What does Orwell mean when he asserts, "but if thought corrupts language, can language corrupt thought"?
As a writer, a thinker, and a teacher Orwell shares the idea that thought and language is a two way street leading nowhere. Yet he claims neither side is the problem. As claimed by the quote "...thought corrupts language," Orwell tells us that we as people create emotions that surround and often suffocate the original word. This creates problems to us because seemingly happy words to one can harm another because of the emotional connection to he word, because of the connotation. However, the point to which the connotation is created is through a person using the word. Certain words that were often used by someone who is seen as bad or unwanted. For example: hail, originally meaning to give recognitition now has poor connotation due to the 1940's use of the word. Words can also be placed in simple context spoken or unspoken to creat the same negative feel. To creat a negative effect of politician place it with other words such as "lies, Donald Trump, crazy, etc." These other words set a tone of negativity and then once politician is added the word gains a negative effect.
Orwell, in simple, states that our thought creates corruption of words. In turn the corruption that our thought creates spreads as the average connotation for the words and corrupt thought for itself. The cycle that never ends continue until the word is no longer in use, then another word is corrupted, and the cycle continues until an entire language is corrupt.
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| "Politician" |
Orwell, in simple, states that our thought creates corruption of words. In turn the corruption that our thought creates spreads as the average connotation for the words and corrupt thought for itself. The cycle that never ends continue until the word is no longer in use, then another word is corrupted, and the cycle continues until an entire language is corrupt.
I enjoyed your article, and it helped me to see this question from another angle. However, I disagree with what you got from the Orwell’s essay. Unless I’m mistaken, Orwell did not mean, “It’s a two-way street leading nowhere” when he wrote “if thought corrupts language, likewise language can corrupt thought”. What he means is more like if you can only think in terms of cliches and metaphors, then you probably are not saying anything profound. Likewise, if you have an excellent philosophy to expound, but only have constrained vocabulary, you will struggle to instruct others clearly.
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