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Language and Communication
In the Alice books, language continually fails to provide an adequate means of communication. In fact, the complex and confusing nature of language frequently leads to miscommunication. Often this miscommunication is due to rival interpretations of the same words or sounds, such as mixing up words that sound the same but have different meanings (homophones), taking metaphors literally, or mixing different languages. In the most extreme cases, communication is impossible because one party to the conversation has a completely different idea of what is being said than the other. However, these miscommunications are the source of comedy and amusement rather than actual harm. The narrator and the reader take a special joy in the multiple meanings that can be found in language.
In the Alice books, the fact that words can be interpreted in so many different ways makes communication difficult.
Although communication is complicated in the Alice books, Humpty Dumpty's example shows that there is nothing inherently wrong with language, as long as both people in a conversation understand their words in the same way.
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