Lewis Carroll ' s ' Jabberwocky ' : non - sense not nonsense 1

Although Lewis Carroll's 'Jabberwocky' is traditionally considered to be 'nonsense', such a characterisation ultimately rests on a Western folk notion of language as fundamentally semantico-referential. A more semiotically, and pragmatically, informed view of language and language-use, however, is capable of describing in considerable detail both the means by which a text such as 'Jabberwocky' 'makes sense' and the ends to which such a text can be put. Indeed, such a view shows that some discursive ends are particularly suited to attainment by means of so-called 'nonsense' texts such as 'Jabberwocky'. This article outlines such a view and applies it to 'Jabberwocky', which is thus seen to make both denotational and interactional 'sense'.