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УДК 811.9+821.111-31(Оруэлл Дж.). DOI: 10.26170/2071-2405-2024-29-1-114-123. ББК Ш18+Шзз(4Вел)6-8,444.
ГРНТИ 17.07.29. Код ВАК 5.9.2
A TYPOLOGICAL PASSPORT OF THE FICTIONAL LANGUAGE "NEWSPEAK"
Anzhela V. Tuarmenskaya
Ryazan State University named after S. A. Yesenin (Ryazan, Russia) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-3136
Aleksey V. Tuarmenskiy
Museum of the History ofAirborne Troops (Ryazan, Russia) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8752-4805
On the 120th anniversary of George Orwell (1903-1950)
Ab stract. The article touches upon the problem of generalization and systematization of data on artificial languages, the number of which is increasing every year. The study poses a hypothesis that the modern linguistic concept of a typological passport of a language can be applied not only to natural, but also to fictional languages. The aim of the study is to compile a typological passport of the fictional language Newspeak. It identifies the specific and universal typological indicators relevant for the description of fictional languages. The specific features unique to each fictional language include the following characteristics: the name of the language, the author, the work of literature, the time of invention, the type of language depending on weather it contains borrowed elements from natural languages, the extent of the author's description of the language and the functions of the language in the literary work. The fictional language Newspeak was created by G. Orwell for his dystopian novel "1984" in 1948. Newspeak is an a posteriori language based on modern English. The author partially describes the language he invented in the appendix to the novel. The main function of Newspeak is to narrow down the range of human thought. Universal features are used to describe any language. They include: the graphic and phonetic composition and the vocabulary and grammar peculiarities. Since Newspeak is a modification of the English language, it has the same graphic and phonetic inventory. Its vocabulary is significantly reduced, and there are no exceptions to grammar rules. Being the official language of a totalitarian society, Newspeak has no means to express ideas that contradict the guidelines of the ruling party. The undertaken research suggests that when compiling a typological passport of a fictional language, it is necessary to take into account that its typological characteristics are determined by the purpose of its creation. That is why a fictional language, which is part of the author's artistic intention, should be studied in the context of the entire literary work. The typological passport of Newspeak presented in the article can serve as a model for systematizing information about other fictional languages.
Keywords: typological characteristics of a language; typological passport of a language; fictional language; Newspeak; dystopia
For citation: Tuarmenskaya, A. V., Tuarmenskiy, A. V. (2024). A Typological Passport of the Fictional Language "Newspeak". In Philological Class. Vol. 29. No. 1, pp. 114-123. DOI: 10.26170/2071-2405-2024-29-1-114-123.
ТИПОЛОГИЧЕСКИЙ ПАСПОРТ ВЫМЫШЛЕННОГО ЯЗЫКА «НОВОЯЗ»
Туарменская А. В.
Рязанский государственный университет имени С. А. Есенина (Рязань, Россия) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-3136 SPIN-код: 6794-2403
Туарменский А. В.
Музей истории ВДВ (Рязань, Россия) ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8752-4805 SPIN-код: 8292-2330
Аннотация. Статья затрагивает проблему обобщения и систематизации данных об искусственно созданных языках, количество которых увеличивается с каждым годом. Выдвигается гипотеза, что существующая в современной лингвистике концепция типологического паспорта языка может применяться по отношению не только к естественным, но и к вымышленным языкам. Целью исследования является составление типологического паспорта вымышленного языка новояз. Выявлены релевантные для описания вымышленных языков специфические и универсальные типологические показатели. Специфические признаки, уникальные для каждого вымышленного языка, включают в себя следующие характеристики: название языка, автор, произведение, время создания, вид языка по наличию в нем заимствованных из естественных языков элементов, объем описания языка автором и функции языка в произведении. Вымышленный язык Newspeak создан Дж. Оруэллом для романа-антиутопии «1984» в 1948 году. Новояз является апостериорным языком, созданным на основе современного английского языка. Автор частично описывает изобретенный им язык в приложении к роману. Главная функция новояза - сузить диапазон человеческого мышления. Универсальные признаки используются при описании любого языка. К ним относятся: графический и фонемный состав, особенности лексики и грамматики. Поскольку новояз представляет собой модификацию английского языка, он имеет такой же графический и фонемный инвентарь. Его лексика значительно сокращена, а в грамматике отсутствуют исключения из правил. Являясь официальным языком тоталитарного общества, новояз не располагает средствами для выражения идей, противоречащих установкам правящей партии. Проведенное исследование позволяет утверждать, что при составлении типологического паспорта вымышленного языка
© Туарменская А. В., Туарменский А. В., 2024
необходимо учитывать, что его типологические характеристики обусловлены целью его создания. Именно поэтому вымышленный язык, являющийся частью художественного замысла автора, следует изучать в контексте всего произведения. Представленный в статье типологический паспорт новояза может служить моделью систематизации информации при описании других вымышленных языков.
Ключевые слова: типологические характеристики языка; типологический паспорт языка; вымышленный язык; новояз; антиутопия
Для цитирования: Туарменская, А. В. Типологический паспорт вымышленного языка «новояз» / А. В. Туарменская, А. В. Туарменский. - Текст : непосредственный // Филологический класс. - 2024. - Т. 29, № 1. - С. 114-123. - 001: 10.26170/2071-2405-2024-29-1-114-123.
Introduction
Nowadays there are about five thousand living and dead languages, less than two hundred of them being native to three and a half billion inhabitants of the Earth [Girutsky 2003: 6].
Apart from historically developed natural languages, there are also artificial languages, or conlangs (short for "constructed languages"), which are created specifically for those spheres of human activity where the use of natural language is ineffective or impossible [Yartseva 1990: 201]. There are currently more than one thousand artificial languages [Sidorova, Shuvalova 2006: 5]. They exhibit significant diversity from formalized languages of mathematics and programming to international auxiliary languages.
One of the varieties of conlangs are fictional languages. They include the so-called "fantastic languages" created by science fiction writers, authors of feature films and computer games, as well as "personal languages" invented by enthusiasts who are interested in language modelling [Sidorova, Shuvalova 2006: 5-6].
Since the number of fictional languages is growing every year, the relevance of our research is determined by the necessity to describe and systematize them. Despite quite a number of works devoted to the emergence of fictional languages, their linguistic properties and difficulties of translation [Skvortsov 2014; Karpu-khina, Kvitkovsky 2021; Ivanova, Mozzhegorova 2020], this aspect of modern linguistics remains understudied.
Our research is devoted to a fictional language of a literary text as a specific kind of artificial languages. A remarkable example of such a language is "Newspeak" from the dystopian novel "1984". It is noteworthy that 2023 marked the 120th anniversary of the author of this book, George Orwell. The appeal to his work and the fictional language he created is a tribute to the literary heritage of this British writer and his extraordinary linguistic talent. Newspeak invented by G. Orwell as a language of a totalitarian society is of particular interest. Our paper focuses on typological characteristics of this fictional language in order to compile its typological passport.
The idea of creating typological passports of languages belongs to V. D. Arakin [Arakin 1984: 123]. The scholar applied to linguistics a concept that is widely used in technology: a technical passport of an appliance contains basic information about its structure and operational qualities. By analogy, a typological passport of a language provides a brief description of its features. Working out the concept of a typological passport of a language, V. D. Arakin included in it such characteristics as phonemic inventory, supra-
segmental means (stress and intonation), word formation, vocabulary structure, grammatical categories, syntactic properties, etc. [Arakin 1989: 135-136]. Compiling typological passports of different languages is of particular importance for comparative typology. By now, typological passports of many natural languages have been worked out within the framework of comparative linguistics [Arakin 1984; Arakin 2005; Kozlova 2019; Shirokova 2006].
As a hypothesis of our research, it was suggested that information about a fictional language can be presented in its typological passport, which contains characteristics specific to the particular fictional language and universal ones, i.e. common to all languages.
The purpose of the work is to compile a typological passport of Newspeak.
The objectives of the study involve identifying typological characteristics relevant to the description of a fictional language, as well as studying and generalizing Newspeak typological properties.
Material and Research Methods
When studying linguistic characteristics of New-speak, it is necessary to take into account the genre features of G. Orwell's dystopian novel "1984".
The genre of dystopia appeared thanks to utopian works. Dystopia in relation to utopia is the opposite mirror image of reality. Utopia creates models of the desired future as opposed to the present, while dystopia looks into the future from the real present and predicts its possible negative development [Demerjian 2016]. It is no coincidence that dystopia evolves into an independent genre after the implementation of some utopian ideas in reality. The prerequisites for rapid development of the dystopian genre were the tragic events of the revolutions and two world wars that occurred in the 20th century [Claeys 2010].
Just like utopias, works of dystopian fiction depict the future [Fitting 2010]. In this sense, the title of G. Orwell's novel is not accidental: it was written in 1948, and the author reversed the two final numbers. However, it should be borne in mind that, unlike utopia, dystopia denies the possibility of building an ideal society and warns that any attempts to establish such a society will inevitably have a disastrous effect [Ivin 2004]. The authors of dystopias warn about the consequences of people's desire to create the world in accordance with their own ideas about the good and happiness for everybody. To make such a society possible a personality must be deprived of individuality and cruel measures of suppression are to be used. So, no wonder that the main characteristic feature of dystopian works is the description of totalitarianism
[Gottlieb 2001]. In accordance with the requirements of the genre G. Orwell in his novel shows a future totalitarian society in which a human being is enslaved physically and spiritually.
Due to the fact that dystopias describe non-existing worlds, it is but quite logical that the authors of this genre often resort to creating fictional languages in order to realistically depict the life of fictional societies (V. Nabokov's "Under the Sign of the Illegitimate", A. Burgess's "A Clockwork Orange", U. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed", etc.). Thus, G. Orwell's book "1984" is just one example of a dystopia with a fictional language.
A number of works are devoted to the study of Newspeak. Scientists are investigating its functions and difference from modern English [Bolton 1984; Traugoff 1983]. Lexical and grammatical features of Newspeak are being intensely explored [Kalinichenko 2016; Kartel 2017]. An important aspect of research is the place of a fictional language in the English literature of the twentieth century [Oks 2006].
Our work is the first attempt to compile a typological passport of Newspeak.
During the study, along with general scientific methods of analysis such as data generalization and systematization, specific linguistic methods were also resorted to: descriptive, structural and typological. The complex use of these methods allows us to systematically consider the typological characteristics of Newspeak. About 200 units of different language levels have been analyzed: words, word combinations and sentences.
The most important component of the methodological basis of the study is the concept "the typological passport of a language", which is widely used in the description of natural languages. We claim that the idea of compiling a typological passport may likewise turn out to be productive in describing fictional languages in general, and G. Orwell's Newspeak, in particular.
Results and Discussion
Both natural and artificial languages are sound and graphic information sign systems [Karpukhina, Kvitkovsky 2021: 69]. Any language consists of units of different levels that are interconnected with each other.
The similarity between natural and artificial languages makes it possible to apply the same criteria for their description. Thus, relevant features for describing
Let us consider how the identified relevant features can be presented in the typological passport of a fictional language on the example of Newspeak. I. Initial information about the language.
any language are its graphic and phonemic inventory, peculiarities of word formation, vocabulary structure, grammatical categories, morphological type of language, etc. Obviously, these universal indicators should also be used when making up a passport of a fictional language.
However, there are clear differences between fictional and natural languages. A fictional language has (a) specific author(s), which cannot be said about a natural language. The scope of use of a fictional language does not go beyond a literary work, a movie or a computer game (in all fairness, it should be noted that a fictional language created for a particular work may extend beyond it, as happened, for example, with the Elvish languages, invented by John Ronald Tolkien). And a natural language, by contrast, is used in all spheres of human activity. Furthermore, unlike a natural language that emerges spontaneously, a fictional language has a certain time of invention correlated with the period when the work was being created.
It is necessary to take into account the fact that fictional languages are divided into two types depending on whether they have any connection with natural languages. If a fictional language includes elements borrowed from natural languages, it is called a posteriori. If a fictional language is not based on any existing language, it is known as a priori [Kuznetsov 1976: 61].
It appears quite reasonable to distinguish fictional languages by the extent to which they are described. A complete description implies that the creator of a fictional language represents all its systems (phonetics, vocabulary and grammar). As for a partially described fictional language, the author provides information not about the entire system of the language, but only about some of its elements. One more type presupposes that a fictional language is not described, but only mentioned in the narrative.
It is also important to remember that since fictional languages are constructed for special artistic purposes, their communicative function is not a primary one. Each fictional language performs its own unique functions, and its role in the literary work is determined by the writer's artistic intent.
Taking into account the theses presented above, we have developed indicators relevant to the typological passport of a fictional language, which include both specific and universal description criteria (see Table 1).
The name of the language is "Newspeak". Its creator is a twentieth-century British writer G. Orwell, who invented the fictional language for his dystopian novel "1984". The work was written in 1948,
Table 1. Indicators of a typological passport of a fictional language
Specific Universal
• Name of the language • Author • Work of literature • Time of invention • Type of the language • Extent of language description • Functions of the language • Graphic composition of the language • Phonetic features of the language • Lexical characteristics of the language • Grammar of the language
and a year later it was published and received rave reviews from critics.
It is only fair to distinguish between the person who describes a fictional language and its creator, since writers usually attribute the invention of their fictional languages to one or more characters [Sidorova, Shuvalova 2006: 107]. G. Orwell notes that the official language of Oceania - Newspeak - is specially devised at the initiative of the ruling party in order to meet the ideological needs of English Socialism (Ingsoc). A large group of expert philologists is working on the language. In the year 1984 described by the author, the scope of Newspeak is still limited. It is primarily the language of newspaper headlines and articles. Since writing in Newspeak requires considerable skill it can only be carried out by specialists. In everyday life, people use standard English, which is called Oldspeak in the novel. However, Party members are making serious attempts to popularize Newspeak and it is expected that by 2050 it will become the only language of Oceania.
II. Type of the language.
The fictional language used in the novel "1984" is a posteriori. It is a modification of one natural language, namely English: "Newspeak was founded on the English language as we now know it, though many Newspeak sentences, even when not containing newly-created words, would be barely intelligible to an English-speaker of our own day" [Orwell 2008: 277-278].
III.Extent of language description.
Newspeak refers to partially described fictional
languages. In the appendix to the novel entitled "The Principles of Newspeak" [Orwell 2008: 276-293] the author provides explanations concerning not all aspects of the language, but only some of its elements. Thus, the reader gets to know quite fragmentary information about the sound of words, peculiarities of word stress and intonation. Word formation, word stock and those grammatical features that make Newspeak different from the English language - Old-speak - are described in more detail.
IV. Functions of the language.
G. Orwell determines the functions of Newspeak quite definitely in the appendix [Orwell 2008: 276277]. It serves to provide a medium of expression for Ingsoc worldview. And what is no less important, Newspeak should make all other modes of thought impossible. This language is specifically designed to diminish the range of thought. The Party assumes that when Newspeak is fully adopted in the society, any heretical idea diverging from its principles will be literally unthinkable. This can be achieved by introducing purposeful modifications at different levels of Newspeak so as to distinguish it from Oldspeak.
V. Graphic composition of the language.
G. Orwell does not give any explanations about the graphic inventory of his fictional language. However, it is obvious that since Newspeak is based on the English language, it uses the Latin alphabet. This is confirmed by examples of words in the official language of Oceania: Newspeak, Big Brother, blackwhite, etc. Thus, it is logical to assume that Newspeak has the same alphabet as English: 26 letters, 5 of them being vowels and 21 consonants.
VI. Phonetic features of the language.
1. Phonemic composition.
Newspeak phoneme inventory is not described by the author. But it should be borne in mind that this fictional language is based on modern English. It is also important to take into account that in the appendix to the novel, G. Orwell dwells on such features of his fictional language that distinguish it from English. Unless there is no evidence to the contrary, we can state that the phonemic composition of Newspeak corresponds to that one of the English language, which has 44 sounds: 20 vowels and 24 consonants.
2. Stress and intonation.
The appendix to the novel "1984" contains scarce information about stress and intonation patterns in Newspeak [Orwell 2008: 288-287]. The author points out that the most common are easy-to-pronounce short words. In lexemes with two and three syllables the stress is equally distributed between the first syllable and the last one. It encourages a gabbling manner of speech, so Newspeak phrases sound both abrupt and monotonous. This is precisely what is required to make speech, especially on ideologically non-neutral subjects, as independent of consciousness as possible. A Party member, speaking on political issues, must generate correct opinions automatically, like a machine gun spraying forth bullets. Ultimately, it is hoped to make articulate speech issue from the larynx without involving the higher brain centers. This goal is reflected in the word duckspeak. Using the expression "the texture of the words" [Orwell 2008: 288], G. Orwell writes that the harsh sound and some deliberate ugliness of Newspeak words contribute to achieving the desired effect and is in full accord with the spirit of Ingsoc.
VII. Lexical characteristics of the language.
1. Word formation.
The study identified more than 150 lexical units of Oceania's official language. 107 of them (69%) appeared as a result of different word formation processes. Newspeak makes use of available in modern English ways of word formation such as affixation, abbreviation, composition and conversion.
The largest number of studied Newspeak words are coined by adding affixes to root morphemes (31 lexemes - 20% of the studied units). Affixation is represented by three varieties: prefixation (18 words -12%), suffixation (8 words - 5%) and prefix-suffixation (5 words - 3%).
The most common prefixes in Newspeak are the negative prefix un- (unperson, unproceed), as well as prefixes plus- and doubleplus- that are used to convey different shades of meaning in adjectives. Thus, the word good can be strengthened by the prefix plus- (plusgood) and even more emphasis is added by the prefix doubleplus- (doubleplusgood).
Among the words formed by means of suffixation the most frequent ones are those with suffixes ful- and wise-. The former is used to build adjectives (speedful), the latter - adverbs (speedwise).
A prefix-suffixation pattern is illustrated by such words as malreported, malquoted, antefiling and anteget-ting (ante- is a prefix meaning "before").
Abbreviation is quite a common phenomenon in
Newspeak (28 units studied - 18%). G. Orwell writes in the appendix to the novel that the tendency to use abbreviations is most marked in totalitarian countries. According to the writer, abbreviating narrows and subtly alters the meaning of a word by cutting out most of the associations that would otherwise cling to it [Orwell 2008: 288]. Associations called up by an abbreviated word are fewer and consequently more controllable, which corresponds to the ruling part/ primarily goal. In addition, abbreviated words are easily pronounceable. So, abbreviations are widely used in Newspeak with a conscious purpose.
Different types of abbreviations have been singled out in the novel:
1) initial: bb * Big Brother, 3 yp * three-year plan;
2) consisting of a combination of (initial) parts of words: chocorat * chocolate + ration; recdep * records + department;
3) consisting of the initial part of the word and the whole word: thinkpol * think + police; prolefeed * proletarian + feed;
4) truncation: sub * subscription; mini * ministry.
Composition is also quite common in Newspeak
(25 units - 16%). All studied compound words have two-component structure, i.e. contain two stems welded together, for example: Oldspeak, Newspeak.
In G. Orwell's fictional language compound words are formed by joining stems without any changes at the junction: crimestop, oldthink. Putting stems together with the help of linking vowels or consonants has not been identified in Newspeak.
The type of syntactic link between the constituent parts of compounds is predominantly subordinative (sexcrime, telescreen). Just like in modern English, the dominating element in such Newspeak words is usually in postposition: ownlife, dayorder. The coordinative link is very rare (blackwhite).
A separate group consists of words in which composition is combined with affixation (14 units -9%). There may be compounds consisting of one simple and one derivative stem, for example: duckspeaker (duck + speak-er), thought-criminal (thought + crim-in-al). The peculiarity of the studied Newspeak words of this group is that in approximately half of them the affix is added not to the second stem, but to the compound word as a whole: minitruthful (mini(stry) + truth)-ful, minilovely (mini(stry) + love)-ly.
It is important to keep in mind that Newspeak has extensive families of one-root words, for example: goodthink - goodthinker - goodthinkful - goodthinkwise. This phenomenon makes it possible to reduce the number of roots used in the language to a minimum.
Examples of conversion occur least often in the material we have studied (9 units - 6%). One of them is the lexeme speakwrite which can function as a verb and as a noun denoting a special device for recording speech. G. Orwell points out that in Newspeak any word can be used either as a verb, a noun, an adjective or an adverb [Orwell 2008: 279]: if - to if.
2. Vocabulary structure.
The author of the dystopia "1984" pays special attention to the vocabulary of Newspeak, pointing out that it is divided into three distinct classes: the A vo-
cabulary, the B vocabulary and the C vocabulary [Orwell 2008: 287-288].
The A vocabulary contains words (68% of the studied lexical units) used in everyday life and related to eating, working, putting on clothes, riding in vehicles, etc. It includes words of present-day English, such as house, tree, field, dog, sugar, run, hit, etc. However, the number of words in Newspeak is extremely small, their meanings are defined more rigidly and all shades of meaning are purged out of them. As a rule, a word of this class conveys only one clear concept. The A vocabulary is intended to express simple, purposive thoughts, usually involving concrete objects or physical actions [Orwell 2008: 278].
The B vocabulary consists of words (31% of the studied units) that have been deliberately constructed for political purposes. They do not only have certain political implication, but also impose a desirable attitude on the speaker. So, no word is ideologically neutral here.
The B words are all compounds, for instance: thoughtcrime (the thought of committing any action against the principles of Ingsoc), facerme (anxiety on the face, indicating, for example, an attempt to hide something) and doublethink (the ability to hold opposing points of view).
Many words of this class have mutually contradictory meanings. For example, applied to an opponent the word blackwhite denotes the habit of impudently claiming that black is white despite plain facts. But applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this [Orwell 2008: 267-268].
A great number of the B words are euphemisms. Such words mean almost exactly the opposite of what they appear to mean. For instance, joycamp is a penal camp for "thought-criminals" and Minitrue (Ministry of Truth) is engaged in data falsification.
An important feature of the words of this class is that they are a sort of verbal shorthand. Very often they pack whole ranges of ideas into a few syllables, and at the same time they are more accurate and forcible than ordinary language. For example, the word goodthinker denotes not just a good-thinking person, but a citizen who conscientiously and fully supports the principles of Ingsoc.
The C vocabulary is supplementary. It consists wholly of scientific and technical terms (1% of the studied words). They resemble modern English terms, but are more rigidly defined and devoid of undesirable meanings. It should be noted that in the C vocabulary there is no word denoting science as a habit of mind or a method of thought. There is, indeed, no word "science": all its possible meanings are rendered by the word Ingsoc [Orwell 2008: 289].
Newspeak vocabulary, on the one hand, makes it possible to quite subtly express any permitted meaning, and on the other hand, all words with heretical meanings that are not consistent with the Party line are purged out so that it is very unlikely to convey such meanings even by periphrasis. This is achieved in several ways. One of them is inventing new words according to the word formation patterns discussed above (they make up
107 units - 69%), e.g.: artsem (artificial + insemination).
Another way is represented by semantic changes (observed in 22 studied units - 14%): eliminating undesirable meanings or, conversely, developing new meanings of words. For example, the word free in Newspeak can only be used in such statements as "This field is free from weeds". It is not used in the sense of "politically or intellectually free". Since the concepts of freedom of thought and political freedom do not exist, there is no need to denote them. And the lexeme vapour acquires a new meaning: "disappear". If a "thought-criminal" is vaporized, his name is removed from the registers and his existence is denied and then forgotten. Being vaporized means being abolished and annihilated.
One more way is eliminating words from the language. G. Orwell enumerates some words that have ceased to exist in Newspeak (26 lexemes - 17% of the units examined): justice, democracy, religion, honor, morality, etc. [Orwell 2008: 284]. All words associated with the concepts of freedom and equality are replaced by only one word crimethink, and all words conveying the concepts of rationalism and objectivity are contained in the single word oldthink. Greater precision is considered dangerous and is therefore not permitted.
An important role in diminution of vocabulary is played by the abolition of synonyms and antonyms. Thus, with the help of one root good and a number of prefixes, six meanings can be expressed:
There is no need for the word bad, since its meaning is expressed by ungood.
So, Newspeak is a language whose vocabulary grows smaller every year: "Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum" [Orwell 2008: 277]. It corresponds to the primary goal of the ruling party: reducing the choice of words to a minimum is supposed to decrease the range of human consciousness.
VIII. Grammar of the language.
1. Morphology
G. Orwell notes only two grammar peculiarities of Newspeak [Orwell 2008: 278-280]. One of them has already been mentioned: there is almost complete in-terchangeability between different parts of speech. Thanks to conversion, one and the same word can be a noun, an adjective, a verb, an adverb, etc. For example, the word think functions not only as a verb, but also as a noun. And knife can be used in the meanings "an instrument used for cutting" and "to cut with such an instrument".
The second feature of Newspeak grammar is its regularity resulting in eliminating exceptions to the rules. Let us consider this principle applied to different parts of speech.
Like in modern English the noun in Newspeak has the category of number. However, in this fictional language there are no irregular forms and all nouns in plural are made up by adding the inflection -(e)s: mans, oxes, lifes, etc.
The adjective in Newspeak has degrees of comparison. Unlike English, the forms with more and most
are not used. The comparative degree is made with the help of the affix -er, and the superlative degree is formed by adding -est. All exceptions have been completely suppressed. Thus, the comparative degree of the adjective good is gooder, and the superlative - goodest.
The verb in Newspeak has the category of tense. Regularity is manifested here in the fact that in the Past Simple all verbs end in -ed, for example: stealed and thinked. Such forms as gave, spoke, brought, etc. are abolished.
The same is true for the Past Participle, which always ends in -ed, i.e. instead of taken the form taked is quite predictable in Newspeak. Just like in English, Participle II is necessary to form the Passive Voice: He was vaporized.
Other grammatical categories of Newspeak are not mentioned by the author because they are no different from the corresponding categories of the English language. In this regard, and also taking into account the considered morphological features of Newspeak, it can be claimed that this fictional language belongs to the inflectional type (like modern English).
2. Syntax.
In the course of the study, 26 word combinations were considered (14% of the examined Newspeak units). Both free (rewrite fullwise) and stable (memory hole) phrases were identified.
Most of them are combinations consisting of two components (Airstrip one - one of the provinces of Oceania, the territory of the former Great Britain). Combinations of three or four words are extremely rare (two minutes hate).
The study revealed only one phrase with coordi-native syntactic link: doubleplus ridiculous verging crime-think. Here units of syntactically equal rank (ridiculous and verging) are connected asyndetically.
The rest of the studied phrases are based on subordination. The head word can be a noun (thought police) or a verb (approve fullwise). In nominative phrases, the adjunct is usually in preposition (plusfull estimates, pneumatic tube), and in verbal phrases - in postposition (unproceedconstructionwise, refs unpersons).
The sentence as a syntactic unit of Newspeak is scarcely presented in the novel (5 units - 3%). Information about it is mainly drawn from several memos that the main character receives as tasks for the working day. The peculiarity of these notes for internal use is that they are written in a telegraphic style and contain Newspeak words: "Items one comma five comma seven approved fullwise stop suggestion contained item six doubleplus ridiculous verging crimethink cancel stop" [Orwell 2008: 213].
The boundaries between the sentences are marked by the word stop. Some words are omitted, namely the forms of the verb to be (are approved, is doubleplus ridiculous), the article (the suggestion), the preposition (in item) and the conjunction (ridiculous and verging). However, even such a telegraphic style with all its specific features (incomplete sentences in which the missing words are restored from the context) makes it possible to understand that the word order in the sentences is direct and fixed, as in English. First comes the subject (with determiners), then - the predicate, after it - the compliment(s) and the adverbial modifier(s).
This assumption is confirmed by a typical New-speak sentence from a newspaper leading article: "Old-thinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc" [Orwell 2008: 283]. Despite the typical syntactic structure (Subject + Predict + Object), it is quite difficult to understand the meaning of this sentence due to the subtle shades of meaning Newspeak words convey. The main idea of the sentence under consideration can be expressed as follows: Those whose ideas were formed before the Revolution
cannot have a full emotional understanding of the principles of English Socialism. This example shows that Newspeak has retained the syntactic characteristics inherent in the English language, but the modifications introduced at the vocabulary level makes this fictional language different from English sometimes beyond recognition.
Based on the conducted research, a typological passport of Newspeak has been compiled (see Table 2).
Table 2. Typological passport of the fictional language Newspeak
I. Initial information about the language Name of the language: Newspeak Author: George Orwell
Work of literature: dystopian novel "1984" Time of invention: 1948
II. Type of the language
A posteriori (based on modern English).
III. Extent of language description Partially described.
IV. Functions of the language
• serves as a means of expressing the Ingsoc worldview;
• makes other currents of thought impossible;
• narrows the range of human thought.
V. Graphic composition of the language
Latin alphabet: 26 letters: 5 vowels and 21 consonants.
VI. Phonetic features of the language
1. Phonemic composition: 44 sounds: 20 vowels and 24 consonants.
2. Stress and intonation.
Stress - equally distributed between the first and the last syllables in polysyllabic words. Intonation - abrupt and monotonous.
VII. Lexical features of the language 1) Word formation
• Affixation:
- prefixation: unperson, plusfull, doubleplusungood;
- suffixation: speedful, speedwise, fullwise;
- prefix-suffixation: malreported, malquoted, antefiling.
• Abbreviation:
- initial: bb, yp;
- consisting of a combination of (initial) parts of words: chocorat, recdep;
- consisting of the initial part of the word and the whole word: thinkpol, prolefeed;
- truncation: sub, mini.
• Composition:
- coordinative link between constituent parts: blackwhite;
- subordinative link between constituent parts: ownlife, oldthink, telescreen.
• Composition + affixation: duckspeaker, minitruthful, goodthinkwise
• Conversion: if-to if.
3. Vocabulary structure
• The A vocabulary contains words used in everyday life: house, tree, run.
• The B vocabulary consists of words with political implication:
thoughtcrime, doublethink, goodthinker.
• The C vocabulary consists of scientific and technical terms: Ingsoc
Table 2 continued
VIII. Grammar of the language
1. Morphology Parts of speech:
- noun: facecrime;
- adjective: goodthinkful;
- verb: bellyfeel;
- adverb: speedwise. Grammatical categories:
- the category of number: mans, oxes;
- the category of degrees of comparison: gooder, goodest;
- the category of tense: stealed, thinked;
- the category ofvoice: He was vaporized.
Newspeak belongs to the inflectional morphological type.
2. Syntax
Word combinations
- coordinative syntactic link: doubleplus ridiculous verging crimethink;
- subordinative syntactic link: thought police, approve fullwise, plusfull estimates. Sentences
Structure (Subject + Predict + Object):
Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.
Conclusion
By analogy with natural languages, information about a fictional language can be presented in its typological passport. The study revealed both specific and universal indicators of the typological passport of a fictional language.
Specific features are unique. Thus, every fictional language has an author/authors. A fictional language is created for a certain work of literature within a certain period of time. It is also important to bear in mind such characteristics as the type of the language depending on whether it contains elements from any natural language(s) or not, the extent of its description by the creator and its functions in the literary work.
Universal features are relevant in the study of any language. They include graphic and phonemic composition as well as lexical and grammatical characteristics.
On the basis of the identified specific and universal criteria, a typological passport of the fictional language Newspeak has been compiled. The official language of Oceania was created by the British writer G. Orwell for his dystopian novel "1984", which was published in 1948. Newspeak is based on modern English and is consequently an a posteriori language. It is partially described by the author. G. Orwell explains only the most important features of his fictional language in the appendix to the novel. Therefore, some of its typological features have to be reconstructed with reference to the facts that Newspeak is based on English and that the author focuses the readers' attention only on the aspects that distinguish Newspeak from Oldspeak. With no contrary evidence it is logical to assume that Newspeak characteristics not mentioned by the writer coincide with those ones of the English language. The functions of the fictional language created by G. Orwell should be considered only in the context of the entire work. Newspeak, being part of the artistic idea, allows the author to realistically depict life in a
society that claims to be ideal. The writer chooses the genre of dystopia to show that it is impossible to build such a society, since over time negative trends inevitably begin to develop in it, which results in totalitarian regime. The invention of Newspeak allows the author to render the idea that the language people speak affects not only their perception of reality, but the very way they think. G. Orwell argues that in a totalitarian society language serves as a powerful oppressive means to control people and manipulate their minds. This approach becomes part of the author's conception of a dystopian world. The official language of Oceania, specially developed for the totalitarian system, fully corresponds to it at all its levels.
The graphic and phonemic composition of New-speak does not differ from English. However, there are some differences at the suprasegment level. Phrases in the fictional language sound abruptly and monotonously, which creates the effect of an automatic and not very conscious speech. The lexical composition in Newspeak has been significantly reduced. This is a language in which the number of words does not increase, but only decreases. It is believed that if there is no word denoting a concept undesirable for a totalitarian regime, there is no danger that this concept will be perceived and understood. But the lexical units that convey concepts corresponding to the spirit of Ingsoc often have subtle shades of meaning that are comprehensible only to a person who was brought up in this society and fully absorbed its ideology. Newspeak grammar is characterized by regularity: all exceptions to the rules are eliminated. The simplification of vocabulary and grammar has a very specific goal: the less mental activity is involved in the process of generating speech, the more primitive is the consciousness of people, who become easier to control and manipulate. This aspect of the interaction between language and thought is extremely important in general, and in relation to fictional languages in particular. The purpose
of creating a conlang determines what it will be like.
As a result of the study, a typological passport of a fictional language from a literary work in the dystopian genre has been compiled. The proposed model
Литература
can be used to describe other fictional languages. This will shed light on the systematization of knowledge about artificial languages, whose number is increasing every year.
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Данные об авторах
Туарменская Анжела Валерьевна - кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры второго иностранного языка и методики его преподавания, председатель учебно-методического совета института иностранных языков, Рязанский государственный университет имени С. А. Есенина (Рязань, Россия).
Адрес: 390000, Россия, г. Рязань, ул. Свободы, 46. E-mail: a.tuarmenskaya@gmail. com.
Туарменский Алексей Владимирович - старший научный сотрудник, Музей истории ВДВ (Рязань, Россия). Адрес: 390000, Россия, г. Рязань, пл. Маргелова, 1. E-mail: tuarmenskiialeksei@gmail.com.
Дата поступления: 16.05.2023; дата публикации: 31.03.2024
Authors' information
Tuarmenskaya Anzhela Valeryevna - Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of Department of Second Foreign Language and Language Teaching Methodology, Chairwoman of the Educational and Methodological Council of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Ryazan State University named after S. A. Yesenin (Ryazan, Russia).
Tuarmenskiy Aleksey Vladimirovich - Senior Research Fellow, Museum of the History ofAirborne Troops (Ryazan, Russia).
Date of receipt: 16.05.2023; date of publication: 31.03.2024
