Author Topic: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson  (Read 1355 times)

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Plane

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Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
« on: November 03, 2006, 03:18:30 AM »
26 'Impenetrability!  That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me, please,' said Alice 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased.  'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'

http://quotes.zaadz.com/Lewis_Carroll?page=3
 
Lewis Carroll  Source: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

The_Professor

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Re: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2006, 07:25:12 PM »
This looks appropriate to this election season:

25 "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master-that's all."

Plane

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Re: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2006, 07:38:19 PM »
The meaning of words makes a lot of diffrence , understanding a word to mean one thing to the speaker and something elese to the hearer blocks communication .


In politics tho this can be a usefull obfuscation ,being vague or even swaping the meaning of the words after the fact to embarrass or escape embarrassment in the round  game of "gotcha" that Politics sometimes becomes.