In his essay “Politics and the English Language”, published in April 1946,
George Orwell laments the downfall of the English language. By quoting excerpts
from poorly written texts, he illustrates stylistic problems that he has
observed in scientific, journalistic and political writing, such as the usage
of unoriginal metaphors, the “elimination of simple verbs”, the supersession of
Saxon words by Latin and Greek ones, and, finally, the general impreciseness of
the language used in print.
While I agree that writers should aim for clarity and precision and therefore
would do well to pay more attention to the expressions they use, I do not share
Orwell’s fear that the English language is in decline. Quite on the contrary, I
believe that English is on the rise, given that it has become the prime global
language since Orwell has written his essay. Nevertheless, I think that some of
Orwell’s criticism is still valid today. For instance, you constantly find long,
prefabricated phrases in academic writing that seem to veil rather than to reveal
the meaning they are supposed to convey. Instead of searching for elegant, yet
meaningless constructions, writers should try to express matters as concisely
as possible. Similarly, politicians should attempt to explain their actions
truthfully instead of euphemizing unpopular decisions, just as Orwell demands
in his essay.
Consequently, I believe that there is still room for stylistic improvement,
although I consider it highly exaggerated to claim that a language is dying
just because some writers do not tap the full potential a language offers. I
hence conclude that the English language is neither in decay nor in full bloom,
but rather constantly adapting to rapidly changing social conditions.
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