Language of the Future as an Object of Satire in D. Eggers’s Dystopic Dilogy

Abstract

Personal worldview can be subjected to linguistic modeling even if the person in question is a fictional character. This research featured the vocabulary invented by the contemporary American writer Dave Eggers for his dystopic dilogy, as well as the role of this fictional language in creating satirical mode. The study involved such methods of cognitive linguistics as component, transformational, and stylistic analyses, analytical description, and semantic fields. The article opens with a review of domestic and foreign publications on the connection between language, social processes, and thinking. The Circle (2013) and The Every (2021) were analyzed for satirical and stylistic devices. The dilogy turned out to be a new type of satire, which combines the postmodern irony and deconstruction with the metamodern openness and optimism. The vocabulary of the future as seen by the author was analyzed for its functions in creating the worldview. Its key features include: neologisms and occasionalisms coined in line with actual word-formation models; contrasting high and low-style vocabulary; euphemisms and modified set phrases. D. Eggers also satirized some real linguistic trends, which, in his opinion, deform the language and affect people’s mind and behavior.

Keywords

• dave eggers
• dystopia
• satire
• fictional language
• word formation models
• neologism
• occasionalism
• euphemisms
• slang