1984: Big Brother is watching you
‘How is the dictionary getting on?’ said Winston, raising the voice to overcome the noise.
‘Slowly’, said Syme. ‘I’m on the adjectives. It’s fascinating.’ He had brightened up immediately at the mention of Newspeak ……. ‘The eleventh edition is the definitive edition,’ he said. ‘We’re getting the language into its final shape ¾ the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re destroying words ¾ scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the bone. The eleventh edition won’t contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.’ ….
‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn’t only the synonyms; there are also antonyms. After all what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other word? A word contains its opposite in itself. Take “good” for instance. If you have a word like “good”, what need is there for a word like “bad”? “Ungood” will do just as well¾better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of “good”, what use is there in having a whole string of vague useless words like “excellent” and “splendid” and all the rest of them? “Plusgood” covers the meaning; or “doubleplusgood” if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already, but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words¾ in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.’s idea originally, of course,’ he added as an afterthought.
A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston’s face at the mention of Big Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm.
a) Why is the eleventh edition of dictionary particularly interesting to Syme?
Ans.: This edition of Dictionary is interesting to Syme as:
- It is definitive edition.
- The language is in final shape.
- New words are being invented.
- The language is being cut down to the bone.
b) What will Winston have to learn all over again?
Ans. Winston will have to learn English language all over again.
c) What normal English word would you use instead of doubleplusgood?
Ans. We normally use “splended” instead of doubleplusgood.