Introduction

Here is my first draft of an introduction: 

George Orwell in his essay of “Politics and the English Language” identifies the mistakes that a myriad of people often make which cause the corruption of the english language. Orwell defines several ‘tricks’ or tactics with examples that hide the true meaning and cause this corruption. He also claims that awareness on this topic is “[…] a necessary first step toward political regeneration […]” since he has brought his attention to how politicians tend to take advantage of language and twisting it to whatever they desire from their audience. This then brings on the question of: “What elements from George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’ can we find in the right winged media in the United States political speeches?” George Orwell’s points of the mistakes are dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction and meaningless words. With examples, Orwell provides us a life learning lesson to show “the special connection between politics and the debasement of language”. 

Dying metaphors are those which have been used too often by people that it has eventually lost its own meaning. Instead of a metaphor, it becomes considered as a cliche. Examples include:

 “ toe the line, stand shoulder to shoulder with, play into the hands of, fishing in troubled waters and more”. Orwell mentions how often people use these metaphors without even knowing their meaning, implying that they are not interested in what they are saying. Sometimes toe the line is written as tow the line. 

Operators or verbal false limbs are words which add extra syllables into the sentence making it more symmetrical. Examples of these sort of phrases are “make contact with, be subjected to, give rise to”. In addition, Orwell explains how the point of these operators are to eliminate simple verbs. The passive voice is generally more often used in politics instead of the active one and nouns usually replace gerunds (by exploitation of instead of by exploiting). More verbs are invented with the use of -ize and -de formations which give an air of profundity. Phrases like “with respect to, having regard to and brought to a satisfactory conclusion” are used instead of simple conjuctions. 

Pretentious diction gives an “air of scientific impartiality to biased judgements” meaning they decorate simple statements to make the politician appear more intelligent. These words are such “phenomenon, element, liquidate, exploit, categorical”. Another type of pretentious diction are foreign words or phrases that bring out the knowledge of a politician, making it appear that he/she has a wide range of vocabulary not only from his/her mother tongue, “status quo, deus ex machina, gleichschaltung”. Lastly are adjectives which “dignify the sordid process of international politics” or in other words makes the dirty work of politics seem acceptable. These adjectives are like: “epic, historic, unforgettable, triumphant, inexorable”. 

The last tactic is the use of meaningless words. Just like with metaphors being abused, so are several words which one will soon discover that it lacks meaning in politics. Words like “romantic, plastic, human, dead, values” do not point anything out to the reader. Orwell uses the example of the word Fascism which does not mean anything nowadays apart from being “something not desirable”. 

 As of 2017, the business man Donald Trump has been elected as the 45th president of the United States. There have been many opinions on his election than ever, based not only on his career but also on his language and attitude for these past few months. Sean Spicer, the President’s White House Communications Director, has also been questioned about his use of language. Lastly as a local phenomena, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, a polish right wing politician who questions gender equality. 

As of recent political elections in the United States, many have predicted that Donald Trump would not win the election, giving victory to Hillary Clinton. However, the tables were turned when in fact Trump has won with persuading the citizens with language. It is important for one to shield itself from the manipulative speeches of politicians, therefore analyzing their language is crucial for independent thinking. 

The goal of this essay is to discover the hidden meaning of these politicians words and find what effect they have on the audience using George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language to refer from.