George Orwell´s nineteen eighty-four: The use of language as a vehicle for mind-control

Abstract

George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) discusses the possible consequences of a totalitarian government in a dystopian future. It has been the departure of several investigations and research papers on the influence of language on society. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to determine whether language might be used as a vehicle for mind-control. First, Newspeak will be compared to several controlled natural languages and experimental languages to understand its objective. Second, it will be examined through different linguistic theories. Finally, an answer will be offered to the question of whether thought influences language or whether, on the contrary, language influences thought.