How do the pigs on animal farm abuse language?

Due to the increasing disturbance that the pigs were sleeping on beds in Mr. Jones' farmhouse when Clover asks Muriel to read out the Fourth Commandment it read, "No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets." Squealer arrives by chance and puts forward his argument by defining a bed to the animals when the animals cannot reason because language structures thoughts and if there are no thoughts there is no structure, the animals have no means of communicating so therefore, they have no thoughts and let the pigs become superior to them.

During the course of the novel, language is a major theme of importance in the play. When Boxer is taken to the knackers, some of the animals witness the lettering on the side of the truck read, "Alfred Simmonds, Horse Slaughterer and Glue Boiler, Willingdon. Dealer in Hides and Bone-Meal. Kennels Supplied." Squealer immediately assures them that the truck had only been borrowed to a veterinary from the knacker. This well-put argument of Squealers' is able to twist the truth into a lie and hearten the animals who are unable to reason for themselves because they don't have the words to form arguments and even if they did, they did not have a solid foundation of education making their argument seem weak without any justifications to counteract the pigs.

Ultimately in Chapter 10, the commandments are altered and pinned down to one final commandment, "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." This alteration by Squealer distorts the meaning of language because in reality no animals are more equal than others; one is either superior to others or inferior to others. This is what Squealer implies but instead he uses "some are more equal to others" to disguise the fact of the differentiating hierarchy that the pigs have elucidated upon. The fragment, "some animals are more equal than others" highlights the education of the young pigs where they are separated from the rest of the animals and are more privileged. Squealers' demolishing of the other commandments down to one using this rather vague statement to strengthen their authority on Animal Farm to impose authority onto the animals.

In conclusion, throughout the progression of the novel, exploits the fact that the animals are catachrestic leading to the deprivation of their freedom of speech. The pigs heavily abuses and distorts language to stress their authority on the farm animals by equivocating the truth. Without language, the animals are deprived of the ability to formulate thoughts.

Tiffany Ng Hay Yi