politics and the english language thesis

Empirical research shows that most introductions end with a statement of topic, not the thesis. American writing instructors, and many textbooks, mis-use the term “thesis statement.” The thesis statement is a summary of the main point of the paper it is not the same as the topic statement. And their question was, more or less, whuh? This is the footnote:

Through his creation and explanation of Newspeak, Orwell warns the reader that a government that creates the language and mandates how it is used can control the minds of its citizens.In something I have that’s about writing, I have a footnote, and I was asked about this footnote in my advice on writing by a smart person who noticed that I had packed an awful lot into that footnote. The idea behind Newspeak is that, as language must become less expressive, the mind is more easily controlled. In so doing, Newspeak not only eliminates 'unnecessary' words, but it also promotes a narrowing of thought and, therefore, awareness. Similarly, all degrees of 'goodness' can be expressed simply by adding standard prefixes and suffixes to this one root word: ungood (bad) and plusgood (very good) and doubleplusgood (wonderful).

Therefore, for example, because the word 'good' presumes the opposite of 'bad,' the word 'bad' is unnecessary. Newspeak, on the other hand, loses words, by removing words that represent opposing concepts. A living language, such as English, one that has the capability of diverse expression, has the tendency to gain words and therefore broaden the awareness and knowledge of its speakers. In his Appendix, Orwell explains the syntactical arrangement and the etymology of the Newspeak.

Without a word for freedom, for example, the concept of freedom cannot exist. To illustrate this idea that language can corrupt thought and that totalitarian systems use language to restrict, rather than broaden, ideas, Orwell created Newspeak, the official language of Oceania. Here is the very concept behind the invention of Newspeak. 'When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer,' Orwell writes in his essay, 'Politics and the English Language.' 'If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought,' he continues. Although he had no solid proof, he presumed that the languages of countries under dictatorships, such as the Soviet Union or Germany, had deteriorated under their respective regimes. Orwell was sure that the decline of a language had political and economic causes.

Politics and the english language thesis