Introduction 3 chapter chapter I fictional languages in the context of modern reality 5

2.2.3. Peculiarities of Newspeak vocabulary

Information about the official language of the state of Oceania "Newspeak" is presented in the text of the novel extremely fragmented.
The fact of the existence of "newspeak" is stated from the first pages of the novel. For example, the author gives the names of four ministries; each of the names is built on the principle of "inverted logic": the ministry of Truth ( Minitrue ) - the Ministry of Truth ( mini-rights ), whose task is to forge official documents; the ministry of Peace ( Minipax ) - Ministry of Peace ( minimir ), organizing wars with neighboring states; the ministry of Love ( Miniluv ) - ministry
Love ( mini-lyub ), where "infidels" of the Citizens' Party are tortured; the ministry of Plenty ( Miniplenty ) - Ministry of Abundance ( Minizo ).
In addition, fragments of "Newspeak" appear in the official documents that Winston Smith works with:
« times 17.4.84 bb speech malreported Africa rectify times 19.12.83 forecasts 3 yp 4th quarter 83 misprints verify current issue times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquated chocolate rectify times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons
rewrite fullwise upsub antefiling " (p. 50).
17.4.84 speech s.b. wrong africa clarify
times 14.2.84 plan 4 quarters 83 typos to be agreed today
number:
times 14.2.84 application miniso wrong chocolate refine
times 3.12.83 minus minus the order is set out with. b. non-persons mentioned
rewrite through up to the filing” (p. 119).
The reader learns about the directions of development of Newspeak from Winston's conversation with Syme , a philologist, an employee of one of the many departments. Syme is one of the developers of another abridged version of the Newspeak dictionary.
Moreover, the main text includes individual words built on the principles of Newspeak, while the author explains them in these words. However, basic information about the structure of the word and its functioning can only be obtained from a linguistic application, which formally has no connection with the main text of the work.
The clear and logical organization of the Newspeak structure is reminiscent of the organization of the social order itself in Oceania. Like the population of Oceania, the vocabulary of the language is divided into three classes.
Class A is represented by the minimum number of lexical units necessary for everyday communication. This class of lexemes is the smallest in terms of the number of units and contains, for the most part, traditional elements of the English language.
Class B is a class of political concepts. It is extremely difficult for a person unfamiliar with the principles of Angsots to understand the meaning of such words. Most of the vocabulary of class B is composed of compound lexical units.
Class C includes scientific and technical terms with Latin and Greek roots. A feature of the scientific terms of "Newspeak" is that any connection with other, undesirable meanings is excluded, although in a living, developing language, even terms have a figurative meaning and cause certain associations. Tokens of this class can only be used by professionals. Moreover, each specialist has access only to a certain list of terms necessary in the field of his professional activity.
A clear division of vocabulary into classes is dictated by the principles of a totalitarian society: class in the language maintains stability and strengthens the division of society into social classes. The author confirms this idea in the article “The Suppression of Literature”: “A society becomes totalitarian when its structures become blatantly artificial, that is, when its ruling class loses its purpose, but continues to cling to power by force or deceit” (Orwell, 2000: 43) .
The system of word formation in Newspeak is based on quantitative and qualitative changes. Quantitative changes include both the formation of compound words and the reduction process. Compound words have a number of characteristics: a single stress, continuous spelling or hyphenated spelling, as well as semantic, morphological and syntactic unity. In a sentence, a compound word acts as a separate lexical unit. In comparison with real-life languages, where compound words are formed according to certain rules (these should be two bases that function in the language as independent forms), in Newspeak compound words can be formed from lexemes of any part of speech, combined in an arbitrary order. The only principle that speakers are guided by is the principle of ease of articulation. For example, in Newspeak there is a pair of words crimethink and thoughtcrime , where the element crime in the first case is at the beginning of the word, in the second - at the end. And in the word thinkpol, the second element " think " (" thought ") ended up in the first position.
Some words from the Newspeak dictionary, like the word Newspeak itself, have become part of real languages: they are recorded, including in English and Russian. For example, Merriam-Webster's dictionary collegiate The Dictionary contains the word “ newspeak ” (“newspeak”). The dictionary entry indicates the origin of this word and the authorship of J. Orwell :
« newspeak n, often cap [Newspeak, a language "designed to diminish the range of thought," in the novel 1984 (1949) by George Orwell] (1950): propagandist; language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings". —
« new.speak n., often with ap . letters [Newspeak is a language "created to narrow the horizons of thought", in the novel "1984" (1949) by J. Orwell] (1950): propaganda language, distinguished by euphemism , paraphrases, distortion of familiar meanings.
In addition, the Lingvo electronic dictionary also contains a dictionary entry about Newspeak:
newspeak , newspeak a) " new language" - a propaganda language invented by Orwell in the romance "1984", limiting the possibilities to express anything that goes beyond the narrow circle of ideas imposed on the carrier:
Newspeak is a propagandists language marked by euphemism , inversion of customary Russian language and creation of deceptive words . “Newspeak is a propaganda language that is characterized by euphemisms, distortion of common meanings, and the creation of misleading words.
b) bureaucratic or propaganda jargon Syn : double-talk »
It should be noted that the double-talk form is fixed in both dictionaries. This form is formed by analogy with the lexeme doublethink (doublethink - arbitrary, for selfish or security reasons; intellectual or moral duplicity), which is also part of Newspeak and means "hypocrisy; hypocritical talk."
Doublethink is the main tool of the Ministry of Truth, which makes statements that contradict each other be considered true, and apply one of them depending on the circumstances. With the help of doublethink, the Party rewrites history according to its desires and needs, and also corrects a person's memories, forcing him to forget about facts that contradict today's ideology.
It is important to note that the vocabulary of "Newspeak" is binary , i.e. new words are constructed according to the principle "good - bad", "white - black", "new - old", while the seme "new" is a synonym for the seme "good" , a
"old" is synonymous with "crime". So, "Newspeak" is opposed to
Oldspeak : " In Oldspeak (or Standard English) this might be rendered..." (p. 40). - “In old language (ordinary English) it meant something like the following ...” (p. 124); prudence ( goodthink ) - “ oldthink ” ( oldthink ): “She was - do you know the Newspeak word goodthinkful ? Meaning naturally orthodox, incapable of thinking a bad thought ?" (p. 140) - “ She ? You know, in Newspeak
there is a word "benevolent". Means: faithful by nature, incapable of bad thought” (p. 195).
Compound words in Newspeak combine the stems of different parts of speech. So, one of the models of word formation is the “noun + noun” model:
Dayorder ( order of the day ) - command: « times 3.12.83 reporting bb dayorder doubleplusungood refs unpersons rewrite full wise upsub antefiling " (p. 35)
- “Time 3.12.83 minus minus the order is set out with. b. Non-faces are mentioned to be rewritten through up to the filing” (p. 119).
In addition, in Newspeak, words can be formed according to the adjective + adjective model:
Blackwhite - white and black : “The key word here is blackwhite . Like so many newspeak words, this word had two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this (p.
174). - “The key word here is white- black . Like many Newspeak words, it has two opposite meanings. When applied to an opponent, it means the habit of shamelessly asserting that black is white, contrary to obvious facts. As applied to a party member, a well-intentioned readiness to call black white if party discipline so requires” (p. 263).
Also, in the fictional language of J. Orwell, there is a model of word formation "adjective + noun":
Ownlife - own life : “...to do anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous. There was a word for it in Newspeak: own life, it was called, meaning individualism and eccentricity” (p. 70). - "... everything in how can see love to loneliness - even stroll without satellites are suspicious . There is a word for this in Newspeak: samozhit - means individualism and eccentricity” (p. 155).
In addition, this language has a “noun + verb” model:
Crimestop - self -stop : “The first and simplest stage in the discipline, which can be taught even to young children, is called, in Newspeak. crimestop . Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought” (p. 174). - " First and protozoan stage discipline , which may assimilate even children , called on the Newspeak self-stop . Self-stop means, as it were, the instinctive ability to stop at the threshold of a dangerous thought” (p. 263).
Duckspeak - river cracker : ""There is a word in Newspeak," said Syme . " I don't know whether you know it: duckspeak , to quack like a duck" (p. 48). - "" In Newspeak there is word ," said Syme . - '' Not know known _ whether it you :
" Rochekryak " - quacking like a duck "" (p. 132).
The verb + verb model is also present in Newspeak:
Speakwrite - speech writing : " In the long , windowless hall , with its double row of cubicles and its endless rustle of papers and hum of voices Murmuring into speakwriters , there were quite a dozen people whom Winston didn't even know by name , though he daily saw them hurrying to and fro in the corridors or gesticulating in the Two Minutes Hate " (p. 38). - “In a long, windowless corridor with two rows of glass booths, with an endless rustle of paper and a buzz of voices mumbling in speech records , there were at least a dozen people whom Winston did not even know by name, although they flickered in front of him on the floor all year round. and waved their hands at two minutes of hate"
(p. 122).
The above models of word formation confirm the ability of the elements of "newspeak" to move from one part of speech to another, they make it possible to compose, for example, a noun, from two verbal stems.
A characteristic feature of "Newspeak" is considered to be a glut of abbreviations and abbreviations. This method of word formation became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. in countries dominated by a totalitarian regime.
Abbreviations and abbreviations are extremely common in Newspeak, since brevity, euphony, ease of articulation and unambiguity are fundamental principles in the official language of Oceania. Abbreviations and abbreviations are used for the names of political organizations, institutions, buildings, political doctrines, etc.
In addition, planting artificially formed abbreviations and abbreviations in the language fulfills political tasks: it allows changing and narrowing the original meaning of the word. The use of abbreviations and abbreviations ensures that there are no unwanted associations, leaving native speakers with a dry, unambiguous term.
In Newspeak, abbreviations are one of the most common ways of word formation, moreover, abbreviations act as a way of forming root morphemes. The formation of abbreviations occurs by cutting off the initial, middle or last part of the word. It is important to note that in the sentence, abbreviated words function as full-fledged lexical units: they take on the plural ending: references - refs , proletarians - proles .
« Below that come the dumb masses whom we habitually refer to as " the proles ", numbering perhaps eighty-five per cent of the population " (p. 172). - “Below is a wordless mass, which we habitually call “break through”; they make up, apparently, eighty-five per cent of the population” (p. 260).
Another type of abbreviation is the connected truncated constructions. Such forms are called mergers; in Newspeak, the most frequent pattern of abbreviations is the combination of two nouns, where the first functions as a definition in relation to the second: Recdep - the records department , Ficdep - the Fiction department , Teledep - the teleprograms department , telescreen - television screen , Pornosec - Pornographic section , artsem - artificial insemination :
“There was even a whole subsection - Pornosec . it was called in Newspeak - engaged in producing the lowest kind of pornography, which was sent out in sealed packets and which no Party member, other than those who worked on it, was permitted to look at” (p. 39). - " was even special subdivision , on
called pornography , - who released pornography of the latest analysis - it was sent in sealed packages, and members of the party, with the exception of direct manufacturers, were forbidden to watch it "
(p. 123).
Abbreviations, as one of the types of abbreviations, are found in Newspeak more often than other types, since the abbreviation was originally intended to be used in written speech, while Newspeak functions mainly in writing. Moreover, the frequency of the use of abbreviations in the novel is due to the high productivity of this type of abbreviations. Abbreviations are formed according to the following model: they represent a sequential chain of several letters that preserve the alphabetic reading. However, sometimes the elements of such an abbreviation are separated from each other by dots: Floating fortress cigarettes and other comforts supply - FFCC; Big Brother - BB
Among the word-formation methods common in Newspeak is affixation. Newspeak, being a political language, aims to minimize the number of meaningful roots in the language as much as possible. That is why the language uses a strictly limited set of affixes fixed in dictionaries to express antonymous concepts, negations, the meaning of repetition of an action, etc.
The most common prefixes: mal - and mis - with the meaning "wrong" ( wrongly ): malreport ,
malquoted , misprint ; un - before adjectives has a negative meaning ( not ):
ungood ; before nouns - “non-existent”: unperson (so called “dispersed”, allegedly non-existent citizens); and before the verb un - means the action opposite in meaning ( to do the opposite ): unproceed . up - direction up, usually to a higher official ( to a higher authority ): upsub .
Of the postfixes, the most common are:
- wise - an indicator of an adverb with the meaning "how" ( in the manner of ): fullwise ( in full ), speedwise ( quickly ), constructionwise
- ful - an indicator of an adjective, meaning "possessing this quality": goodthinkful ( naturally orthodox );
- er - indicator of a noun formed from a verb and denoting the producer of the action: goodthinker , oldthinker
Another characteristic of Newspeak vocabulary, especially class B vocabulary, is its saturation with euphemisms. Class B words are political and ideological concepts whose real meaning is the opposite of that which is inherent in the form of the word, which justifies the abundance of euphemisms in this class of vocabulary. In Newspeak, euphemisms are designed to replace words and expressions that are frightening in a totalitarian society with opposite ones, distorting people's ideas about reality. Thus, labor camps in "1984" were renamed "Joy Camps" ( joycamp ), instead of "Ministry of War" - "Ministry of Peace" ( Minipax ), colonies for homeless children are called "correctional centers" ( Reclamation
centers ).
In modern media, euphemisms are actively used to maintain political correctness, which J. Orwell tried to emphasize in his work. In this regard, some linguists distinguish between two languages - the "language of facts" ( fact language ) and "language of ideas" ( idea language ). The peculiarity of the "language of ideas" is expressed in their use for purposes opposite to the true nature of communication: not to express thought, but to mask it.
Thus, ideas about the fictional language " newspeak " are formed from the elements of "newspeak" incorporated into the novel and a theoretical application that generalizes ideas about the ways of using this artificial language and its resources. It is important to note that the elements of "newspeak" influence the artistic world of the work, occupying a significant place in its poetics.