George Orwell's Theory of Language

About the Book

Presently, there is not a single book that would offer a comprehensive description of George Orwell’s views on language. Andrey Reznikov’s work is the first attempt to fill this gap. Professor Reznikov puts together pieces of Orwell’s language puzzle, scattered throughout his essays, diaries, letters, radio talks, as well as works of fiction, and proposes the Newspeak model as Orwell’s way to outline his theory. The theory is then tested with actual examples from three languages – modern English, Nazi German, and Soviet Russian. Finally, the author describes bias-free language as an implementation of Orwell’s ideas. The new edition includes an afterword analyzing Newspeak of the 21st century.

About the Author

Andrey Reznikov is Professor of Linguistics and English at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, where he teaches Linguistics, Grammar, History of the English Language, and Methods of Teaching English as a Second Language. He is the author of numerous publications in the areas of sociolinguistics and functional grammar.