In Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, “newspeak” is established as the official language in Oceania. As a language fabricated for the convenience of the totalitarian government, newspeak only allows a limited set of expressions, which in turn limited the freedom of thought. The notion of newspeak reflects Orwell’s concerns about the English language; he feared that by distorting it, its beauty, and more importantly, its ability to convey truth and voice would vanish. Unfortunately, his warning has come true; today, the manipulation of English language limits the creativity and efficiency of this language and meanwhile exploits disadvantaged social classes. The degenerated English today will harm the variety and efficiency of expression in the long term. Language police tries to prohibit certain uses in English, most of which involve analogies or metaphors deemed as “inappropriate.” For …show more content…
Their intention is to protect children from the linguistic root of violence, but the solution seems ineffective. Many of the recommended alternatives contain abstract nouns such as “vulnerability,” and “consequences,” (766) which may confuse young children who have just begun exploring the world and the language. Applying this ineffective guideline, teachers can fail to foster students’ linguistic intelligence – a key purpose of elementary education – which means that the future generation will be less expressive. Mike Lester provides another bizarre example in his sarcastic cartoon, in which a committee member becomes embarrassed when others know he has a Jeep Cherokee, just