Forms: Tongue(s), tongued
Related terms: Lap, lick, language
Explication
The tongue is represented within Ulysees as a mechanism that relates meaning, though that meaning varies widely over the course of the text, depending on the context wherein occurrences of ‘tongue’ occur. While there are references to ‘tongue’ wherein the different definitions of the word overlap, complicating and expanding the meaning of the moment that contextualizes it, it does not seem that these meanings are gradually consolidated over the course of the text. Considering the prominence of ‘tongue’ in certain key moments and images within the text, there are inevitably instances wherein the reader’s interpretation of the ‘tongue’ in a respective context will consider one that occurred earlier in the text, perhaps even in a different chapter. In certain instances, there is a strong case to be made that Joyce intentionally widens the reader’s lens through the usage; for the most part however, the tongues of Ulysses do not have a life beyond the specific moments wherein the tongue is invoked.
Tongue is used primarily within the text as a noun, primary in a figurative sense, but also literally, and the majority of the time in the singular, though also often in the plural. Despite that the tongue in most of the context wherein it appears is implicated in some form of action, which vary widely in the text, it is used only once as a verb. When used figuratively, the tongue generally refers to and/or illustrates some form of verbal communication, in many instances to an entire language (Gaelic most frequently, but also Latin, Greek, British English and Spanish), but more frequently to emphasize more specific, and often highly nuanced, forms and functions of speech and communication, human and animal alike. The tongue often serves to challenge the distinction we make between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, at times to suggest the sentience and intelligence of animals, but more often to accentuate the animalistic, carnal, and brutish nature of specific characters, but also man in general.
Descriptions of various animals (dogs in particular, especially throughout Ep. 15) often refer specifically to the tongue. Tongues of animals are often described as “hanging” or “lolling” out of their mouths, and their degree of protrusion seems to directly correspond to how the speaker perceives and/or means to convey them; the longer the tongue, the more beastly the animal. How these animals are perceived—in other words, the degree of distance that the speaker asserts between themselves and the animal—generally serves as an effective predictor of the nature of the speaker. For instance, when the citizen remarks on a dog’s “tongue hanging out of him a yard long,” before calling him a “hungry bloodly mongrel,” is is his own brutishness that is emphasized (U12.498). Through these various descriptions of animal tongues, Joyce establishes the tongue as an expression of the carnal.
Where the tongue appears in reference to people rather than animals, it is rarely used in a purely literal, anatomical sense but rather to express various functions of their speech or its absence, which contributes further characterization and illuminates interior thoughts and emotions. The dynamics of power and authority within various contexts are relayed through the tongue where it is used in this manner; as far as the tongue is described as an autonomous entity, the reader is impelled to consider the nature of the relationship between character and that which is conveyed through language, and to attempt to locate the truth upon this continuum.
Finally, tongue is used as a synonym for language, Gaelic in particular. An alignment with this tongue within the texts indicates a nationalist political affiliation . It remains uncertain what effect the revival of the “old tongue” that is sought would have, as well as whether that revival is even possible. The tongue in this usage is therefore a thing invested with both the potential to unite across various existing divides, as well as to further distinguish and secure distinction; the power of the tongue in this sense rests upon limiting access to it. Yet tongue is often used to refer to a universal language, such as when Stephen ironically recommends gesture “universal language, the gift of tongues,” rather than a spoken language (U15.104). Overall, considering the sum of the various instances where it is used, the degree to which the tongue bridges various forms of distance versus maintaining or even increasing it, varies widely through Circe, and ultimately remains unclear.
Definitions & Examples
- Tongue, n. (I) The bodily member.
· “his tongue hanging out of him a yard long for more. Near ate the tin and all, hungry bloody mongrel” (U 12.498).
· “Why are their tongues so rough?” (U 4.46).
· “Mr. Bloom walked towards Dawson street, his tongue brushing his teeth smooth” (U 8.1029-30).
II. Tongue, n. (II) In reference to speech. Fig.
· “The sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue of Dedalus, he said” (U 1.565).
· “How do you know that? Mr Dedalus asked, his tongue in his cheek” (U 10.670).
· “She was about to retort but something checked the words on her tongue” (U 13.121-22).
· “the gift of tongues” (U 15.104).
(8.a) The speech or language of a people or race; also, that of a particular class or locality, a dialect.
· “revival of the Irish tongue” (U 7.795).
· “O, yes, he must speak the grand old tongue” (U 9.313).
· “the cause of our old tongue” (U 12.907-08).
III. Tongue, v. (OED 4.a) To touch with the tongue; also, to lick up.
“Hot I tongued her” (U8.916).
