Moyer Eamon Barkhordarian

Period C 10/18/09
English World Culture

Reading Log #1-Analytic

"Ungood" will do just as well - better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or

again, if you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there in having a whole string of

vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid" and all the rest of them ? "Plusgood" covers

the meaning, or "doubleplusgood" if you want something stronger still.

-page 46

The quote above was taken from a conversation with Syme and the main character

Winston. Syme is explaining and discussing the topic of how slowly the language of Oceania is

being changed and transformed into simpler and simpler tongue. By 2050, he says, every word

used that time period will have been completely erased and another word would substitute it.

Syme tells Winston in the above quote that there is no reason to have so many different ways to

express one word. There are no need for synonyms or antonyms for a “word contains an opposite

in itself.”

This quote in the reading really opened my eyes at the concept Syme brought forth. I

remember the days as a kid where I used to imagine an idea similar to Symes. Back in the day

when I didn’t know a words true antonym, I would just add a “not” or “un” to the beginning of

the word. I had later learned that thinking that way was foolish and ineffective, but Syme

reintroduced that utopia with a lot more logical sense. The idea introduced would slowly shrink

the dictionary forcing Oceania and its citizens to think to the point and very clearly by taking out

those unnecessary words.

The question that came to my mind was would the strength of the language still be there

after so many words would be erased? Soon writing would become repetitive and language

would not be as concise, but rather a broad generalization of a certain topic. People wouldn’t be
Moyer Eamon Barkhordarian
Period C 10/18/09
English World Culture
able to get their points across, and the language would slowly collapse on the foundations too

weak to support it any longer.