Monday, September 26, 2011
George Orwell
George Orwell was explaining how people ruin the english language by trying to sound more convincing by using big, complex words. He gave the example, "A man may drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks." He explained how this was similar to the English language because we have incomplete ideas which leads to inaccurate language which makes us think incomplete. I very much agree with this statement. People will not fully think through their ideas which leads them to use already created statements to explain their idea. They will also try to use complex words so the reader will think they are smart when in reality their ideas don't make sense. This only leads to confusion because neither parties knows what they are talking about. If the writer doesn't know what they're trying to say how is the reader supposed to understand it. I have read many essay's in school and not understood a lot of them because the writer decided to use complex words. If the writer wasn't so worried about sounding smart, I might have been able to understand. Instead of grasping the idea, I was left in more confusion about the subject than when I started. I also agree that a lot of the words in the english language are used with a different meaning that what they were intended for. This also contributes the confusion in the english language. Orwell wrote this essay several years ago. This shows that the english language still hasn't changed and probably wont for many more years.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I can definitely see how the meanings of English words have changed from previous decades. When reading an older book or even Orwell’s article, the word combinations are different from what you might see in this decade. This leads me to believe there has been a change.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that when the writer tries to sound smart, it makes both the reader and writer look dumb! Communication is a two-way street, and if the message is unclear at all, the point will never be made. If people took the time to learn the rules of the English language and expanded their vocabulary a little bit more, so many of these problems could be avoided.
ReplyDelete