Editing Linguistic determinism (section)

=== George Orwell's 1984: Newspeak ===
In [[George Orwell|Orwell's]] famous dystopian novel, [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]], the fictional language of [[Newspeak]] provides a strong example of linguistic determinism. The restricted vocabulary and grammar make it impossible to speak or even ''think'' of rebelling against the totalitarian government, instead aligning its speakers with the ideology of Ingsoc.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=1984|last=Orwell|first=George|publisher=Secker and Warburg|year=1949|location=London|pages=377}}</ref> Newspeak highlights the deterministic proposition that if a language does not have the means to express certain ideas, its speakers cannot conceptualize them. Orwell devotes the Appendix to a description of Newspeak and its grammar:

<blockquote>The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a thought diverging from the principles of Ingsoc – should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods.<ref name=":1" /></blockquote>

It is worth noting that the main character Winston Smith, and others, were able to both conceive and speak of rebellion, despite the influences of Newspeak. 1984 does, however, take place before the full imposition of Newspeak; characters spoke both a combination of Newspeak and Oldspeak (standard English), which may have allowed for heretical thought and action.