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Politics and the English Language (1946) is an essay by George Orwell wherein he criticizes "ugly and inaccurate" contemporary written English, and asserts that it was both a cause and an effect of foolish thinking and dishonest politics. He calls "vagueness and sheer incompetence" the "most marked characteristic" of contemporary English prose, and especially of the political writing of his day. He criticizes contemporary writers for preferring the abstract to the concrete, claiming it reduces precise thought. He notes that insincerity is the enemy of clear prose and that much contemporary political writing was in defence of the indefensible. Orwell argues that, in addition to being aesthetically unpleasant and disingenuous in its discussion of politics, bad writing is morally wrong.[1] As a writer Orwell "believed he was [morally] bound to give as much of himself to his writing as he could" and so "drove himself relentlessly" to avoid the kind of bad writing he describes in the essay.[2] Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 [1] [2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ...
Orwell asserts that the English language is declining, but that the decline is reversible. He cites five examples of bad contemporary writing, criticizing them for their "staleness of imagery" and "lack of precision". The essay describes the "tricks" his contemporaries used in avoiding the work and thought required for composing clear prose: overused (or "dying") metaphors, "operators or false verbal limbs" used in preference to simple verbs, pretentious diction, and "meaningless words." In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope where a comparison is made between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ...
Pretentious or flowery language is a type of writing that uses complex and ostentatious words and phrases claiming or demanding distinction in merit, especially when unjustified. ...
Politics and the English Language originally was published in the April, 1946 issue of the journal Horizon. [3] Michael Sheldon, in Orwell's authorized biography, calls it "his most influential essay."[4] Terry Eagleton praised its "demystification" of political language, although later was disenchanted with Orwell.[5] Terry Eagleton (born in Salford, Lancashire (now Greater Manchester), England, on February 22, 1943) is a British literary critic and philosopher. ...
Politics and the English Language was written when Animal Farm had just been completed and Nineteen Eighty-Four was a preliminary manuscript, a time of critical and commercial literary success for Orwell.[6] In the English-speaking world, this essay often is assigned reading in introductory writing courses.[7] For other uses, see Animal Farm (disambiguation). ...
This article is about the Orwell novel. ...
Connection to other works The essay Politics and the English Language was published at approximately the same time as his other essay, The Prevention of Literature. Both reflect Orwell's concern with truth and how this concern has returned him to the use of language. Orwell's concern with language dates from Gordon Comstock's dislike of advertising slogans in Keep the Aspidistra Flying, and had been an obsession since Homage to Catalonia. It continued as an underlying theme of his work in the years after World War II.[8] Book cover Keep the Aspidistra Flying, first published 1936, is a grimly comic novel by George Orwell. ...
Homage to Catalonia book cover Homage to Catalonia is George Orwells personal account of the Spanish Civil War, written in the first person. ...
Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
Themes developed in Politics and the English Language anticipate Orwell's development of Newspeak in Nineteen Eighty-Four.[9] Sheldon calls Newspeak, "the perfect language for a society of bad writers [like those Orwell describes in Politics and the English Language] because it reduces the number of choices available to them."[10] Picking up on themes Orwell began exploring in this essay, Newspeak corrupts writers first morally and then politically, "since it allows writers to cheat themselves and their readers with ready-made prose."[11] Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
This article is about the Orwell novel. ...
"Translation" of Ecclesiastes To give an example of what he is describing, Orwell "translates" Ecclesiastes 9:11 , Ecclesiastes, Qohelet in Hebrew, is a book of the Hebrew Bible. ...
| “ | I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. | ” | into "modern English of the worst sort," | “ | Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. | ” | One of Orwell's instructors at St Cyprian's School, Mrs. Cicely Ellen Philiadelphia Vaughan Wilkes (nee Comyn and nicknamed "Mum" or "Flip"), had used the same method to illustrate good writing to her students. She would use simple passages from the King James Bible and then "translate" them into poor English to show the clarity and brilliance of the original.[12] St Cyprians was an expensive and exclusive preparatory school for boys, founded in 1899, which operated in the early twentieth century in Eastbourne, East Sussex, England. ...
The King James or Authorized Version of the Bible is an English translation of the Christian Bible first published in 1611. ...
Six rules Orwell concedes that it was easy for his contemporaries to slip into bad writing of the sort he describes, and says that the temptation to use meaningless or hackneyed phrases was like a "packet of aspirins always at one's elbow." In particular, they are always ready to form the writer's thoughts for him to save him the bother of thinking, or writing, clearly. However, he concludes that the progress of bad writing is not irreversible and offers the reader six rules that he says will help them avoid most of the errors in the examples of poor writing he gave earlier in the article:[13] | “ | - Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
- Never use a long word where a short one will do.
- If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
- Never use the passive where you can use the active.
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
| ” | John Rodden claims, given much of Orwell's work was polemical, he sometimes violated these rules and Orwell himself concedes that he has no doubt violated some of them in the very essay in which they were included.[14] Nevertheless, these rules are still widely suggested as a guide for modern writers. This article is about metaphor in literature and rhetoric. ...
A simile is a comparison of two unlike things, typically marked by use of like, as, than, or resembles. Common examples are Curley was flopping like a fish on a line(extract of Mice and Men) etc. ...
A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or elocution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. ...
In English as in many other languages, the passive voice is the form of a transitive verb whose grammatical subject serves as the patient, receiving the action of the verb. ...
For the glossary of hacker slang, see Jargon File. ...
Quotations Elsewhere in the essay, Orwell examined what he believed to be a close association between bad prose and inhumane ideology: Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ...
| “ | Consider for instance some comfortable English professor defending Russian totalitarianism. He cannot say outright, "I believe in killing off your opponents when you can get good results by doing so." Probably, therefore, he will say something like this: While freely conceding that the Soviet regime exhibits certain features which the humanitarian may be inclined to deplore, we must, I think, agree that a certain curtailment of the right to political opposition is an unavoidable concomitant of transitional periods, and that the rigours which the Russian people have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box: Totalitarianism is a term employed by some scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior. ...
CCCP redirects here. ...
| ” | Orwell comments that: | “ | The inflated style itself is a kind of euphemism. A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outline and covering up all the details. The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink. In our age there is no such thing as "keeping out of politics." All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find—this is a guess which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify—that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship. | ” | Euphemism is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener; or in the case of doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker. ...
Orders and Families †Vasseuriina †Vasseuriidae †Belosepiellidae Sepiina †Belosaepiidae Sepiadariidae Sepiidae Cuttlefish are marine animals of the order Sepiida belonging to the Cephalopoda class (which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses). ...
References - ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 393.
- ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 394-5.
- ^ Taylor, D.J. (2003). Orwell: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 376.
- ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 392.
- ^ Quoted in Rodden, John (1989). The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of 'St. George" Orwell. New York: Oxford University Press, 379.
- ^ Hammond, J.R. (1982). A George Orwell Companion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 217.
- ^ Rodden, John (1989). The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of 'St. George" Orwell. New York: Oxford University Press, 296.
- ^ Hammond, J.R. (1982). A George Orwell Companion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 218-9.
- ^ Taylor, D.J. (2003). Orwell: A Life. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 376.
- ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 394.
- ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 394.
- ^ Shelden, Michael (1991). Orwell: The Authorized Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 56.
- ^ Hammond, J.R. (1982). A George Orwell Companion. New York: St. Martin's Press, 218.
- ^ Rodden, John (1989). The Politics of Literary Reputation: The Making and Claiming of 'St. George" Orwell. New York: Oxford University Press, 40.
See also A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, often referred to simply as Fowlers Modern English Usage, or Fowler, is a style guide to British English usage, authored by Henry W. Fowler. ...
Sir Humphrey Appleby, on the left, giving directions to the Minister as usual Sir Humphrey Appleby, GCB (April 5, 1929 – December 26, 2001)[1] is one of the three main characters of the 1980s British sitcom Yes, Minister and its sequel, Yes, Prime Minister. ...
LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (1947) is a book by Victor Klemperer, Professor of French at the University of Dresden. ...
Logorrhoea or logorrhea (Greek λογοÏÏοια, logorrhoia, “word-fluxâ€) is defined as an “excessive flow of words†and, when used medically, refers to incoherent talkativeness that occurs in certain kinds of mental illness, such as mania. ...
Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwells novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. ...
Obfuscation refers to the concept of concealing the meaning of communication by making it more confusing and harder to interpret. ...
Plain English focuses on being a flexible and efficient writing style that readers can understand in one reading. ...
// Pleonasm is the use of more words (or even word-parts) than necessary to express an idea clearly. ...
External links This audio file was created from an article revision dated 2007- 01-21, and may not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ( Audio help) - Original text:
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