When Humpty Dumpty boasted of his ‘unbirthday present’, Alice timidly scolded him for using language unconventionally. But Humpty told her that he used words just as he wished, and that language was not a matter of convention. The only issue was whether words are to be in control of their speaker, or the speaker in control of his words.

Humpty Dumpty goes on to show that words are mischievous servants that have to be kept under control, and is gratified when Alice begins to treat him more like the master of meaning he believes himself to be. He claims to be in effortless control, and that when he makes words mean more than usual he pays them a bonus.

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