...
Two days ago I started reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the bus. Actually, I read it a few months ago too, after having accidentally found a book of linguistics which made me very curious about Carroll''s talent of inventing funny words and expressions. Well, it is delighful! Open the book and you'll understand why! :)
ʽWould you tell me, please,
which way I ought to go from here?ʼ
ʽThat depends a good deal on
where you want to get to,ʼ said the Cat.
ʽI donʼt much care where -ʼ
said Alice.’
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.
‘- so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added as an
explanation.
‘Oh, you’re sure to do
that,’ said the Cat, ‘if you only walk long enough.’
Alice felt that this could
not be denied, so she tried another question. ‘What sort of people live about
here?’
‘In that direction,’ the Cat said, waving its right paw round, ‘lives a
Hatter: and in that direction,’
waving the other paw, ‘lives a March Hare. Visit either you like. They’re both
mad.’
‘But I don’t want to go
among mad people,’ Alice remarked.
‘Oh, you can’t help that,’
said the Cat: ‘we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.’
‘How do you know I’m mad?’
said Alice.
‘You must be,’ said the Cat,
‘or you wouldn’t have come here.’
Alice didn’t think that proved
it at all; however, she went on ‘And how do you know that you’re mad?’
(Lewis
Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)