Need for Words

Orwell’s prophesy about 1984 might have proven wrong. May be changes don’t happen all that sudden. The picture he painted was scary. But the control mechanism of which he hinted at had entered the scene unobtrusively. May be not in the way he thought exactly, but now our lives are more or less controlled by forces unknown to ourselves. Orwell might have erred but was not far too wrong.
Anyway the man is interesting. Hitched to words, I like his article on new words. His idea was that there are not enough words in English to express what goes on in the mind. I take it that he was talking about language in general rather than English.

This is the case with all languages. The words of Mayakovski are too well known to quote again.

He had observed that abstract words are not coined in English. Instead the older words are twisted into forms to accept new meanings. I do not find much to complain about that. You can’t go and produce words just like that. The internet and the cyber world have produced an unlimited number of words by altering or mutilating the existing words. They have been generally accepted. I view this growth of language.
But Orwell’s main point remains. He was concerned about the lack of meaningful words to express abstract mental experiences. Psychology and its several branches are yet grappling with a terminology which the common people can understand. But they are not yet there and these expressions have not taken the place of abstract general terms to describe what happens inside our minds.

Orwell says that every individual has an inner life and others are not in anyway aware of this life because the words to fail to describe mental states.
He did not think of this article as a good one but I agree with him. It’s not safe for the language to remain rooted to the same spot when our all round knowledge is increasing thousand fold.