Language is a Weapon

Published June 2019

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How Language Is Used to Deceive You: Politics, Business, World Events, Sports, and Law (1989)

Published on 12 Feb 2014

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. About the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006...

Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language.

Doublespeak might also have some connections with contemporary theories as well. Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky note in their book that Orwellian Doublespeak is an important component of the manipulation of the English language in American media, through a process called 'dichotomization'; a component of media propaganda involving 'deeply embedded double standards in the reporting of news'. For example, the use of state funds by the poor and financially needy is commonly referred to as 'social welfare' or 'handouts', which the 'coddled' poor 'take advantage of'. These terms, however, do not apply to other beneficiaries of government spending such as tax incentives and military spending.

William D. Lutz, serves as the third chairman of the Doublespeak Committee since 1975 to the present. In 1989, both his own book Doublespeak and, under his editorship, the committee's third book, Beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four, were published. Lutz was also the former editor of the now defunct Quarterly Review of Doublespeak, which examines ways that jargon has polluted the public vocabulary with phrases, words and usages of words designed to obscure the meaning of plain English. His book, Beyond Nineteen Eighty-Four, consists of 220 pages and eighteen articles contributed by long-time Committee members and others whose body of work has made important contributions to understandings about language, as well as a bibliography of 103 sources on doublespeak.

Lutz is one of the main contributors to the committee as well as promoting the term "doublespeak" to a mass audience so as to inform them of the deceptive qualities that doublespeak contains. He mentions:
There is more to being an effective consumer of language than just expressing dismay at dangling modifiers, faulty subject and verb agreement, or questionable usage. All who use language should be concerned whether statements and facts agree, whether language is, in Orwell's words 'largely the defense of the indefensible' and whether language 'is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.'" [15]
He also mentions that the NCTE Committee on Public Doublespeak and their works with regards to educating the public on doublespeak is responsible for "the rather awesome task of combating the advertisers, the politicians, and the major manipulators of public language in our society." [15]
Lutz states that it is important to highlight doublespeak to the public because "language isn't the invention of human beings to lie, deceive, mislead, and manipulate" and the "purpose of language is to communicate the truth and to facilitate social groups getting together". Thus, according to Lutz, doublespeak is a form of language that defeats the purpose of inventing language because doublespeak does not communicate the truth but seeks to do the opposite and the doublespeak committee is tasked with correcting this problem that doublespeak has created in the world of language.

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George Carlin on language of politics

Published on 22 May 2014

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"What is Language and Why Does It Matter" - Noam Chomsky

Published on 6 Sep 2013

Professor Noam Chomsky's Forum Lecture, "What is Language and Why Does It Matter" from the 2013 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute at the University of Michigan.

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Robert Sapolsky: Are Humans Just Another Primate?

Uploaded on 2 Mar 2011

Dr. Robert Sapolsky discusses his work as professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and as a research associate with the Institute of Primate Research at the National Museum of Kenya. His enviable gift for storytelling led the New York Times to print, "If you crossed Jane Goodall with a borscht-belt comedian, she might have written a book like A Primate's Memoir." Dr. Sapolsky's account of his early years as a field biologist. He is sure to dazzle and delight with tales of what it means to be human.

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"Why Save a Language" (2006)

Published on 20 Mar 2014
   Directed by Sally Thompson
More than half of the 300 indigenous languages of North America are now extinct. But a movement by Native peoples to resurrect and preserve these languages is thriving in many places around the continent. In this film, Native people from various tribes and languages discuss the heart wrenching loss of indigenous languages, and the importance of keeping what remains alive. An important film for any interested in linguistics, saving Native American Indian languages, and saving global languages.

For those interested in linguistics, endangered native languages, and Native American issues will find this short film valuable and educational.
Language represented here are: Kainai (Blackfeet), Cuyuse- Walla Walla, Pikuni (Blackfeet), Lakota, Osage, Hidatsa, Yakama, Mandan - Hidatsa, Cayuse-Nez Perce, Couer d'Alene, Elwha Klallam, Mandan, and Wasco, to name just a few.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER
Dr. Thompson has spent over thirty years working with native tribes of the West. She has worked as an archaeologist, ethnographer, and ethnohistorian. As founder of the Regional Learning Project, she oversaw a team of specialists with a focus on regional history, geography and culture, interviewing over 200 elders of 37 tribes and used the results to produce several documentaries and three websites. More recently, she worked with traditionalists from the Kootenai and Blackfeet tribes on a book about their traditional seasonal grounds through the Crown of the Continent, with a focus on Glacier National Park. PEOPLE BEFORE THE PARK is due out in 2014.

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