Response to Politics and the English Language

12/2/18

Selfishness with Language

Language can be used for many things. It can be used to teach someone, it can be used to hurt someone mentally, it can be used to flirt with someone and etc. However, language can be used to deceive someone. In "Politics and the English Language" George Orwell argues that language is not a natural growth and it's a tool that humans use for their own purposes. I agree and disagree with this statement, language was simply created by early civilizations to communicate with one another. Since language has been created it has evolved and changed over time. English was created and based upon several other languages. Language also adapts to our needs, for example when you text someone you may use abbreviations such as "ttyl" (talk to you later) and "wyd" (what are you doing). These new adaptations to language help us communicate faster to one another while also communicating easily. As the demand for communication keeps increasing, we try to find ways to communicate easier and quicker. However we use language to deceive people. We can manipulate language for our own selfish purposes. Humans lie to people to get out of situations easier. Instead of telling your mom you failed your final, you can just tell them that you got an A. When we manipulate language we either tell people what they want to hear or what we want them to hear, never the truth. Therefore, language is a natural growth but it's very easy to manipulate it and use it for your own purposes.

Jack Herrera