Speech, music and dehumanisation in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four: a linguistic study of metaphors

Abstract

This article examines the way in which metaphorical expressions referring to speech and music in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four contribute to the elaboration of the theme of dehumanisation. The term ‘metaphor’ is used in a broad sense to refer to various types of transfer of meaning, thus including metonymy and synecdoche as well as metaphor, strictly speaking. Further, the viewpoint is that metaphor is the result of grammatical as well as lexical choices, and is therefore to be dealt with on the lexicogrammatical level. The following conclusions can be drawn from the data examined in the article. First, a linguistic analysis of clause types shows that Orwell makes very consistent selections from the grammar to express the central meaning. Second, it appears that metaphors have been drawn from a relatively small number of recurrent donor domains. These are the domains of animals, physical force and liquids. Although superficially unrelated, they are united in the more abstract domain of ‘control’ and play their roles in creating the picture of a world in which individual consciousness and liberty have no place. Third, the article shows that conventional and creative metaphors harmoniously co-operate in establishing the meaning of dehumanisation as a characteristic of the world depicted in the book.