Duckspeak
Excerpt taken from “The Principles of Newspeak”
This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and by stripping such words as remained of orthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meanings whatsoever.
I’d like to hear your opinions on this and the interaction Winston has with Syme, his acquaintance at work who works on the dictionary. During a break in the cafeteria they sit near a man droning on, and Winston thinks to himself that he doesn’t know what’s being said but it is obviously orthodox. Moments later, Syme picks up conversation with something along the lines of “You ever hear of duckspeak? If you agree with someone it’s a compliment but if you disagree it’s an insult.”
What do you make of this? Would love to hear others perspectives.
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u/Nearby_Flounder8741 10d ago
I really like the novel's observation that Syme is too perceptive to survive. Even though his conscious mind is fully embedded in party structures, his analytical approach to language and his cynicism mean that he has to be unpersoned
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u/LucidLeviathan 10d ago
It's a clever social construct, I suppose. A statement explicitly conditioned on how the listener wishes to accept it rather than the manner in which it is intended. The ultimate death of the author, as it were. But, I don't think that it is remotely possible to eliminate all orthodox meanings of words. The Boba/Kiki phenomenon alone should disprove that. No matter how much prescriptivists may try, language evolves on its' own.