Reading about Newspeak in 1984 reminded me of a concept I learned during a college Sociology class I took last spring: The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis theorizes that language is not simply a way of voicing ideas, but is the very thing which shapes those ideas. In other words, language defines the society. For example, the word “wifebeater” may mean a shirt, but the fact that people colloquially use this term reflects a somewhat androcentric and/or misogynistic society. Now applying this theory to Newspeak: what aspects of Newspeak reflect the kind of society Winston lives in?
The language of Newspeak is terse and simple as opposed to the complexities and long-windedness of Oldspeak, and purposely so. Likewise, the thought processes citizens of Ingsoc are diminutive and bare because that’s what Big Brother wants them to think. Moreover, the language of Newspeak is full of meaningless words which contribute to the lack of logical thinking, another way of stopping citizens from forming ideas. Newspeak is one of the methods that the State employs to subtly control its people. By reducing words to their bare meanings, they limit the ideas that one can express or even think of. For example, by removing the contexts of “political freedom” and “intellectual equality” in Newspeak words, rebellion is impossible because Ingsoc citizens do not even know what it means to be free—it doesn’t exist in their heads. These don’t think because they have nothing with which to think about.
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