Nature of the English Language Essay

Introduction

Language is an important tool of communication because it allows people to understand the meaning, urgency and context of messages. George Orwell believes that political and economic issues transform the nature of the English language; moreover, this perception is supported by various media excerpts that portray how capitalism changes communication.

George Orwell’s Analysis

The author argues that language has been abused by poor habits of conceiving the truth. It has been misused to advance individual’s interests and thus abuse the rights of the majority in the society. Secondly, he blames modernity as the chief cause of the collapse of this language and believes that it must suffer the dangers of these changes (Orwell 1).

Orwell admits that language grows depending on how the society changes and thus it cannot be shaped for an individual’s interest. He believes that the decline of the English language is caused by political and economic issues and not the influence of writers. The author believes that when people’s thoughts are corrupt this will affect how they use language (Orwell 1).

However, he is optimistic that this language can be improved if people decide to avoid bad habits like imitating other people’s communication. He recommends that political regeneration will help people to think clearly and get rid of bad communication habits (Orwell 1).

This ensures the fight against bad English is not left to professional writers. Orwell claims that political speeches are aimed at defending issues that are evident and cannot be covered. Therefore, politicians use language to manipulate their followers and create bad impressions of their opponents.

They misuse vocabularies to describe the weaknesses of their opponents. He believes that politics has affected communication by trying to be verbose, so that it can hide injustices using vague vocabularies and phrases. He uses political events like the Japan bomb attacks, Russian purges and deportations, and British rule in India to explain how euphemistic, vagueness and rhetoric questions are used to cover the activities of dictatorial regimes (Orwell 1).

Lastly, he argues that insincerity is the greatest enemy of the English language because people use exhausted idioms and long words to cover the gap between their real and declared interests in various issues. Politicians have used language to mislead their followers. This has led to abuse of language because vocabularies are used out of their contexts (Orwell 1).

He notes that the sloppy use of language becomes a habit when there is poor political environment and this affects language. Dictatorship has transformed the Italian, German and Russian languages to meet the needs of political rulers. Therefore, this has spread bad thoughts among populations and manipulated their actions. He recommends that people should simplify their English to free themselves from follies of orthodoxy.

Comparisons with Contemporary Media Excerpts

The media excerpts support Orwell’s arguments and use different speech extracts to sustain their claims (Mariner 2). John le Carre’s novel describes how torture was unleashed in the CIA’s detention camps. George W. Bush gave a vague and euphemist speech regarding the activities that took place in those camps. He did not mention any interrogation procedure used to get information from detainees.

The administration used language to concede how torture was used to force them to cooperate with the CIA officials. The speech highlighted the need for using torture to fight for the cause of humanity and struggle for freedom and liberty. The Bush administration changed the definition of torture to refer to interrogation methods that caused organ failure or death; therefore, this justified the CIA’s use of other painful questioning procedures (Mariner 2).

Conclusion

This author believes that the English language is in a bad state and faces serious challenges that affect communication. He presents that this problem cannot be reduced by deliberate actions because it occurs as a result of civilization. The media excerpts support Orwell’s claims that the use of painful interrogation methods is torture and calling it another name is a lie. It is true that the English language has become ugly and inaccurate because people are irrational.

Works Cited

Mariner, Joanne. Torture by a Different Name. Washington D.C.: Catherine Weymouth, 2006. Print.

Orwell, George and Jeremy Paxman. Shooting an Elephant. London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2009. Print.