George Orwell defines dying metaphors as outdated phrases used by people as a mere short-cut to creating new ones that in turn lead to the degradation of the English language (Orwell). Unfortunately, some people still do not fully understand the meaning of some phrases and often confuse various metaphorical expressions. On the example of President Nasheed's Speech, it can be said that Mohamed Nasheed resorted to the use of encouraging metaphors in order to make his speech more illustrative. He uses such phrases as “in spite of the odds”, “we won our battle”, “Mother Nature”, “will be the winners of tomorrow”, and “these pioneering countries” that clearly show his attempt to convince the audience in own words as well as to make his message more powerful (President Nasheed). However, these dying metaphors do not create a visual image; instead of this, they seem a bit distracting and lessen the President’s message. Thus, it can be said that that Orwell was right in his judgments about the impact of dying metaphors as they with no doubt make this speech more meaningless and probably take away an attention of the audience from the message that Mohamed Nasheed was trying to deliver.
“Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell. Published April of 1946 in the journal Horizon, volume 13, issue 76, pages 252-265.
President Nasheed. “President Nasheed's Speech.” 350.org. 2009. Web.
Ahmad, you have a good summary of Orwell's idea, and an interesting example of it in effect. The main issue I see here is that you do not have an MLA bibliographical entry for either work you cited. I would suggest looking up how to cite these two works (check the cheat sheet, or OWL Purdue) and post the proper citations in the comments.
ReplyDeleteAhmad, I was really interested to read your blog because as I was reading the essay I have to admit this "trick" ones the one that I had the hardest time understanding completely what it was and after reading your blog you really cleared it up. I also really like the way you mention the article it is a good example of dying metaphors he over uses words to try and strengthen his speech but on the other end it just makes it longer and people look past it instead of really focusing on the extra words and their meanings.
ReplyDeleteVery nice example, Ahmad. It looks both of us chosen the president's speech as a "trick" sample, lol. After reading, I admit that you did a better understanding with those "tricks" than me. In original, I don't think that the phrase "will be the winners of tomorrow" has any problems, it makes sense. However, after carefully thought about your opinion, I agree with it. Yeah, although those phrases look more powerful and exciting, they cannot create a clear image, just like the castle in the air, and we can't touch even see it. It does reduced listener's understandings. By the way, you need to fix your work cited part, you did well in text, why not keep it on the last step?
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ReplyDeleteAhmad, I love your description of this "trick" because personally it is one I struggled understanding. But your description really helped me understand it. You did a very good job summarizing Orwell. The article was also well summarized. you did great explaining how those in particular phrases were just being used to make it longer. They served no special meaning and kind of took that away from the article. I also struggled with doing my works cited correctly but its okay. Just make sure that you get that fixed and you'll be fine! Great job.
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