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Linguacultural prerequisites for the creation of new lexical units in dystopias (on the example of the lexical-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations" in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984")

Studenikina Dar'ya Georgievna

ORCID: 0000-0001-9236-0051

Postgraduate student, The Department of General and Comparative Linguistics, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University

119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1 p.51, room 955

studeni-kina@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2023.8.43761

EDN:

VOIYHU

Received:

10-08-2023


Published:

05-09-2023


Abstract: This research studies the mechanisms of the formation of the author's vocabulary in the text of a dystopia. This vocabulary is called non-existent designations of literary reality. Extra linguistic factors influence the formation of the author's neologism. One of the factors is culture, which influenced the formation of linguistic consciousness. A literary work is a space in which the linguistic embodiment of the author's image of the world, his linguistic culture is concentrated. The material of the research is the text of the dystopian novel "1984" by George Orwell. Dystopia is of interest as one of the fantastic subgenres. The structure of the dystopian world is constructed on the author's fantasy, demonstrating non-existent things. Non-existent denotations are named according to this genre specificity. In the composition of the novel, the depiction of contradictions in the life of society and an undesirable political system is significant for building the world. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to describe the lexical-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations" in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984" and to identify productive elements for creating the vocabulary of this group. The paper uses the descriptive method used in the onomasiological approach. As a result of the research, the units that make up the lexical-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations" were selected, productive elements for creating the studied names were identified, and their lexical meaning was characterized. It can also be concluded that the text of a dystopia is the space in which the author's imagination is realized when creating a non-existent world. This world is not a copy of objective reality. At the same time, the naming of fragments of the new reality is based on the knowledge contained in the mind of the author.


Keywords:

Dystopia, fiction (science fiction), image of the world, linguistic culture, linguistic personality, narrator, occasionalism, semiosis, lexical nomination, the lexical-thematic group

This article is automatically translated.

 

The specifics of the dystopian language

 

The exterior of the artwork is constructed with the help of linguistic means that contain the unique linguistic and cultural features of its creator.  A literary text is a space for word-making. Every work of art is an author's fiction, in the creation of which an assumption is used. The work is constructed through the ability of imagination, which I. Kant divided into two types: productive and reproductive [5, p. 636]. The ability of imagination makes it possible to create assumptions when creating a work of art. Some fiction texts are classified into special genres due to the large volume of assumptions. For example, fantastic genres in which the plot and the entire composition of the work is based on fiction. The fantasy genre is widely understood and has a great variety of subgenres. The dictionary of literary terms provides examples of works that correspond to this genre: folk tales, works by Francois Rabelais and Thomas More, science fiction. As a rule, fiction is understood as a work about the magical or about the future, filled with advanced technologies [12, p. 432], the main method of which is imagination. [12, p. 432]. Dystopia, being the opposite of utopia, is also formed due to the large content of fiction [12, p. 429]. The dystopian genre depicts the inversion of reality, its remaking [2, p. 61]. Based on these data, the structure of the artistic world of fiction and dystopia as its subspecies are the product of an inexperienced imagination. 

It is worth dwelling in more detail on the features of the text of dystopia and its relationship with fiction. For the authors of science fiction, where interstellar flights appeared, the image of social contradictions was also a necessary semantic factor [14, p. 209]. Political scientist L.G. Fishman notes that I. Efremov and the Strugatsky brothers are authors of works of social fiction, and their works depict a dystopian model of extraterrestrial societies [13, p. 35].

Famous works of science fiction depict worlds with dystopian features, acute social themes are raised. B.A. Lanin argues that science fiction has become the basis for utopian motives in literature [8, p. 162]. The ideas of the authors of fiction were influenced by technical modernization and changes in the political and social spheres [ibid.]. Markers of social fiction are the image of a hypothetical future and insurmountable social contradictions. Dystopia has the same characteristics. Thus, the genre of dystopia in fundamental aspects coincides with social fiction and is the result of an extreme degree of author's assumption.  The concepts of utopia and dystopia are synonymous with the concept of social fiction.

Because of the high degree of assumptions in fantastic texts, word-making is a text-forming factor. In a fictional reality, phenomena that are significant for it are formed, the naming of which is the product of the activity of the author's linguistic personality.

The authors of fiction create a new world and fill it with new objects and phenomena, but the creation of a new one is based on the image of the world of the author himself. The creation of new lexical units is also based on models existing in languages familiar to the authors. The names that the author creates are a factor of semiosis for readers who perceive and know the author's reality. The author's word-making is the mechanism that conceptualizes the state of affairs in the artistic space.  V.V. Vinogradov noted that it is nominative units, in particular onomastic ones, that form the main characteristics of the structure of the artistic world, the attitude to its elements [4, p. 720].

Fiction and dystopia have a common feature in the process of creating occasionalisms: with a standard nomination, an agreement occurs, the correlation of the designated object with the sound series [11, p.84], and the occasionalisms in these genres help to imagine, "build" an object.  But despite the attribution of dystopia to the subgenre of fiction, dystopia has a significant difference from science fiction in the lexical aspect [16, p. 111]. Science fiction uses specific vocabulary that has become a marker of the genre, for example, a spaceship, a blaster. Also, a large layer of vocabulary in science fiction is the naming of extraterrestrial worlds. The dystopian genre is not so creative in creating a new vocabulary, since the specifics of the genre dictate to keep in touch with objective reality, and new lexical units retain credibility [16, p. 111]. Therefore, the formation of a new vocabulary in dystopia occurs according to natural language models [16, p. 112].

D.S. Likhachev, discussing the structure of the world of a work of art, points out that it ""reflects" the world of reality" [9, p. 76]. At the same time, the author actively "transforms" the real world, adapting it to artistic tasks [9, p. 76]. The artistic reality of dystopia requires intensive transformation, distortion of many aspects of familiar reality.

As already noted, utopia and dystopia are types of fantasy genre that put social issues at the center of their problems. Fiction in dystopia is a "superstructure" of the objective world.  Because of this specificity, the texts of utopia and dystopia describe in detail the socio-political system and its mechanisms.

"1984" by J. Orwell has the characteristics of social fiction, in the field of view of which the hypothetical development of society. In a dystopia, the image of a society totally controlled by the state is typical. In "1984" there is a large layer of the author's vocabulary – the names of departments, units of the state system. It is the demonstration of the functioning of the system of state bodies that gives the main idea of the state of affairs in the world of the novel.

When considering the process of creating a new vocabulary, it is appropriate to turn to the theory of linguistic personality of Y.N. Karaulov, who points out that a linguistic personality, that is, a native speaker, is not only a user, but also the creator of linguistic units [6, p. 22]. The linguistic personality is formed under the influence of the surrounding society and significant historical factors for this society [6, p. 22]. This influence is expressed in the fact that a native speaker of the national language has a stereotypical knowledge of his culture. Due to the genre specifics, dystopia is a space for word-making. But the image of the world in the author's mind influences the creative activity of the author, who creates a new vocabulary based on experience, according to the models existing in the language.

From the point of view of research in the field of lexicology, it is significant that for the current stage of development of modern languages, word formation is not only the formation of a new lexeme, but also the formation of a new meaning [8, p.8]. There is a secondary nomination, in which the existing sound shell correlates with a new image. It can be said that secondary nomination is actively used in the texts of the dystopian genre. At the same time, she not only names a fictional object, but also creates an idea about this object. Thus, within the framework of dystopia, a lexical unit performs an unusual function – it not only re-names the phenomenon, but is also one of the tools for the formation of this phenomenon in the consciousness of a native speaker.

 

Contents of LTG "Names of socio-political organizations"

 

To build the world of "1984", one of the key aspects was the demonstration of the political system and social order. A significant amount of the author's vocabulary refers to the names of public administration bodies. These units can be defined in the lexico-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations".  This group includes the names of ministries, for example, the Ministry of Truth[1] (Ministry of Truth[2]), The Ministry of Peace (Ministry of Peace), The Ministry of Love (Ministry of Love), the Ministry of Plenty (Ministry of Abundance). For Orwell, as a resident of the United Kingdom, the existence of ministries in the system of public administration is natural. By the time the novel was published in 1949, the Ministry of Education could serve as a model of such an agency in the political system of the United Kingdom. Its name is a composite name, the second part of which defines the scope of the department's activities.

To depict the sphere of employment, the author used the Department lexeme. In the explanatory dictionary of the English language, it is defined as a part or section of a large organization (one section of a large organization) [15, p. 127]. In the space of the novel, the author created the following names: The Records Department (documentation Department/documentary department), Fiction Department (literature department), the Research Department (research department). Samples of these names also served as real names, for example, Department of diabetes King's College Hospital (diabetology department of King's College Hospital), Oxford's Department of Chemistry (Department of Chemistry of Oxford University).

The text of the novel features public organizations and movements created by enthusiasts. An example of such a movement is the Junior Anti-Sex League (Youth Anti-Sex Union). The fundamental lexeme in this name is League, which forms the meaning of ‘union'. The interpretation of this lexeme in the dictionary occurs using the concepts "group", "teams" (group, team), the phrase "to work together" [15, p. 263]. An example of the name of a public organization from the actual reality of the author may be The Women's Loyal National League (Women's Loyal National League league), which named one of the organizations of the suffragette movement active in the early 20th century.

Another lexeme forming the name of a public organization is the Committee. According to the dictionary entry Committee (committee) – a group of people appointed to deal with something (a group of people appointed to solve something) [15, p. 281]. In "1984" the name Chess Committee appears. The organization that this name refers to is an association of interests. Associations with the Committee token can be found in reality. For example, Book Committee of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (book Committee of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics), Music Committee of Ellington Congregational Church (music Committee of the Ellington Congregational Church). 

From the description of the author's names it follows that the lexemes Ministry, Department, League, Committee (ministry, department, league, committee) they were productive bases for compiling the names of socio-political organizations in the novel by J. Orwell's "1984". It is worth noting that the construction of artistic reality in fiction or dystopia is realized with the help of the creative imagination of the author, which I. Kant called productive. The state of affairs in the fictional world outside the author's experience and memory [3, p. 17]. At the same time, the naming of objects of the new reality occurs at the expense of the reproductive ability of imagination, since it reproduces already existing knowledge [3, p. 17]. The creation of a new vocabulary took place according to the model existing in the author's language.

In conclusion, it can be concluded that the dystopian text is the result of the interaction of productive and reproductive imagination. The main task of the author is to create an image of a new world. He creates the thought of non-existent objects. His next task is the conceptualization of the fictional world, which occurs through the expression of its objects in language. As has been demonstrated, the productive elements of copyright naming are already existing units. In the space of dystopia, knowledge about non-existent objects is created, which are then expressed in language. This shows the specifics of dystopia and other fantastic genres, since in non-fantastic works the state of affairs is depicted with the help of existing places, objects and their names, which corresponds to the natural process of nomination, in which the objects themselves and phenomena and thoughts, knowledge about them receive naming [7, p. 61]. With the secondary use of nominations in dystopia, the reverse process occurs: the nominating unit creates a cognitive image of a fictional object, helps to imagine and recognize it, make it "tangible". Also, the use of vocabulary characteristic of the author's linguoculture contributes to the effective process of semiosis in the reader. The presence of common linguistic units between the author and the reader in the conceptual system helps to know the fictional world and interpret it. Thus, the author's creativity by naming fragments of artistic reality turns out to be a cognitive act that, with the help of language signs, translates information about a non-existent world [7, p. 62].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] The article uses examples from Orwell George, Nineteen Eighty-Four. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 2008.

[2] Here and below is a translation by Viktor Golyshev. Orwell George. 1984. Trans. Viktor Golyshev. M.: AST Publishing House, – 2021. – 192 p.

References
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2. Antropova, E.V. (2021). Genre features of the nomination in anti-utopia texts (on the material of Russian and English languages). Bulletin MSLU. Humanitarian sciences, 2, 60-71.
3. Belousova, Yu. V. (2015). The genesis of the image and its functioning in the media space. St. Petersburg: Aletheya.
4. Vinogradov, V.V. (2001). Russian language. The grammatical doctrine of the word. Moscow: Russian language.
5. Kant, I. (1994). Criticism of Pure Reason. Op. in 8 vols. T. 3. Moscow: CHORO.
6. Karaulov, Yu.N. (2010). Russian language and linguistic personality. Moscow: LKI Publishing House.
7. Kubryakova, E.S. (2004). Language and knowledge: on the way to gaining knowledge about language: parts of speech from a cognitive point of view. The role of language in the knowledge of the world. Moscow: Languages of Slavic culture.
8. Lanin, B.A. (2014). Russian utopia, anti-utopia and science fiction in a new socio-cultural context. Problems of modern education, 1, 161–169.
9. Likhachev, D.S. (1968). The inner world of a work of art. Questions of Literature, 8, 74-87.
10. Teliya, V.N. (1996). Russian phraseology. Semantic, pragmatic and linguoculturological aspects. Moscow: School "Languages of Russian Culture".
11. Timofeev, L.I., & Turaev, S.V. (1974). Dictionary of literary terms. Moscow: Education.
12. Fishman L. G. (2002). Science fiction and civil society. Ekaterinburg: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
13. Fokin, A. (2009). Fiction-a window into the "bright future": literature, cinema, ideology at the turn of the 50-60s. XX century. Collection of materials of the International Scientific Conference "Fiction and Technology (in memory of S. Lem)", 209-216. Samara.
14. Hawkins, J., Delahanty, E., & McDonald, F. (2008). Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language. Moscow: AST, Astrel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
15. Millward, Julie. (2006). Dystopian wor(l)ds: language within and beyond experience. PhD thesis. Sheffield: School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics The University of Sheffield.

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The article "Linguistic and cultural prerequisites for the creation of a new vocabulary in dystopia (using the example of the lexico-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations" in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984"), proposed for publication in the journal "Litera", is undoubtedly relevant, due to the author's reference to the specifics of the utopia language and, in fact, to the above-mentioned work. In addition, the work makes a certain contribution to the development of lexicology. The article is groundbreaking, one of the first in Russian philology devoted to the study of such topics in the 21st century. The article presents a research methodology, the choice of which is quite adequate to the goals and objectives of the work. The author turns, among other things, to various methods to confirm the hypothesis put forward. The article uses general linguistic methods of observation and description, as well as methods of discursive and cognitive analysis, semiotic methods and methods of language modeling. All the theoretical inventions of the author are supported by practical linguistic material from the work and are accompanied by a Russian translation. This work was done professionally, in compliance with the basic canons of scientific research. The research was carried out in line with modern scientific approaches, the work consists of an introduction containing the formulation of the problem, the main part, traditionally beginning with a review of theoretical sources and scientific directions, a research and a final one, which presents the conclusions obtained by the author. It should be noted that the introductory part provides too scant an overview of the development of problems in science. It should be noted that the conclusion requires strengthening, it does not fully reflect the tasks set by the author and does not contain prospects for further research in line with the stated issues. The bibliography of the article contains 15 sources, among which theoretical works are presented in both Russian and English. Unfortunately, the article does not contain references to the fundamental works of Russian researchers, such as monographs, PhD and doctoral dissertations. In general, it should be noted that the article is written in a simple, understandable language for the reader. Typos, spelling and syntactic errors, inaccuracies in the text of the work were not found. The comments made are not significant and do not affect the overall positive impression of the reviewed work. The work is innovative, representing the author's vision of solving the issue under consideration and may have a logical continuation in further research. The practical significance is determined by the possibility of using the presented developments in further case studies. The results of the work can be used in the course of teaching at specialized faculties. The article will undoubtedly be useful to a wide range of people, philologists, undergraduates and graduate students of specialized universities. The article "Linguistic and cultural prerequisites for the creation of a new vocabulary in dystopia (using the example of the lexico-thematic group "Names of socio-political organizations" in George Orwell's dystopian novel "1984")" can be recommended for publication in a scientific journal.