps us put our thoughts into life. Still, it does not keep any of us from developing any personal opinions. As we can Newspeak tries to limit people from any intellectual or emotional development; however, people as Winston or Julia still think, and rebel by acting. The human mind is way to developed to be controlled by a restriction of words. Feeling and emotions are the strongest thing one could ever feel; therefore, it is incredibly hard to destroy it. As Winston says the power of the love of two people in an unstoppable force and indeed it is the one thing that the government can not control since they are unable to get inside the citizens.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that Hafsa's point is valid I think the clearly the intention of Newspeak is to exploit the very advantage proposed by the Sapir Whorf hypothesis - to restrict the intellectual capacity of its speakers. We must remember that Winston and Julia are still in that generation where they were exposed to some Oldspeak (when O'Brien converses with Winston, he says that he uses several oldspeak words), and perhaps this is why they can still rebel. However, with the passage of time, even thoughts that were previously "thinkable" in the head as lets say "images" as opposed to language, would no longer find themselves expressed, because the speaker simply has no more words, and is totally unaware as the generation only exposed to Newspeak the concept of "freedom" or "democracy" that can label anyone a dissident in AirStrip One. But then again, if this new generation only speaks Newspeak and has no prior knowledge of any other form of "foreign language"(also cleverly restricted by the party) then how can they even "think" or even conceptualize such notions?
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