STRANGE AND UNCLEAR WORDS IN THE POEM «JABBERWOCKY» BY LEWIS CARROLL

STRANGE AND UNCLEAR WORDS IN THE POEM «JABBERWOCKY» BY LEWIS CARROLL

Ekaterina Pastukhova

Bachelor student, National Research University Higher School of Economics,

Russia, Saint-Petersburg

Svetlana Korepanova

Teacher of English, MAEI Lyceum "Synton",

Russia, Tchaikovsky

All we know that books are essential in learning foreign languages. Undoubtedly, the works of great writers written in the language which we study help us to extend vocabulary, to develop speech and to find out cultural and social peculiarities of the language. But the big problem is that most of the authors use words which only native speakers understand. Nevertheless, a curious, interested in learning person always wants to explore everything himself. Some time ago, while reading the book «Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There» by Lewis Carroll, we were especially interested in the strange piece of poetry «Jabberwocky» because the text of this poem has lots of incomprehensible words.

The poem «Jabberwocky» is exactly the example of using words and phrases when a reader cannot understand what the author wants to convey to him.  This fairy tale is one of the most famous works of world literature. Despite the fact that it was translated into various languages, it is one of the most difficult works to translate. We suppose that a certain grammatical structure of a word can give understanding of what part of speech it is. Thus, it can help to understand the meaning of the poem. We decided to verify if the knowledge of grammatical structure of a word would help to understand new unclear words.

Thereby, the theme of our work is «Strange and unclear words in the poem «Jabberwocky» by L. Carroll». The aim is reaching the understanding of parts of speech of unclear words in the poem «Jabberwocky». The tasks concern learning the rules of word formation in the English language and analyzing the poem «Jabberwocky» by L. Carroll to determine the parts of speech of unclear words. The hypothesis is a grammatical structure of a word gives us understanding of the parts of speech in a sentence. The object of the research is the poem «Jabberwocky». The subject is unclear words. The methods which were used are generalization, concrete definition, classification, analogy, analysis, comparison.

Because of new inventions and changes, every language is in need of new words borrowed or derived simply because new things need new words. The human community is steadily growing and developing, just as the tool we use to communicate: Language. If there is a new thing and the language community has no word for it, there are several options to create a new one. The expression ‘word-formation’ or ‘word-building’ means the process of words out of sequences of morphemes or words. If you know the structure of the word formation in the English language, it is much easier to understand the speech, read and, of course, to replenish vocabulary.

Generalization is the perfect way for information processing. We are using this method because we should understand how much information we are dealing with and identify the main kinds of word formation. In English there are 4 structural types of words depending on the difference of their morphemes. The word consisting of only one root-morpheme is known as a simple one: table, go, ten, green. The derivative is a word which consists of stem and a suffix or a prefix: journal/ist, friend/ship quick/ly. Compounds are words consisting of two or more stems: blackboard, daydream, to week-end, heart-breaking, dark-blue. Compound-derivatives are the words combining the features of compounds and derivatives. They are formed when a suffix or a prefix is a compound word (stem): left-hand/er, house-wif/ery, puppet-dogg/ish. [11] There are four main kinds of word formation: prefixation, suffixation, conversion and compounds.

As the main kinds have the special features and every kind plays a huge role in word formation, they are classified into some groups. We also identified the symptoms which can distinguish one kind from another.

Compounds is when two or more bases link together to create a new word. Compounds are often made up of more than two words. For example: man-of-war, son-in-law, none-the-less, guard-of-honour, etc. By compounding are formed: verbs - to blackmail, to oven-bake; nouns - girlfriend, handbook; adjectives - dark-blue, kind-hearted; adverbs - nowhere, everywhere; pronouns - somebody, everyone.

Except the articles, all parts of speech (word-classes) can be used to make compounds, for example blacksmith (Adj.+N.), homesick (N.+Adj.), yourself (Pro.+N.), undergo (Adv.+Vb.), upon (Prepo.+Prepo.), outcome (Prepo.+Vb.) [6].

Conversion is a way of word-building which consists of turning a word from a certain part speech into a word of another part of speech. When a word has several forms, it is mostly the main one that is converted into another part of speech. For example: water – to water, hand – to hand, empty – to empty.

Prefixes are letters which we add to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning. Prefixes can create a new word opposite in meaning to the word the prefix is attached to, make a word negative or express relations of time or place.

Un- / im- / ir- / il- / dis- / in- are negative prefixes, which form words opposite in meaning. For example: like – dislike, equal – unequal, complete – incomplete. An important difference between un- and in- is that in- is not used with verbs. The prefix In- is modified in some cases: before l it turns into il- legal – illegal, before r it turns into ir- responsible – irresponsible, before m, p it turns into im- possible – impossible.

Mis- the prefix means wrong, incorrectly: misunderstand, misprint, misinformation. Re- means to do something again, repeat: rewrite, replay, refill. Over- means too much: overcook, oversleep, overcrowd. Under- means under something: underground, underwear. Ex- the prefix means former: ex-president, ex-boyfriend.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added at the end of a word which makes a new word. There are some groups of suffixes of different parts of speech. Suffixes of nouns: -er / -or the suffixes form a noun from a verb and indicate the person who performs the action: player, swimmer, visitor, speaker, adviser; -ing is the suffix of a verbal noun, means action in the process: beginning, feeling, opening; -ness means property, quality: sleepiness, loneliness, darkness, politeness; -ment: movement, announcement, agreement; -dom: freedom, boredom, kingdom; -ion / -tion / -sion / -ssion: competition, celebration, revision; -ure / -ture: adventure, nature; -hood means state/social status/a set of people or family relationships: childhood, brotherhood, neighbourhood; -ship: partnership, hardship; -ist: idealist, artist, pianist; -y creates an abstract notion: brilliancy, dependency; -an, -ian mean nationality or job: Russian, librarian; -ance / -ence: importance, disappearance.

Suffixes of adjectives: -able / -ible: eatable, unbreakable, changeable; -less indicates the absence: expressionless, cloudless, toothless, careless; -ous the quality of designated word base: dangerous, famous; -al: sentimental; -ful means much quality of something: forgetful, watchful, thoughtful; -ish means a little quality of something: greenish, reddish, or something annoys you: childish, bearish, camelish; -y creates the word which shows the subject totally: windy, stormy, soapy; -some creates a quality adjective: troublesome, quarrelsome; -ic: philosophic, scientific, democratic; -ive: expressive, progressive, active.

Suffixes of adverbs: -ly: calmly, occasionally, quickly; -ward(s) meansthe direction of movement: backwards; -wise means to do in such a direction/way: clockwise. Suffixes of numerals: -teen is used with cardinal numbers from 13 to 19: thirteen; -ty is used with decades: twenty; -th is used with ordinal numbers: fourth.

Suffixes of verbs: -en verb forms of adjectives and nouns, which gives quality: weak - weaken, hard - harden, sharp – sharpen; -ize + noun means to do the same as on the basis of points: summarize; -ify/ -fy + noun mean to turn into/do something: gasify, electrify; -ate + noun: vaccinate, granulate; -ish: establish; -er: whisper.

As we have seen before, there are many ways to create new words: blending together from several words or converting words from one grammatical category to another, for example from verb to noun (to flow →the flow) or from noun to verb (the e-mail → to e-mail). Affixation, which is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation, is also a special way because you may have never met the word but know the meaning, due to the fact, that you know suffixes and prefixes. It is incredible that the language itself can help understand the meaning of the words, phrases and sentences without extra words.

«It seems very pretty, said Alice, but it's rather hard to understand! Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas - only I don't exactly know what they are». Alice thought so when she read the poem for the first time. And it caused us similar emotions. Few people understand like Alice that the poem is about «somebody killed something: that’s clear, at any rate–».

The concrete theme of our research based on the reaching the understanding of parts of speech of unclear words in the poem «Jabberwocky» by Lewis Carroll had not been studied before. However, many linguists and other people were interested in the meaning of unclear words and their ways of word formation. For example, N.M. Demurova (8) and S. Kuriy (10) study the theme of formation of all unclear words with the help of different prefixes and suffixes. They clarify how the words were formed and explain the meaning they would have in the Russian language. Another author, Lenny (4), explains the meaning of all unclear words from the poem in English, tells about Carroll's thoughts to make it easier for the reader to understand the poem in the original.

As the main idea was to determine the parts of speech of unclear words, at first we identified them using the information about word formation we had learnt before. While identification we used analogy to understand the way of word formation applied for each word exactly. And we also used analysis to find out which part of speech the word belongs to (table 1).

Table 1.

The determining parts of speech (PS) of unclear words using the ways of word formation (WWW)

Unfortunately, not all parts of speech of the words can be determined with the help of knowledge of the main ways of word formation. But Carroll used the technique that makes Jabberwocky intelligible. It is the placement of the words in the sentences. Carroll used the placement, special grammatical structure of his words in the sentences to tell us their meanings. So we could understand the part of speech analyzing the sentences (table 2).

Table 2.

The determining parts of speech (PS) of unclear words using their placement in the sentence

Although without detailed explanation it is difficult to decipher the meaning of the poem, it is still clearly recognizable as being written in English. Carroll used techniques to keep «Jabberwocky» from becoming complete nonsense.

L. Carroll gave the meaning of some of his words because only few people can understand them. For example, he gave the following as the literal English of «Twas brilling»: «It was evening, and the smooth active badgers were scratching and boring holes in the hill-side; all unhappy were the parrots; and the grave turtles squeaked out» [4]. «Before incorporating «Jabberwocky» into Looking-Glass, however, Carroll apparently changed his mind as to what some of his words should mean, for when Alice discusses the poem with Humpty Dumpty (the character from the popular English poem for children, he looks like short fat being, an egg) later in the book, he gives somewhat different interpretations» [4].

L. Carroll also invented such a word as «portmanteaus». «You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word» [3]. Several of Carroll’s words have become so much a part of the language that they can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary. So, besides determining the parts of speech, we decided to find out the meaning of unclear words because we were interested in their meaning a lot.

1. «Brillig» - as Humpty Dumpty said brillig means four o'clock in the afternoon - the time when you begin broiling things for dinner. L. Carroll used the same explanation in his manuscript journal «Misch Masch».
2.  «Slithy» - «Humpty Dumpty explained to Alice: «Well, slithy means «lithe and slimy». «Lithe» is the same as «active». You see it's like a portmanteau - there are two meanings packed up into one word»».
3. «Toves» - «Humpty Dumpty said: «Well, toves are something like badgers - they're something like lizards - and they're something like corkscrews». «They must be very curious looking creatures» - added Alice. «They are that, - said Humpty Dumpty, - also they make their nests under sun-dials - also they live on cheese»».
4. «Gyre» - ««To gyre is to go round and round like a gyroscope» - explained Humpty Dumpty». Carroll creates this verb from the Turkish «giaour» (a dog) and said that it means«scratching like a dog». In the Oxford Dictionary it has the definition «whirl or gyrate».
5. «Gimble» - ««To gimble is to make holes like a gimlet» - explained Humpty Dumpty».
6. «Wabe» - Alice and Humpty Dumpty said that the wabe is the grass-plot round a sun-dial. It's called wabe because it goes a long way before it, and a long way behind it. And a long way beyond it on each side (wabe = way + be-fore/hind/yond). But as L. Carroll said this word was formed from «to soak» and «to swab» and means «Hillside, which gets wet while raining».
7. «Mimsy» - as Humpty Dumpty said mimsy is «flimsy and miserable». Mimsy is a portmanteau word. In the Oxford Dictionary it has the definition «rather feeble and prim or affected».
8. «Borogoves» - ««And a borogove is a thin shabby-looking bird with its feathers sticking out all round - something like a live mop» - said Humpty Dumpty».
9. «Mome» - Humpty Dumpty said that he is not certain about mome. But he thinks it's a short form for «from home» - meaning that they'd lost their way. L. Carroll`s description matches with Humpty Dumpty`s and he said about it - «serious, gloomy and solemn». The Oxford Dictionary writes «Explained by Carroll as: grave, solemn».
10. «Raths» - ««Well, a rath is a sort of green pig» - explained Humpty Dumpty». However, L. Carroll describes them in another way: land tortoises with their heads held high, with shark jaws. The front paws curled so that the animals are moved on the knees. Their bodies are smooth and green. The main food - swallows and oysters. The Oxford Dictionary writes « a strong circular earthen wall forming an enclosure and serving as a fort and residence for a tribal chief».
11.  «Outgrabe» - Humpty Dumpty told about outgrabing like it is something between bellowing and whistling, with a kind of sneeze in the middle: however, you'll hear it done, maybe-down in the wood yonder-and when you've once heard it you'll be quite content. As for L. Carroll, the word is the past simple from the verb «to outgribe» it was formed from the old verbs «grike» or «shrike» which in modem English exist like «creak» and «shriek». The Oxford Dictionary writes «A nonsense word; (most frequently) to emit a strange noise».
12. «Jabberwock» - once two girls asked L. Carroll for a permission to call their school magazine «Jabberwocky». In the letter which he sent them with the answer L. Carroll explained that the first part «jabber» is a part of the word in its ordinary meaning - mumbling, talking excitedly and long-winded, and the second part comes from the Old English «wocer» or «wocor», meaning «offspring». Despite the fact that it is a proper name, we can translate «Jabberwock» like «the result of frenzied argument». By the way, in the name of the poem («Jabberwocky») the author used –y. And in the English language the suffix –y with a proper name has the meaning of «diminutively». But inside the poem he wrote «Jabberwock» without –y. So, we think by this way he showed the severity of the main character.
13. «Frumious» - we found out (10) that this word was formed by the Old English «Frumetlmg», meaning «a youngling, young cow». ButL. Carroll said that he formed it by two words: fuming and furious. And it is another portmanteau word. So, the translation of the phrase «The frumious Bandersnatch» is different: either «young Bandersnatch» or «extremely angry and emitting gas Bandersnatch», and we should say that there is a big difference between them.
14. «Bandersnatch» - as we have already said (table 2.1) the name consists of two words: «band» and «snatch», so «Bandersnatch» means «a being that quickly seizes something or somebody in a rude or eager way».
15. «Vorpal» - L. Carroll wrote that, unfortunately, he does not know what they mean.But in modern dictionaries this word has the meaning «destroying and sharp» because it was formed from the Old English word «to weorpan».
16. «Manxome» - as this word was formed from the Old English word «maene», the phrase «manxome foe» means «mean, wicked, false and evil foe». The Oxford Dictionary writes «A nonsense word invented by Lewis Carroll to describe the Jabberwock: fearsome, monstrous».
17. «Tumtum» - in Carroll`s days people called «tumtum» like monotonous play on a stringed instrument (something like «drin-drin»). So,we think the «Tumtum tree» means «slowly swaying tree», although we understand that this is a proper name invented by L. Carroll.
18. «Uffish» - as this word was formed from the Old English word «uferian», meaning «make higher», the phrase «uffish thought» can be translated like «exalted or high thought». But in the letter to one of his fans L. Carroll explained that it is the state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish and the temper huffish.
19. «Wiffling» - in modern dictionary it means «whistling». In Carroll`s times (XIX c.) it had a different meaning of the word: «blowing in short gusts».
20. «Tulgey» - as this word was formed from the Old English word «tulgey», meaning «strongly», the phrase «tulgey wood» can be translated like «dense wood».
21. «Burble» - L. Carroll explained that «burble» consists of three words "bleat, murmur and warble”. And it is a portmanteau word. The Oxford Dictionary writes «Speak in an unintelligible or silly way, typically at unnecessary length».
22. «Snicker-snack» - the word was formed by «snicker-snee» and «snack», the last means «fast», so, the phrase «the vorpal blade went snicker-snack» means «sharp blade went fast».
23. «Galumphing» - this is another portmanteau word. It consists of the words «gallop» and «triumphant». The Oxford Dictionary writes «Move in a clumsy, ponderous, or noisy manner. Invented by Lewis Carroll»
24.  «Frabjous» - as this word was formed from the Old English word «frea-beorht», meaning «exceedingly bright, glorious», the phrase «frabjous day» can be translated like «glorious day». The word is like a neologism invented by L. Carroll. It is indicated in the Oxford Dictionary and means «delightful; joyous».
25. «Gallooh! Gallay!» - most likely, Carroll had in mind two forms of the word «kalos», which in Greek can mean «beautiful», «good», or «fair» L. Carroll called the shout of delight like this.
26.  «Chortle» - this is a portmanteau word. By the way, scientists think that Carroll`s love to such word is so big because when he worried he started to stutter and the words created themselves. This word means «chuckle» and «snort» at the same time. And it joined the Oxford Dictionary with the definition «laugh in a noisy, gleeful way».

We are glad that we could find the meaning of all unclear words. It is in this manner that we are able to use our ingrained knowledge of the English language to help us understand what is happening in «Jabberwocky». Carroll knew this, and arranged his words in a way which would facilitate this type of subconscious analysis.

As well as determining the meanings of the words in the original version we decided to compare the translations of the poem Jabberwocky into Russian by several authors. We wanted to know if the parts of speech of the words in Carroll’s poem are the same as the parts of speech of the words in different translations. You can see the results in the Appendix A.

When we compared the translations we ascertained that some of the authors used other parts of speech, not as Lewis Carroll, for example, mimsy is an adjective in Carroll’s poem but in the translation by Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik it is a noun.

Clark B.L. said L. Carroll`s world of fairy tales is unusual but his fabulous space «is not chaotic». The poem «Jabberwocky» destroys our habitual organized environment, isn`t it? It is inexplicable for most of the people.

During our research we have learnt the main ways of word formation. And got to know that there are four main kinds of word formation: prefixation, suffixation, conversion and compounds. We could also analyze the poem «Jabberwocky» by L. Carroll to determine the parts of speech of unclear words. But our hypothesis was not fully confirmed. Of course, we can say that a grammatical structure of a word gives us understanding of determining the parts of speech in a sentence and we showed the proof of this on the example of the poem «Jabberwocky» (table 2.1).

But in fact, in our case some words invented by L. Carroll can`t be understood with the help of the main kinds of word formation because the author created the words in a different way. Luckily, he left clues that can help to determine the part of speech of the word such as the placement of a word in the sentence (table 2.2).

We also found out the meaning of each word. We have discovered that many of them were formed from the Old English words and the unclear words from the first quatrain were explained right in the book «Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There». Lewis Carroll also invented such a word as a portmanteau - «there are two meanings packed up into one word» [3]. By the way, some of the words can be found in the Oxford dictionary with a mark «invented by Lewis Carroll».

As for the comparison of the meaning of the translations, we have ascertained that some of the authors used other parts of speech for translation (not as Lewis Carroll). They also removed some events from the original version. We think that it happened so because they were in need of rhyme and the words did not fit it.

In our opinion, this work will be useful for students who want to improve the knowledge of the main kinds of word formation or for teachers who can use the information about the main kinds of word formation and tell about it at their lessons. And, of course, those who are interested in broadening their horizon can get acquainted with the fantastic poem «Jabberwocky» by L. Carroll and sort it out.
 

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