An examination of George Orwell's newspeak through politeness theory

This thesis aims to analyze the formation of politeness in the use of Orwell's artificial language, Newspeak. Multiple theories of politeness will be utilized for the examination but with primary focuses on Brown and Levinson's (1987) original theory and Watts' (2003) views on politic behavior. Orwell's (1949) original novel will be used for the grammatical and lexical basis of the language as well as the source for the language's sociolinguistic aspects. It will be shown that politeness is present within the society and its language, even though it is mechanically altered due to the structure of Newspeak. The largest changes are through the realization of face in INGSOC where a hybrid of Western and Eastern social principles are present.