George Orwell and William Empson worked closely together at the BBC during the Second World War and they remained friends thereafter. In The Structure of Complex Words (1951) Empson paid surprisingly serious attention to the view of language expounded in Nineteen Eighty-Four, seeing in Orwell's presentation of the meaningless slogans of totalitarianism, such as “War Is Peace,” a challenge to his own more rationalistic analysis of how language works. This article first explores the development of Orwell's thinking about language, including his engagement with Basic English (which Empson helped to propagate); a particularly close, and critical, analysis is given of his celebrated essay “Politics and the English Language.” Orwell's views are then contrasted with Empson's unpacking of the interplay of multiple senses within individual words, demonstrating that even the most extreme propaganda statements need to draw upon and respect the mechanics of meaning as embodied in such words if they are to be persuasive. Intellectual historians have much to learn from these exchanges, as do contemporary analysts of “fake news” and authoritarian bombast more generally.

中文翻译：

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当乔治遇见比尔：奥威尔、恩普森和宣传语言

乔治·奥威尔和威廉·恩普森在第二次世界大战期间在 BBC 密切合作，此后他们仍然是朋友。在复杂词的结构(1951) 恩普森出人意料地认真关注了一九八四，在奥威尔对极权主义毫无意义的口号（例如“战争就是和平”）的表述中，看到了对他自己对语言如何运作的更理性分析的挑战。本文首先探讨了奥威尔对语言的思考的发展，包括他对基础英语（Empson 帮助传播）的参与；对他著名的论文《政治与英语》进行了特别贴近和批判性的分析。奥威尔的观点随后与恩普森对单个词中多种意义的相互作用进行对比，表明即使是最极端的宣传声明也需要借鉴和尊重这些词所体现的意义机制，如果它们要具有说服力。思想史学家可以从这些交流中学到很多东西，