La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños by Nicolás Sartorius

Abstract

Reviewed by: La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños by Nicolás Sartorius Michael Vrooman Sartorius, Nicolás. La manipulación del lenguaje: Breve diccionario de los engaños. Espasa, 2018. Pp. 279. ISBN 978-8-46705-288-6. Sartorius begins La manipulación del lenguaje with a prologue that details his motives for writing this text, recalling his years as a university student during the dictatorship of general Franco and a developing awareness of the systematic lies perpetrated by the regime and their effects. The author recounts how the slogan that Spain was “Una, Grande y Libre” was a particularly disingenuous fabrication as the country was neither united, great, nor free under Franco. More recently, in democratic Spain, he began to notice how the meaning of words used repeatedly in the media were being severely distorted. It is these words that form the basis for his Breve diccionario de los engaños. At first glance, phrases such as ajuste de cuentas and voto útil may not appear to have anything in common, yet as the first and last entries in this text, and affirmed in the title, they serve as examples of how language can be used in deceiving ways. Sartorius identifies sixty-five such words and phrases that pervade print and online media, radio, television, and everyday communication and he reflects on their harmful effects on society. The entries are arranged in alphabetical order and address diverse topics, primarily of an economic, political, or social nature. [End Page 140] Examples such as crecimiento negativo and vivir por encima de nuestras posibilidades exemplify entries in the dictionary with an economic focus. Negative growth refers to a slowdown or contraction in the economy, but is a misleading term as it encourages us to believe that our financial situation only grows. Why would anyone create a term to suggest that an economic downturn was not possible? Perhaps it was out of fear of the impact that consumer confidence could have on the economy, perhaps that there could never be an economic crisis. Nevertheless, the contradiction in meaning is evident. Living beyond our possibilities is a phrase born of the economic crisis of the last decade and has been used to describe and chastise those Spaniards who were perceived to have spent beyond their means. Yet it was not the spending habits of most Spaniards that led to the economic crisis, but rather, as many have argued, international monetary policies and practices, a resulting housing boom and the fallout around the world. Almost one half of the terms in this text address political issues. Among them are phrases such as armas inteligentes and España nos roba. The use of intelligent weapons implies that these weapons would only target criminals and leave innocent civilians unharmed, in clear contrast to unintelligent weapons that kill indiscriminately. It appears to be preferable to have smart weapons than to accept the reality of weapons of another type. With a dose of sarcasm, the author comments that nowadays everything is smart: smart car, smart bombs, smart house and so on, with the exception of the majority of the population. España nos roba, used by some supporters of Catalonian independence during the last few years, alludes to the belief that the rest of Spain had been plundering Catalonia and that only by independence could Catalonia recover those resources. The author argues that the phrase was used to manipulate opinion in two ways. First, it served to underscore that Spain was in some way separate from Catalonia by the use of the pronoun nos. Second, it reinforced the belief that Spain had committed criminal acts by stealing from the region. He convincingly refutes both assertions. In the social realm, posverdad stands out as an example of language that has undoubtedly been used to deceive. It is the deliberate distortion of reality with the goal of manipulating beliefs and social attitudes. To knowingly and intentionally recast a lie as post-truth permeates much of contemporary political discourse around the world. While deliberate distortions of facts are not a new human phenomenon, the instantaneous nature of world-wide communication mediated by technology has dramatically intensified the...