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| Thread ID: 69160 | 2006-05-24 00:16:00 | George Orwell 1984 "Newspeak" | somebody (208) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 457239 | 2006-05-24 00:16:00 | Is it just me, or does this article: www.theregister.co.uk remind you frighteningly of "The Party"'s actions with language in George Orwell's novel Nineteen-eighty-four - ie the language of "Newspeak"? Seems a bit worrying to me actually. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 457240 | 2006-05-24 01:25:00 | Not at all like Orwell. The Chinese are just trying to rationalise their extremely complicated written language. Better still would be to adopt English as a first language, then English speakers would not have to shout to make foreign devils understand plain English :) |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 457241 | 2006-05-24 01:58:00 | English is almost never plain - those that didn't grow up speaking english like you & me can find ambiguity in just about anything. There is however, one gesture & one word that is universally recognised :D | Greven (91) | ||
| 457242 | 2006-05-24 03:22:00 | One word: TAXI I still think that this is a concern, given that we are talking about a government which has become more and more oppressive in the last few years than they have ever been before. While I applaud them for "innovating" the language, the fact that it is a government imposed action is concerning - the fact is, like the english language, there is a set of words which are commonly used in day to day activities, and there is no need for a government to say that "you must" adhere to this standard. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 457243 | 2006-05-24 03:41:00 | Sorry.. but how does "..a grasp of said 900 pictographs will allow access to 90 per cent of content.." Wind up as... "Chinese Totalatarian governement seeks mind control over peasants by similifying the language" :illogical |
superuser (7693) | ||
| 457244 | 2006-05-24 04:14:00 | In "1984" an army of beaurocrats was employed to be continually re-writing history, and going back expunging what had been said before. Now this may have happened under Mao, I don't know. But more cumbersome means of writing in this day and age can hardly be imagined than Chinese or Japanese 'pictographs'. Any attempt to simplify I'd have thought would be a good thing. Read or rather look at a Japanese manual or scientific paper, and western/arabic numbering will be seen. They most probably have to do this, and probably Chinese is the same. Any way it is hardly any different to the "Academie Francaise", and their attempts at purifying the French language, and defining what is or is not acceptable. The French language police get infuriated over the importation of English/American words, and laws are actually passed to prevent their use, would you believe. en.wikipedia.org |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
| 457245 | 2006-05-24 04:19:00 | I can see it now, Mr Helen Clack putting forward a new law that bans people from saying "Youse fullas", the ever popular "yeah,nah" and the spelling of the as Teh..... That aside, she lookin hot potatoes in this pic... www.primeminister.govt.nz Yeah baby, yeah baby, yeah. |
Metla (12) | ||
| 457246 | 2006-05-24 05:42:00 | That aside, she lookin hot potatoes in this pic... www.primeminister.govt.nz Yeah baby, yeah baby, yeah. :horrified You're scaring me |
Greven (91) | ||
| 457247 | 2006-05-24 10:19:00 | In "1984" an army of beaurocrats was employed to be continually re-writing history, and going back expunging what had been said before. Now this may have happened under Mao, I don't know. But more cumbersome means of writing in this day and age can hardly be imagined than Chinese or Japanese 'pictographs'. I would beg to differ on that point for two reasons. 1) The Chinese govt have full control over what is taught in schools - ie. history books must be "approved" before they can be used. While this is fine in principle, we've seen examples in NZ in the past week with the Massey University debarcle where students from China were convinced that Mao was an amazing leader - despite his rule leading to the death of tens of millions, and the persecution of millions of academics. 2) Does anyone know exactly what is going on in China, given the tight govt. controls on media? Who know what they might be doing. While I do accept that my comments are a very pesimistic outlook on what this situation is, where there may well be perfectly reasonable explanations for what's going on, I do think it is important to raise these questions. |
somebody (208) | ||
| 457248 | 2006-05-24 10:46:00 | I can see your point. However, if they all learnt to speak read and write English :) then they would have access to a far wider range of knowledge, and it would be far more difficult for the government to suppress information. For years the Japanese too, distorted WWII history and events during their invasion of China, by suppression and omission from school history books. For example according to them, the "Rape of Nanking" with the massacre of 100,000 Chinese never took place. |
Terry Porritt (14) | ||
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