Chapter 11 appendix

Principles of Newspeak Newspeak, the official language of Oceania, was invented to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc (British Socialism).In 1984 no one had been able to use Newspeak as his only means of communication, whether spoken or written.Although the editorials in The Times were written in Newspeak, it was a craft that only experts could master.It is expected that by 2050, Newspeak will eventually replace Oldspeak, the standard English we speak.At the same time, it developed steadily, with all Party members increasingly using Newspeak words and grammatical structures in their everyday conversation.The version used in 1984 can be found in the ninth and tenth editions of the Newspeak Dictionary. It is only a temporary version, and many redundant words and outdated structures in it will definitely be eliminated in the future.Here we are concerned only with its latest and most complete edition, which can be found in the eleventh edition of the Newspeak Dictionary.

The purpose of Newspeak was not merely to provide supporters of Ingsoc with a means of expression appropriate to their worldview and intellectual habits, but to eliminate all other modes of thought.Thus, after Newspeak had been adopted and Oldspeak had been forgotten, heretical thought, that is, thought contrary to the principles of Ingsoc, was simply unthinkable, at least so long as thought depended on words.It coined words in such a way that every meaning that a Party member wished to express correctly could be expressed with certainty, and often with subtlety; as for other meanings, even the chance of obtaining them by indirect means was completely absent.This has been possible partly by inventing new words, but mostly by doing away with obnoxious words, purging those that still carry unorthodox meanings, and possibly eliminating those meanings inconsistent vocabulary.As a simple example, Newspeak also has the word "free", but it can only be used in "This dog is free from lice", "This field is free from weeds" (There are no weeds in this field), the former "politically free" (political freedom), "intellectually free" (freedom of thought) can no longer be used in the sense of freedom, because political freedom and freedom of thought even It no longer exists as a concept, so it must have no name.The reduction of vocabulary goes far beyond the suppression of words that are truly heretical. It is considered an end in itself, and any words that can be omitted are avoided.Newspeak was invented not to widen but to narrow the reach of thought, and the minimization of the vocabulary contributed indirectly to this result.

Newspeak was based on the English we use today, although there are many sentences in Newspeak that would be barely recognizable to speakers of English today, even without the newly coined words.There are three categories of vocabulary in Newspeak, ABC, and category B is also called compound words.It is more convenient to discuss the three types of words separately, and we discuss the grammatical characteristics together in the A type of words, because the three types of words follow the same rules. Class A words. Class A words are those words that must be used in daily affairs, such as eating, working, dressing, going upstairs, going downstairs, driving, planting flowers, cooking, and so on.It is almost all those words that we have already used, such as hit, run, dog, tree, sugar, house, field, etc., but compared with the English we use today, its number is very small, and the meaning is very small. are much more strictly limited.All ambiguous and nuanced places in meaning have been deleted.If so, then an A word is just an independent guttural sound, denoting a concept we all know well.In this way, it is completely impossible to use category A words in literature, in political and philosophical discussions.What it seeks to express is simple, intentional thought, usually involving concrete objects or bodily actions.

There are two main features of Newspeak grammar.The first is that words of different parts of speech can be almost completely mixed.Any of its words can be used as verbs, nouns, adjectives or adverbs. In principle, even very abstract nouns like "if" (if) "when" (when...) not excluded.The rule that the verb form of a word with the same root does not differ in any way from its noun form abolishes many ancient forms.For example, Newspeak does not have the word "thought" (noun "thought"). It is replaced by "think" (verb form "thought"), which can be both a noun and a verb.There is no principle of etymology here, sometimes it retains the original noun form, sometimes it retains the verb form.Many times, if a verb has the same meaning as a noun, even if their etymology has nothing to do with each other, one will be discarded.For example, the word "cut" ("cut") is gone, and its meaning is completely contained in the verb and noun "knife" ("knife").Adjectives are formed by adding the suffix "ful" ("of") to verbs and nouns, and adding "wise" ("地") to adverbs.Thus, for example, "speedful" means "quickly" (instead of "rapid"), and "speedwise" means "quickly" (instead of "quickly").Some of the adjectives we use now, like "good," "strong," "big," "dark," and "soft," also survived, but in small numbers.There's not much need for them, because just adding "ful" to those verb-cum-noun words can express the meaning of an adjective.The adverbs we use now, except for a few that originally ended in "wise", are not used; the ending "wise" remains unchanged.For example, "well" is changed to "goodwise".

In addition, each word can be negative by adding the prefix "un", adding emphasis by adding the prefix "plus", and adding "doubleplus" for further emphasis. In principle, every word in Newspeak is like this.For example, "uncold" ("not cold") means "warm" ("warm"), "pluscold" means "very cold", and "doublepluscold" means "very, very cold".Newspeak can also be like modern English, adding prepositional prefixes such as "ante", "post", "up", "down", etc. can change the meaning of almost every word.In this way it can greatly reduce the vocabulary.For example, with the word "good" ("good"), the word "bad" is unnecessary, because the word "ungood" ("not good") can express what we want, and express it in the same way Good, -- better, in fact.Whenever there are two words that naturally form antonyms, a choice must be made.For example, the word "unlight" ("not bright") can be used instead of "dark" ("dark"), and the word "undark" ("not dark") can also be used instead of "light" ("bright"), depending on the Depends on preference.

A second distinguishing feature of Newspeak grammar is its regularity.With a few exceptions mentioned below, all inflections follow the same rules.Thus, the past tense and past participle of every verb end in "ed," the past tense of "steal" becomes "stealed," the past tense of "think" becomes "thinked," and other Newspeak words The same is true, and forms such as "swan", "gave", "brought", "spoke" and "taken" are all abolished.All plurals are added with "s" or "es", as the case may be.Thus, the plurals of "man", "ox", and "life" become "mans", "oxes", "lifes".Add "er" and "est" to the comparatives of adjectives (such as "good, gooder, bestest"), and all irregular forms and forms expressed with "more" and "most" are cancelled.

The only words that are allowed to change irregularly are pronouns, relative pronouns, demonstrative adjectives, and adverbs.These words are used as before, only "whom" was dropped because it was considered redundant; the tenses expressed with "shall" and "should" are no longer used, and their usage is included in "will" and "would". among.For the sake of quick and concise speech, there are also irregular changes in some word forms.A word that is difficult to pronounce or easily misheard can be said to be a bad word.Therefore, sometimes some letters are inserted in some words for the sake of hearing, or the former form is retained.But it's mostly B-type words.Why it is so important to have a simple pronunciation will be explained later.

Class B words. Type B words are all deliberately created for political purposes, that is to say, these words not only have political meanings, but also want to give users the desired ideological attitude.These words cannot be used correctly without a good understanding of the principles of Ingsoc.Sometimes they can also be converted into old words, or into A-type words, but this often requires long notes, and it is inevitable to lose some meaning behind the words. Class B words are a form of verbal shorthand that often crams a whole set of thoughts into a few syllables, but at the same time is more condensed than ordinary speech.

Class B words are compound words.They consist of two or more words, or part of several words, combined in a way that is convenient for spoken English.These neologisms are generally both verbs and nouns, and their deformations follow the general rules.To give a simple example, the word "goodthink" ("good thinking") roughly means "orthodoxy" ("orthodoxy"), and if it is used as a verb, it means "thinking in an orthodox way".Its morphological changes are as follows: verb and noun "goodthink", past tense and past participle "goodthinked", present participle "goodthinking", adjective "goodthinkful", adverb "goodthinkwise", gerund "goodthinker".

There is no unified etymological scheme for the construction of Class B words.The words formed by them can serve as every component of a sentence, and can be reversed and deleted at will, as long as it is convenient for pronunciation and at the same time indicates the source of the word.For example, in "crimethink" ("criminal thought"), "think" ("thought") comes after; ") the last syllable is dropped.It is difficult to make sure that the pronunciation is pleasing to the ear, so irregular forms are more common in B words than A words.For example, the adjective forms of "Minitrue" ("真部"), "Minipax" ("和部"), and "Miniluv" ("爱部") are "Minitruthful", "Minipeaceful", and "Miniloveful" respectively. The reason is It is a little unnatural to pronounce "trueful", "paxful", "loveful".But in principle, the form of words in class B can change, and the way of changing is almost the same.

Among the words in category B, some words have very subtle meanings, which cannot be seen by people who have not thoroughly understood the language.For example, to take a typical sentence in an editorial in The Times, "Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc", put it in an old saying, and the shortest way to say it is, "Men whose ideas were formed before the Revolution cannot fully feel the principles of English socialism. understanding", but this translation is not complete.First, to fully understand the full meaning of this Newspeak phrase, we need to understand what "Ingsoc" means; moreover, only those who have mastered Ingsoc can taste the whole power of "bellyfeel", which refers to It is a kind of blind and enthusiastic acceptance that we can hardly imagine today; there is also the word "oldthink", which contains evil and decadent meanings.But there are some words in Newspeak, including "oldthink," that have a special function, and they do not so much express a meaning as they suppress it.These words are few in number, but their meanings can be extended all the time. In the end, the meanings we used to express with a group of words are all summarized by this one word, and this group of words can now be erased from memory. The greatest difficulty encountered by the compilers of the Newspeak Dictionary was not inventing new words, which had already been invented, but in ascertaining the exact meaning of these words, that is, of the words which they replaced. Group of words. As "free" revealed above, some words that once had heretical meanings have been retained for convenience, but the inappropriate meanings have been removed.Many other words, such as "honor", "justice", "morality", "internationalism", "democracy", "science", "religion" and so on, have all been discontinued.These words are covered by other words, and the essence of this covering is cancellation.For example, all words related to the concepts of freedom and equality are covered by the simple word "crimethink" ("criminal thought"), while words related to objectivity and rationality are covered by the simple word "oldthink" ("old thinking") Words are included.Excessive precision can be dangerous. What a party member requires is to have a concept similar to that of the ancient Hebrews: he does not know much, only that other peoples worship "false gods" except himself .He need not know the names of these "false gods".Perhaps the less he knew, the more it contributed to his orthodoxy.He knew Yahweh and Yahweh's commandments, and from this he knew that gods with other names and attributes are "false gods."The situation of party members is similar.They know what is right, and they know in vague terms what is wrong.For example, his sex life is regulated by two words, "sexcrime" ("sex crime") and "goodsex" ("sex normal").Sexual crimes include all sexual misdeeds, incest, adultery, homosexuality and other sexual perversions are sexual crimes, and normal sexual behavior, if it is for the purpose of sex life itself, is also a sexual crime.There is no need to list them separately, since they are all equally crimes, punishable in principle by death.For category C words, they are all scientific and technical words, and it may be necessary to provide special names for certain indiscreet behaviors, but ordinary citizens do not need them.An ordinary citizen knows what "sexual normality" is, which is sexual intercourse between husband and wife for the purpose of procreation, and the woman has no pleasure; everything else is "sexual crime".In Newspeak one cannot go any further than knowing that a heretical thought is heresy, because there is no word for it. Class B words are not ideologically neutral, and there are a lot of euphemisms, such as "Happy House" actually refers to forced labor camps, and "Ministry of Peace" actually refers to the Ministry of War. Almost exactly.Others expressed a frankly contemptuous view of the true nature of Oceanian society, such as "prolefeed" for the kind of cheap entertainment and false news that the party handed out to the masses.There are also some words that have a double color. If they describe the party, they are positive, and when they describe the enemy, they are negative.In addition, there are a large number of words, which at first glance are only abbreviations, whose ideological color does not derive from its meaning, but from its structure. Whenever possible, anything that has a slight political impact, or may have an impact, is placed in the B category of words.The names of all organisations, groups, doctrines, states, institutions, public buildings are always truncated to appear in a common form, that is, with as few syllables as possible, for ease of pronunciation, while retaining the original source of the word.For example, the Records Bureau under the Ministry of Truth, where Winston Smith works, is called "Ji Zong", the Fiction Bureau is called "Shuo Zong", the Telecommunications Bureau is called "Dian Zong", and so on.It's not just about saving time.As early as the turn of the century, the use of compressed words and phrases was a feature of political language; and it has been found that the use of such abbreviations is most pronounced in totalitarian states and organizations such as "Nazi", "Gestapo ", "Comintern" are examples.This practice was instinctive at first, but Newspeak made conscious use of it.It has been found that when a name is thus reduced, many of the associations attached to it disappear, and its meaning is thus restricted and subtly altered.For example, "The International Organization of the Communists" conjures up a picture composed of human fraternity, red flags, barricades, Karl Marx and the Paris Commune, while the "Comintern" implies that people are a strict organization, a definite doctrine, referring to something as recognizable as a chair, a table, of limited use.A person can hardly think about it when he says "Comintern", but he will inevitably hesitate a little when he encounters "International Organization of Communists".Likewise, words like "Minitrue" evoke far fewer and more manageable associations than "Ministry of Truth."This would explain why people prefer to use abbreviations whenever possible, and why people take such care, almost to the point of anachronism, that every word is easy to pronounce. In Newspeak, besides the exactness of the meaning of the words, the melody of the voice is the most important thing, and the rules of grammar are also subject to it when necessary.And as it should be, since political considerations are demanding words with unmistakable meaning and short, clear pronunciations that enable speakers to enunciate words quickly with little lingering echo in their minds. In category B words, almost all of them are similar, which makes it more powerful.Words like "goodthink", "Minipax", "prolefeed", "sexcrime", "joycamp", "Ingsoc", "bellyfeel", "thinkpol", and countless others have only two or three syllables, The first and last syllables are also stressed.The use of these words facilitates the rapid, terse style of speaking, the staccato and the monotonous, which the Party desires.It is the party's intention to keep speech, especially speech on matters that are not ideologically neutral, as far removed from human consciousness as possible.In daily life, there are undoubtedly times when you need to think before speaking, but when a party member responds to the call to express his stance on political or ethical issues, he should be able to blurt out the correct opinion, as completely automatic as a machine gun firing a bullet.His training adapted him to this demand, the language itself gave him almost infallible tools, and the formation of words, supplemented by jerky, jarring pronunciation, was in keeping with the spirit of Ingsoc. , -- more altruistic play. Another point that also helps a lot is that the choice of words is very limited.Newspeak has a small vocabulary compared to our own, and is constantly inventing new ways to reduce it.In fact, what makes Newspeak so special is that its vocabulary does not increase every year, but decreases.Every reduction increases its fruit by one point, for the fewer options there are, the less tempting ideas are.Ultimately, what the party wants is that when a person speaks, only the throat is producing sound, without the participation of higher nerve centers.The Newspeak word "duckspeak" expresses this intention quite bluntly, meaning "quack like a duck". "duckspeak", like many other B-words, is ambiguous: if what is being quacked is orthodox, the word is merely a compliment; like "doubleplusgood duckspeaker" in The Times for a party figure When you're an orator, that's a high, ardent compliment. Class C words. Words in category C are just supplements to the other two categories, which are full of technical terms, similar to the terms we use today, with the same root, but as usual, they are carefully limited and the unpleasant ones are deleted. meaning.Its grammatical rules are exactly the same as those of A and B. C words are almost never found in everyday conversation or political speeches.A scientific and technological worker can find all the vocabulary he needs in the catalog provided for his major; but he knows almost nothing about the vocabulary in other fields.There are very few words that are common to all fields, and we cannot find any vocabulary that ignores the specific branch of science, expresses the function of science as a habit of thought, or a way of thinking, and actually means "science" There is no word, and all possible meanings it may have are now fully contained by the word "Ingsoc". From the above discussion it can be seen that it is almost impossible to express heretical ideas in Newspeak, except at a very low level.It is naturally possible to say some very clumsy heresy ideas, to say some swearing and blasphemous words, for example, you can say "Big Brother is not good".But to an orthodox ear, this speaks of nothing but a self-evident fallacy; and, lacking the necessary vocabulary, it cannot justify itself by rational argument.Thoughts against Ingsoc can only be vague, non-linguistic things, and can only be named by some very general terms: these words are piled together, and there is only a general denunciation of heresy, but never a clear statement. .In fact, one could use Newspeak for unorthodox purposes only by secretly translating its vocabulary into Oldspeak.For example, it is possible to say "all are equal" in Newspeak, but that is no different from saying "all redheads" in Oldspeak.It is not grammatically incorrect, but it means that everyone is the same height, weight and strength, which is clearly a typo.The concept of political equality has disappeared, and this derived sense of equality has been removed from the word "equality."In 1984, with Oldspeak still a normal means of communication, there was a theoretical danger in using Newspeak that people might associate words with their original meanings.But in practice it is not difficult for a man skilled in doublethink to overcome it, and within two or three generations the possibility of it is entirely eliminated.A person who has grown up with Newspeak and has always used Newspeak will not know that the word "equality" once had a derivative meaning of "political equality", nor that "liberty" once had "freedom of thought". " means, which is similar to a person who doesn't know what chess is, and doesn't know that "queen" and "rook" have other meanings.There are many crimes and mistakes that he is incapable of doing, simply because they have no names and cannot be imagined.Predictably, a defining feature of Newspeak, the diminishing vocabulary, stricter meanings, and less potential for abuse, a defining feature of Newspeak, will become more pronounced as time goes on. Once the old words are completely replaced, the connection with the old world is completely severed.History has been rewritten, but fragments of previous documents will remain, evading censorship, and can be read if one knows the old language.In the future, even if such fragments survive, they will be unrecognizable and untranslatable.No passage in Oldspeak is translatable into Newspeak unless it refers to some technical process, some simple everyday behavior, or is inherently orthodox ("goodthinkful" in Newspeak).In practice this means that all books written before about 1960 are generally untranslatable.The translation of pre-revolutionary literature can only be an ideological translation, not only the language but also the meaning must be changed.Here is a famous passage from the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.To secure these rights, a government is established over the crowd, and its powers derive from the consent of the governed.Wherever, at any time, any government is harmful to these ends, the people have the right to change it, abolish it, and establish a new government. It is almost impossible to translate this passage into Newspeak without losing the original meaning.Most likely, nothing more than summing up the entire paragraph with a single word "criminal thought".To translate it fully, it can only be an ideological translation, rendering Jefferson's words as a tribute to absolute government. In fact, a lot of this kind of transformation has been done in the past literature.It is of course advantageous to preserve the memory of certain historical figures for reasons of prestige, but at the same time their achievements must be consistent with the philosophy of Ingsoc.Therefore, authors like Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Byron, Dickens, etc., belong to the ranks of being translated; once the translation is completed, their original works, various remaining historical documents, will be destroyed .Translation is a slow and difficult enterprise, not expected to be completed until the first decade or two of the twenty-first century.There are also a large number of purely functional documents, such as the indispensable technical manuals, which will be produced in the same way.The reason why the final adoption of Newspeak will be set so late, until 2050, is mainly to have enough time to complete the initial translation work.