orwell, sapir/whorf, and you

"in these passages whorf sets forth a double principle: the principle of linguistic determination, namely, that the way one thinks is determined by the language one speaks, and the principle of linguistic relativity, that differences among languages must therefore be reflected in the differences in the worldviews of their speakers." from "language, culture, and society: an introduction to linguistic anthropology" by zdenek salzmann ____________________________________________________________________________ "the purpose of newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. it was intended that when newspeak had been adopted once and for all and oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought, that is a thought diverging from the principles of ingsoc, should be literally unthinkable...newspaek was designed not to extend, but to diminish the range of thought..." from "appendix: the principles of newspeak" from "1984" by george orwell. ____________________________________________________________________________ eric blair was a writer, and as such it is understandable that he was obsessed by language...you can see it in his essays like "the lion and the unicorn" or "cigarettes or books"...but it really comes out when he writes about the unfortunate uses language is put to when it it twisted and distorted by politicians ( read whores ) to whatever unsavory antics they were up to...have a look at " the prevention of literature" or "politics and the english language" and you'll see what i mean...newspeak was thoroughly rooted in linguistic determinism ( see pinker or chomsky for a rebuttal of linguistic determinism...or e.o. wilson of you want whole-hog socio-biology)and although whorf was dead by the time orwell wrote 1984 he still was a contemporary and it's possible that george had read some of his writings...if he did it scared the crap out of him almost as much as james burnham did,a nd being the lover of language that he was george just had to turn its mutilation ( and so a strong sapir/whorf ) into a horror story with a touch of stalinist style cant and a propensity for sudden outbreaks of "non-person" that evoked a "memory hole" as stalin's cronies disappeared from old photos one by one...sapir/whorf is a favorite of politicians ( although the ignorant fucks probably would know what the sapir/whorf hypothesis was if it bit them on the ass )...they want to believe that we can't communicate with one another...share stories, hopes, disappointments...address common problems in an equitable way...recognize limits and act responsibly...have a culture...my plan is to disappoint them.