"Politics and the English Language"
In his article, George Orwell opposed implementation of the overused rhetorical devices with the help of the diction and intentional phrasing. In this way he explored the use of language, showing in particular that at that time it was in a state of decline. He also claims that it is morally incorrect on the politicians’ part to manipulate the language in the way they do for the purpose of deceiving the public and appearing sophisticated. Orwell achieves it through employing various rhetoric techniques that will be described below.
One of the utilized techniques is repetition of the word choices. One of such examples is the phrase “a writer who stopped to think what he was saying would avoid perverting the original phrases”. It is used rather widely in the essay so as to concentrate the readers’ attention on a certain idea, and make him think about it a bit more. In this way it is easier to emphasize ideas and present them to the audience.
Metaphors and similes are also used effectively by the author. The example of the metaphor is “a speaker who uses that kind of phraseology [turns] himself into a machine”, of simile: “ an accumulation of stale phrases chokes him like tea leaves blocking a sink”. Such use of these techniques help readers understand the points presented and form their own understanding of the topic (Ottati and Renstrom 2010). It is important to use them wisely, and Orwell succeeds in doing this in the article.
Another important technique applied by Orwell is rhetorical questions. For example, “What am I trying to say?”, “Could I put it more shortly?” When reading such questions, people feel involved in the article, intuitively seeking for the answers to these questions. They feel that the piece is written for them, that they are involved in the development of the thought and that their opinion is important to the author (Rohde 2006). In such a way the positive attitude to the author is formed and attention is concentrated on ideas the article involves.
The last important tool that will be analyzed in this paper is exemplification, which is also widely applied in the text. In particular, a set of examples is presented in the beginning, and they are referred to further in the text. Orwell explains that “I number them so that I can refer back to them when necessary.” Further in the text we can find such references as “Professor Laski (1) uses five negatives in fifty three words.” It is an important trait of Orwell’s exemplification that the offered examples are comprehendible and can be interpreted by any person that is interested in understanding the sense of the article (Hyland 2007). In certain cases the author also uses euphemism and pacification, which serve to attract the reader’s attention to these words by making thought sound especially original and interesting. For instance, “Millions of peasants sent trudging along the roads is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers.”
Thus, Orwell uses several effective techniques to achieve the goals of his article and make his ideas clear to the readers. The given techniques are utilized effectively and allow us to see his intentions and understand what he wants to say. This is why his article can be called persuasive and successful from the standpoint of rhetorics.
Works Cited
Hyland, Ken. “Applying a Gloss: Exemplifying and Reformulating in Academic Discourse.” Applied Linguistics 28.2 (2007): 266-285. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/2/266.short
Ottati, Victor C., Renstrom Randall A. “Metaphor and Persuasive Communication: A Multifunctional Approach.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 4.9 (September 2010): 783-794. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. https://www.surrey.ac.uk/politics/research/researchareasofstaff/isppsummeracademy/instructors%20/Metaphor%20and%20Persuasive%20Communication.pdf
Rohde, Hannah. “Rhetorical Questions as Redundant Interrogatives.” San Diego Linguistics Papers 2 (2006): 134-168. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4xd7t5ww
