Doublespeak
From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.
Doublespeak is language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often resulting in a "communication bypass". Such language is associated with governmental, military, and corporate institutions. Doublespeak may be in the form of bald euphemisms ("downsizing" for "firing of many employees") or deliberately ambiguous phrases ("wet work" for "assassination"). Doublespeak is distinguished from other euphemisms through its deliberate usage by governmental, military, or corporate institutions.
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History of the Term
The word doublespeak was coined in the early 1950s. It is often incorrectly attributed to George Orwell and his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word actually never appears in that novel; Orwell did, however, coin newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink, and his novel made fashionable composite nouns with speak as the second element, which were previously unknown in English. It was therefore just a matter of time before someone came up with doublespeak. Doublespeak may be considered, in Orwell's lexicography, as the B vocabulary of Newspeak, words "deliberately constructed for political purposes: words, that is to say, which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them."
Use of the Term
Successfully introduced doublespeak, over time, becomes part of the general language, shaping the context in which it is used. See below for discussion of classified and unclassified. The process of abbreviating names or forming new words with acronyms or portmanteaus, which arose during the World War and Cold War governments and corporate institutions, is now pervasive (for example: Wikipedia from "Wiki Encyclopedia"). The term has also come to be used by extension in the term doublespeak argument, which means a debate where one or more sides puts forth purposely false reasoning for its point of view to disguise its true intentions.
Whereas in the early days of the practice it was considered wrong to construct words to disguise meaning, this is now an accepted and established practice. There is a thriving industry in constructing words without explicit meaning but with particular connotations for new products or companies. For example, in 1972 Esso (itself a neologism from the acronym for "Standard Oil") changed to Exxon, a name chosen after the company invested $100 million checking that Exxon does not translate to anything in over 54 languages spanning 154 international markets. The company's first choice, "Enco", was rejected as it translated to "stalled engine" in Japanese. Exxon is still called "Esso" in Europe, Canada and Brazil. Similarly, the Windscale nuclear processing facility in Britain was renamed Sellafield when it was privatised, in the hope that the public wouldn't associate the new owners with the Windscale fire, the UK's worst nuclear disaster.
Examples of doublespeak in current usage
Here are some examples of doublespeak in current English usage, with etymologies and examples of clearer, simpler words which are being avoided:
Corporate
- downsize, rightsize, headcount adjustment, RIF (reduction in force), realign: firing employees
- job flexibility: lack of job security (where job security means an actual or implied promise of continued employment)
Espionage
- classified: secret
In World War II, secret information was distinguished into classes corresponding to increasing levels of security clearances (more doublespeak there), and came to be called classified information (as in "classified for a particular clearance"). - unclassified: not secret
Information which wasn't secret was then called unclassified, which carries the implication that the natural state of information is to be classified, in other words, to be made secret. - intelligence: information and sources of information (spies and spying)
- human intelligence: information from spies and interrogated prisoners, and other information from human sources (such as weather reports or economic studies) used by a secret or military agency
- asset: a secret agency's recruited, clandestine human source in a foreign country (foreign spies)
- wet work: assassination
- physical persuasion or physical pressure: torture
Military
- defense: war
as in Department of Defense, formed by the merging of the Department of War and Department of the Navy - neutralize: kill, or to disable
- friendly fire: being inadvertently and mistakenly attacked by your allies
- collateral damage: bystander deaths and injuries
- area denial munitions: landmines
- bombs which kill civilians are, according to The Pentagon, "incontinent ordnance" (Lutz)
- preemptive war: invade a foreign country
- pre-hostility: peace
Political
- regime: government (negative term)
- final solution: Holocaust
Doublespeak was very common in the Third Reich. Goebbels' Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (Ministry of the Reich for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda) coined thousands of new German words. Other Examples include: Concentration Camp (labor/death camp), "Heim ins Reich" (occupation of Austria), the meanings of "Volk" (people) and "Rasse" (race). - ethnic cleansing:genocide
- National socialism (originally German, nationalsozialismus) - a political movement that was explicitly anti-socialist.
- appeasement: to give in to aggression or, to negotiate an agreement
- freedom fighter: armed political rebel (positive term) / terrorist working for us. This is a fine example of Orwellian blackwhite.
- terrorist: armed political rebel (negative term). / freedom fighter working for them.
- homicide bomber: suicide bomber (negative term)
- taxpayer: citizen
The word taxpayer means an individual or business that pays taxes, and when used in a discussion of government revenues is not doublespeak. However, using the term interchangeably with citizen does two things. One, it disguises the fact that political policies that apply to individual taxpayers also apply to corporate taxpayers. Two, it appeals to middle-class citizens by excluding citizens perceived to be bludgers, such as welfare beneficiaries and others perceived to pay little or no tax. More subtly, use of this term dilutes the idea of citizenship itself, and implies that there is nothing more to society than mere economic rationalism, as per Margaret Thatcher's famous pronouncement. This usage has become popular in the names of certain conservative groups, for example, Taxpayers for Common Sense and National Taxpayers Union in the United States, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the lobby group Association of Consumers and Taxpayers in New Zealand.
Social
- job seekers: the unemployed
- asylum seekers: refugees
- unsavory character: criminal (or, more specifically suspected criminal)
- plane crash: involuntary conversion (Lutz)
See also
External link
- Doublespeak from Disinfopedia
References
- Lutz, William. (1987). Doublespeak: From "Revenue Enhancement" to "Terminal Living": How Government, Business, Advertisers, and Others Use Language to Deceive You. New York: Harper & Row.
