Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ducimus
Controlling language, is a way to control thought. Or.. so ive been told.
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It is: Read Orwell's
1984, that was the whole point of having "Newspeak" as the official language of Oceana. Newspeak was basically a variety of English that had it's expressiveness neutered (for example, synonyms were eliminated, as were supurlative descriptive words), intended to render those whoe knew it as their only language incapable of unorthidox thought. Of course it is difficult to control thought through language in people who are multi-lingual (as is the case in Western Europe today, where the majority are fluent in at least two languages), which is why Newspeak was intended to replace not only conventional English (Oldspeak) in Oceana but every other language as well.
Orwell's concept of using language to control thought is based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which theorized that all thought and perception is constrained by language. And although thought and perception is not as completely constrained by language as Sapir and Whorf had proposed, the opposite contention (that thought and perception is completely uninfluenced by language) is equally false.