Students can learn about how metaphor is used as a language power technique in the online booklet Doublespeak, or as a module in the online book Critical Language Awareness: Language Power Techniques and English Grammar. Both are freely available as open educational resources. In addition, a video introducing the concept, a list of key points, and additional resources are available below.

Video

Key points of the module:

1. What is doublespeak?

• Doublespeak is a language power technique that involves renaming a concept in order to obscure its original negative meaning and allow for ambiguity. 
• Doublespeak is powerful because after hearing it repeatedly, listeners may forget unpleasant, shocking, and controversial connotations of the original term.

2. What is euphemism and dysphemism?

• Doublespeak often involves the deceptive use of euphemism, the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.
• Euphemism is often used out of respect to refer to socially sensitive and taboo concepts having to do with topics like death or bodily functions; it is not only used in doublespeak.
• Dysphemism is the substitution of a disagreeable, offensive, or disparaging expression for an agreeable or inoffensive one. It is used to shock, amuse, or show informality and is often used for name-calling.
• Euphemisms and dysphemisms may be nouns, adjectives, verbs, and phrases. They are by definition synonyms of the original expression and may use metonymy.

3. How is doublespeak used for propaganda?

• Euphemistic doublespeak can be used to signal, reflect, and promote a particular political ideology or cultural worldview
• Politically correct or PC language is often euphemistic, but whether it’s doublespeak or not–that is, whether it’s intended to deceive and mislead–is a matter of (often political) perspective.
• Dog whistle language is euphemistic doublespeak that covertly signals meaning only to receptive audiences.

4. Where do you find doublespeak? How does it work?

• Doublespeak is used frequently in advertising and marketing; awareness of commercial doublespeak is key to consumer literacy.
• In politics, doublespeak is used to mask intentions and support ideologies or narratives that may be untruthful or unpopular.
• Because of the desire to stay safe or maintain social harmony, people may ignore or overlook doublespeak even if they know its meaning.
• Doublespeak is especially powerful when used to intensify or downplay a speaker/writer or their target’s good or bad qualities. As a way to downplay, it can be a form of omission or diversion and can contribute to confusion.

5. What is jargon?

• Jargon is the specialized words and linguistic registers associated with an activity or group that is difficult to understand for outsiders.
• Jargon can be deliberately used as a form of doublespeak, especially when part of bureaucratese, a register used in governmental and traditional institutions that is especially opaque.

Additional Resources

General Resources

Dieterich, D. (1976). Teaching About Doublespeak.

• This book contains 24 essays that include some great lesson plans on how public language has been misused for personal gains by a range of public office holders. The essays also contain both theoretical reflections as well as practical suggestions on how to study doublespeak. 

Euphemism

Burridge, K. (2012). Euphemism and language change: The sixth and seventh ages. Lexis. Journal in English Lexicology, (7).

• This article presents a good overview of different types of euphemisms and dysphemisms and also charts how they have changed historically in the English language since Shakespeare’s times.
  

TEDx Talks (Director). (2012, June 22). Euphemisms: Kate Burridge at TEDxSydney. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpCTgNyA3DY

• an excellent audio-visual introduction to what euphemisms are and what function they serve in society
  

Doublespeak Examples

Moilanen, M., & Østbye, S. (2021). Doublespeak? Sustainability in the Arctic—A Text Mining Analysis of Norwegian Parliamentary Speeches. Sustainability, 13(16), 9397.

• Through a text-mining analysis of Norwegian parliamentary speeches from 2009-2016, the authors of this article found that while the use of sustainability rhetoric has been steadily rising in the media, politicians are less consistent and more opportunistic. The frequency of their sustainability term usage changes based on whether they are in office or not, which suggests their concern over climate change is a kind of doublespeak.
  

Jerry L. Pulley (1994) Doublespeak and Euphemisms in Education, The Clearing House, 67:5, 271-273, DOI: 10.1080/00098655.1994.9956085

• While doublespeak is usually associated with politics and the military, the authors of this article show several examples of educational doublespeak in the US.
  

Doharty, N., Madriaga, M., & Joseph-Salisbury, R. (2021). The university went to ‘decolonise’and all they brought back was lousy diversity double-speak! Critical race counter-stories from faculty of colour in ‘decolonial ’times. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(3), 233-244.

• This article critiques the UK Higher Education establishment and its use of language that claims to decolonize education through diversity initiatives. The authors claim it is simply lip service that does nothing to challenge the racist underpinnings of the British education system. 

Jargon 

chemdotinfo (Director). (2010, January 20). Technical Jargon Overload. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW2LvQUcwqc

• This parody video shows how jargon is used to make anything seen credible and useful. It could be used as a humorous introduction to the concept of jargon in any classroom. 

Woodward-Kron, R. (2008). More than just jargon–the nature and role of specialist language in learning disciplinary knowledge. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(4), 234-249.

• While conventional jargon is thought of as a negative phenomenon, this article shows the importance of specialist-technical terms for disciplinary knowledge building and advocates for ESL teachers to focus on building this kind of vocabulary in their students apart from basic L2 lexical knowledge.