Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2014 11:23:00 GMT -5
I should perhaps clarify that I did indeed lift part of the Orwell story from Nic Rigby and the BBC, and that the words are therefore not entirely my own. What I should perhaps add is that my elder sister lives in this part of Suffolk, which explains my own journey up the Suffolk coast. I am rather too young to have known Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell or the American, Edmund Wilson.
According to Wikipedia, George Orwell was inspired to invent Newspeak by the constructed language Basic English, which he promoted from 1942 to 1944 before emphatically rejecting it in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'. In this paper he deplores the bad English of his day, citing dying metaphors, pretentious diction or rhetoric, and meaningless words, which he claimed to encourage unclear thought and reasoning. Towards the end of the essay, Orwell states: “I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words or constructions."
Wikipedia - Newspeak
The BBC is certainly responsible for having created a standard form of English, although I don't think that it is quite Newspeak. When we are writing about racial and sexual issues, in particular, we have to be very careful about our choice of words, because we can be prosecuted for racism or sexism if we use inappropriate vocabulary. Not everything is black and white! So there is a form of Newspeak, but perhaps not quite as Orwell described it in '1984'.
Perhaps I ought to state an opinion about the use of English on 'The Third Programme', BBC Radio 3, and indeed, American English, where it differs from BBC English, and other versions of English around the world. My own opinion is that we should seek to speak with tongues of fire. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Bible Gateway - Acts 2 (King James Version)
The Third's existence was controversial from the beginning, partly because of perceived "elitism" – it was sometimes criticised for broadcasting programmes of "two dons talking" – and also for the costs of output relative to a small listener reach. Its existence was against Reithian principles, as Reith himself had, during his time at the BBC, been against segmenting audiences by splitting programming genres across different networks.
Wikipedia - BBC Third Programme
Audiences are inevitably segmented, but we should also strive to bring them together. It is a bit like going into a Welsh pub, where all the locals speak Welsh, even though they can speak English. The landlord should make the effort to be polyglot, and so should we!
According to Wikipedia, George Orwell was inspired to invent Newspeak by the constructed language Basic English, which he promoted from 1942 to 1944 before emphatically rejecting it in his essay 'Politics and the English Language'. In this paper he deplores the bad English of his day, citing dying metaphors, pretentious diction or rhetoric, and meaningless words, which he claimed to encourage unclear thought and reasoning. Towards the end of the essay, Orwell states: “I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this would argue, if they produced an argument at all, that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development by any direct tinkering with words or constructions."
Wikipedia - Newspeak
The BBC is certainly responsible for having created a standard form of English, although I don't think that it is quite Newspeak. When we are writing about racial and sexual issues, in particular, we have to be very careful about our choice of words, because we can be prosecuted for racism or sexism if we use inappropriate vocabulary. Not everything is black and white! So there is a form of Newspeak, but perhaps not quite as Orwell described it in '1984'.
Perhaps I ought to state an opinion about the use of English on 'The Third Programme', BBC Radio 3, and indeed, American English, where it differs from BBC English, and other versions of English around the world. My own opinion is that we should seek to speak with tongues of fire. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Bible Gateway - Acts 2 (King James Version)
The Third's existence was controversial from the beginning, partly because of perceived "elitism" – it was sometimes criticised for broadcasting programmes of "two dons talking" – and also for the costs of output relative to a small listener reach. Its existence was against Reithian principles, as Reith himself had, during his time at the BBC, been against segmenting audiences by splitting programming genres across different networks.
Wikipedia - BBC Third Programme
Audiences are inevitably segmented, but we should also strive to bring them together. It is a bit like going into a Welsh pub, where all the locals speak Welsh, even though they can speak English. The landlord should make the effort to be polyglot, and so should we!
