1984 - Planet eBook

now know it, though many Newspeak sentences, even whennot containing newly-created words, would be barely intelligibleto an English-speaker of our own day. Newspeakwords were divided into three distinct classes, known asthe A vocabulary, the B vocabulary (also called compoundwords), and the C vocabulary. It will be simpler to discusseach class separately, but the grammatical peculiarities ofthe language can be dealt with in the section devoted to theA vocabulary, since the same rules held good for all threecategories.THE A VOCABULARY. The A vocabulary consistedof the words needed for the business of everyday life—forsuch things as eating, drinking, working, putting on one’sclothes, going up and down stairs, riding in vehicles, gardening,cooking, and the like. It was composed almost entirelyof words that we already possess words like HIT, RUN,DOG, TREE, SUGAR, HOUSE, FIELD—but in comparisonwith the present-day English vocabulary their numberwas extremely small, while their meanings were far morerigidly defined. All ambiguities and shades of meaning hadbeen purged out of them. So far as it could be achieved, aNewspeak word of this class was simply a staccato soundexpressing ONE clearly understood concept. It would havebeen quite impossible to use the A vocabulary for literarypurposes or for political or philosophical discussion. It wasintended only to express simple, purposive thoughts, usuallyinvolving concrete objects or physical actions.The grammar of Newspeak had two outstanding peculiarities.The first of these was an almost complete