ABSTRACT
Orwell's list of linguistic abuses given in 'Politics and the English Language' contains examples of most of the misuses of language that have become the favourites of indignant letter-writers of any persuasion. Orwell in 1984 was fascinated with doublethink and the role of language in the processes of reality-control, but he did not lose his strongly commonsense and materialist convictions. Minitrue uses massive censorship and lies as well as language reform, and Minitrue is complemented by Miniluv and the Thought Police, who use physical torture on dissidents like Winston. Orwell seems to have regarded standard English as a neutral form of communication. However, even the language of the full version he gives is full of suppressions, using devices from the grammar of standard English to achieve the aims of Newspeak. Orwell's pessimism in 1984 poses the challenge: can anything be done? His understanding of a form of false consciousness is totally convincing as far as it goes.
