Study of George Orwell's Politics and the English Language Term Paper

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Politics and English Language

POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

George Orwell in his essay 'Politics and the English Language' discusses the flaws and degeneration of English language. He believes that since the language is clearly losing its focus and direction, it is rapidly becoming unclear and vague giving rise to literary pieces that make little or no sense at all. Many people share Orwell's observation and feel that for some odd reason, English language is bringing on its own decline by making some common mistakes repeatedly and persistently. It has been noticed that with frequent use of words and phrases that sound fancy enough but actually lack meaning, English writing is becoming unclear and unfocused. The author has cited some examples of how the so-called learned people make clear mistakes in English writing and the vocabulary they use simply is mind-boggling. Readers are left in a sate of confusion and they wonder whether their own standards have declined or have they suddenly lost command over this language for what they read certainly doesn't sound like English to them. This modern English is very different from what we call Standard English and we notice that modern English is guilty of four very common mistakes or blunders. These errors are as follows:

Orwell believes that the first terrible mistake made by modern writers is the use of old and almost dead metaphors. He is of the view that since writers no longer try to build their vocabulary or invent new and better phrases for themselves, they often use similes or metaphors that have become so dry and dull, that they do not serve their purpose and fail to excite the readers. He writes, "there is a huge dump of worn-out metaphors which have lost all evocative power and are merely used because they save people the trouble of inventing phrases for themselves.

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Examples are: Ring the changes on, take up the cudgel for, toe the line, ride roughshod over, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, no axe to grind, grist to the mill, fishing in troubled waters, on the order of the day, Achilles' heel, swan song, hotbed."

Orwell is convinced that modern writers use their metaphors without being fully aware of their meaning and simply to save themselves the trouble of developing better phrases. Now we can't blame Orwell for being so harsh with modern English writers because we must have come across similar vague pieces ourselves. Pick up some newspaper or magazine and you will find countless examples of unclear writing where use of obtuse and almost senseless metaphors completely destroys the essence of the write-up. For example read the following definition of democracy by E.B. White and you might have to spend a day or two encoding the passage: "Democracy is the line that forms on the right. It is the don't in Don't shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is the letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea that hasn't been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad."

The second common mistake according to Orwell is the use of inappropriate verbs or nouns. He feels that we tend to overuse 'verb phrases' instead of verb words, which….....

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