‘I wrote a light-hearted book called ‘’A Clockwork Orange’’ to which a certain amount of misguided semantic speculations has been applied. ‘’Why does Mr Burgess use this particular image at this particular point in the narrative? Can it possibly be because...?’’ I am here; I am only too ready to be asked, though I may not know the answer. But some scholars don’t like going to authoritative sources. ‘’To hell with your theory,’’ said one Harvard man to another, ‘’I’ve got data.’’ ‘‘Data shmata,’’ was the reply, ‘’I like my theory’’. Just so. All the Joyce scholars of America must thank God that Joyce is dead.’
Anthony Burgess, ‘Dear Mr Shame’s Voice’
‘A Clockwork Orange’ is an anti-utopian novel by Anthony Burgess written in 1962. The novel introduces us into the world of Alex and his friends – ordinary teenagers at daytime and ruthless thugs during the night. These young people speak their own language – Nadsat, which was invented by the author of the novel. The name of this fictional language is taken from a Russian numerical suffix –надцать, which is an equivalent of English –teen. Nadsat is in essence a mixture of English, Russian, Cockney rhyming slang and words invented by Burgess himself. What interests me most, is the role of Russian in Nadsat. From my point of view, Nadsat can be regarded as a developing Pidgin because of the specific mixing of Russian and English. This thought comes to mind when recalling the political situation in the world at the moment the book was written. Then, the analysis of grammatical and lexical peculiarities of Nadsat, as well as its social status in the world of the novel, indeed reveals many features of Pidgin previously described by linguists. In addition, I am inclined to think that the destiny of this Pidgin is similar to many other Pidgins – in the world of ‘A clockwork Orange’ Nadsat will once cease to exist.
…
