Language and Logic
By Rebekah Folse
Author Lewis Carroll is
known for his unique writing style and his use of logic behind his “made-up”
language if you will. He often times will create his own words and apply common
knowledge to these made up words, thus giving the words an understandable
meaning. Fascinated with logic, he wrote a book called: Symbolic Logic/Game of Logic which examines Carroll’s technique in
the way he puts words and phrases together to get his meanings across. Carroll
uses his unique (made up) language and pairs it with his logic. By pairing the
two, he is able to convey his message to his audience.
Often, Lewis Carroll’s made up language is formed by his technique called blending. Blending is when a single word is created by combining parts of two other words. The newly blended word will share of combine the meanings of its source word. An example of blending by Lewis Carroll is: “chortle”. This word is used in Through the Looking Glass and it means to proclaim something excitingly or with a chuckle.
In addition to blending, in Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he uses phonetic slippages to expose not only Alice’s misunderstanding of the words, but the reader’s misunderstanding as well. In a more general sense, Carroll takes words such as “tail” and “tale” and uses them in such a way that only one word holds the real meaning, but when he embeds the words in his text, it becomes difficult to determine which word is the correct to use. He is careful to use words that are similar in sound and spelling, making it easier for the reader to exchange one word for another. This exchanging of the words causes confusion and causes the reader to think and pay more attention to the circumstances at hand rather than just glancing over the text without giving it a second thought. This confusion is seen many times as Alice is continually misunderstanding the animals in Carroll’s novel. With this misunderstanding of which words to use towards the animals, Alice proves she is not paying attention to the situation she is in. This is what Carroll puts emphasis on. He wants his readers to truly think about his use of words and phrases rather than just skimming over a phrase without considering it twice.
References:
Carroll, Lewis. Symbolic Logic, And, the Game of Logic. New York: Dover Publications and Berkeley Enterprises, 1958. Print
Cohan, Steven, and Linda M. Shires. “Chapter 1: Theorizing Language.” Telling Stories. 1-20. n.p.: Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, 1988. Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 April 2015.
Collins, Valerie. “Abomistrosities.” Vocabula Review 15.1 (2013): 1-8 Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Apr. 2015
Often, Lewis Carroll’s made up language is formed by his technique called blending. Blending is when a single word is created by combining parts of two other words. The newly blended word will share of combine the meanings of its source word. An example of blending by Lewis Carroll is: “chortle”. This word is used in Through the Looking Glass and it means to proclaim something excitingly or with a chuckle.
In addition to blending, in Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he uses phonetic slippages to expose not only Alice’s misunderstanding of the words, but the reader’s misunderstanding as well. In a more general sense, Carroll takes words such as “tail” and “tale” and uses them in such a way that only one word holds the real meaning, but when he embeds the words in his text, it becomes difficult to determine which word is the correct to use. He is careful to use words that are similar in sound and spelling, making it easier for the reader to exchange one word for another. This exchanging of the words causes confusion and causes the reader to think and pay more attention to the circumstances at hand rather than just glancing over the text without giving it a second thought. This confusion is seen many times as Alice is continually misunderstanding the animals in Carroll’s novel. With this misunderstanding of which words to use towards the animals, Alice proves she is not paying attention to the situation she is in. This is what Carroll puts emphasis on. He wants his readers to truly think about his use of words and phrases rather than just skimming over a phrase without considering it twice.
References:
Carroll, Lewis. Symbolic Logic, And, the Game of Logic. New York: Dover Publications and Berkeley Enterprises, 1958. Print
Cohan, Steven, and Linda M. Shires. “Chapter 1: Theorizing Language.” Telling Stories. 1-20. n.p.: Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, 1988. Literary Reference Center. Web. 14 April 2015.
Collins, Valerie. “Abomistrosities.” Vocabula Review 15.1 (2013): 1-8 Literary Reference Center. Web. 6 Apr. 2015